Treating Colic with Alternative Medicine

Some 16 to 26% of babies have colic or excessive crying problems during the first year in their life. Since colic usually improves after the first 5 months, most doctors feel that the cause may be an immature digestive system, immature brain, and over stimulation. It becomes very stressful on the new mother.

Why not use drugs? Prescription drugs such as Simethicone, Dicyclomine, and Methylscopolamine have been shown by clinical trials to be ineffective in most cases of infant colic. These drugs also have nasty side effects including drowsiness, constipation, diarrhea, apnea, seizures, and in severe cases, coma. Drug companies do not have any idea of the long term effects on the babies mental and physical growth and function. Don't make your growing baby a guinea pig for the drug companies.

If you don't use prescription drugs, what can you do?

Some tips to try: Avoid caffeine, chocolate, nuts, garlic, hot spicy foods, gas producing foods, cow's milk, soy milk, juice, and solid foods until at least 6 months of age. Try feeding your baby in an upright position, feed more often but for a shorter time period. Small amounts of milk are easier to digest on a sensitive stomach than larger feedings. Try to reduce the stress in the household, in yourself, and in the baby. Soothing music and singing help some infants. As a mother, try to eat as organically as possible avoiding aspartame, MSG, additives, and artificial foods.

Why Not Soy Milk? The minerals in soy milk are not absorbed well; protease inhibitors cause digestion problems; the phytoestrogens disrupt hormonal balance; and is the cause of allergy problems in children. Giving soy milk to children can cause early hormonal development with early breast and public hair development and early periods. Soy milk should not be given to infants and young children.

Raw Cows Milk: Why raw milk? Pasteurizing milk changes the physical structure of the fragile milk proteins, eliminates the good bacteria, and reduces the nutrient content. Raw cow's milk has been shown to be healing. It causes much less colic problems with babies than pasteurized milk. In Europe for years, gelatin was added to improve the digestion of milk. The gelatin inhibits curd coagulation, helps to emulsify the fat, and stabilizes the casein to make it more digestible. Formula with added gelatin gives fewer colic and digestion problems. Adding probiotic organisms to any formula or milk helps digestion. Intestinal dysbiosis or poor microflora balance in the gut is one of the causes of colic. All these suggestions have some excellent double blind research studies to back them up.

Goats Milk: Raw goats milk is the closest milk to breast milk. In many countries, where formula is not an option, goat's milk is used quite successfully. Make sure you buy it from a reliable source where proper cleanliness procedures are used for the milking and storing of the goats milk. They need to be fed grain to give sweet milk. The taste of the milk also depends on the breed of goat. Goat's milk is not a perfect substitution because it is low on folic acid, vitamin B-12, and can be constipating as well. It is very healing to the stomach and digestion.

Soothing Herbs for Colic:

Mothers in Europe for centuries used Chamomile tea to soothe fretful babies. Other herbs to try are lemon balm, peppermint, fennel and catmint. Start at two teaspoons, up to a one half cup, three times a day. These herbs made into a tea can be used alone or in combination. You can either give it to the baby by eyedropper or in their bottle. You might try drinking a cup of the relaxing tea yourself as well. Slippery elm powder is another herb for colic and stomach complaints. The slippery elm powder is made into a porridge by slowly adding milk. It becomes thick like fiber drinks so start out with only a teaspoon. Slippery elm soothes irritated stomach and bowels. It is gentle enough to use on newborn baby animals as well as human infants. It is often used to treat diarrhea in small animals such as kittens and puppies.

Chiropractic Treatments:

There have been a number of clinical studies that have demonstrated that two weeks of chiropractic treatments significantly improved baby's colic symptoms. In the chiropractic studies that were successful, the chiropractor set a specific protocol using fingertip massage on the lumbar-sacral region only and individualized spinal adjustments based on each baby's needs. Chiropractors use different modalities and this difference in treatment therapies can make the difference in results. I have been going to chiropractors for years. They are helped me in so many ways but the adjustment technique does make a difference. This would also be the case with infant colic. If you think about the birth process, with the compression and pulling in some deliveries, it should not surprise anyone that a baby may need adjustment later.

References:

http://dkmommyspot.com/natural-remedies-for-colic/

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/infants/036.printerview.html

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000978.htm

www.pathwaystofamilywellness.org , Issue 22, pages 8,9,10