Care For Baby Colic

By Author: ratnesh
Total Articles: 20
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Baby colic comes from two words Baby & colic. Colic in simple terms is a specific condition of pain which is characterized by the fact that it starts & stops abruptly. A baby feeling this type of pain would cry incessantly. Baby colic is thus a specific type of pain felt by infants. Thus it is also known as infant colic, infantile colic or three month colic. In medical terminology baby colic is defined as a condition of unexplained & intense crying by a healthy baby for more than three hours a day, three days in a week for more than 3 weeks.

While many might think of baby colic as only a problem for the parents or the neighbors it has much more to it. Crying continuously may cause serious problems for the parents like marital stress, breastfeeding failure or shaken baby syndrome which is actually violent shaking of the baby.

The main reason behind this persistent crying is believed to be digestive problems like formation of gas after breastfeeding. Infact the word colic actually has it's origin from the Greek word colon which means intestinal. Also it is understood that the mother's diet too has an ...
... impact over the baby. Infants from mothers eating acidic, spicy or caffeinated food are more likely to have bouts of colic than otherwise. Babies also swallow air during their incessant crying which further adds to their discomfort.

There are a few remedies to cure Baby colic. A light massage on the baby's stomach may do wonders to his intestinal problems. Some doctors also advice the bicycle technique that is manually lifting the baby's legs up & down like he/she is riding a cycle. Another latest technique is the side stomach position. It has been observed that babies love to be placed in a hanging position-on their parents back, shoulders, hips which relieves them of all fussing & crying. It is also believed that too much of silence also troubles the baby who has been used to hearing loud sounds while he was in his mother's womb. So some music & cd's containing noisy human voices can be a great help.

In the end what is required are mature parents to handle this small trouble. It has been often seen that parents get frustrated and that increases the amount of stress overall. The baby has just entered this new world and would obviously take a little time to adjust to it. One only has to be patient & calm.