iVillage UK: Colic - what it is and how to cope with a crying baby

It rips at the heart, ravages the nerves and takes new parents to the point of desperation. Jane Bartlett looks at coping with colic

If you are very unlucky, it happens every day, lasts up to three hours, and it can go on for several months. The neighbours don’t like it, you can’t stand it and, above all, your baby seems to be going through agony. Familiar? You are probably experiencing one of the greatest of infant mysteries: colic.

Amazing but true, after 40 years of research into this common torment, science still doesn’t know why some babies scream so much. Figures suggest that 10-40% of babies cry inconsolably on a regular basis, as if in pain. It usually occurs in the evening, starting in the first few weeks of your baby’s life, reaching a peak around six weeks, with the last sobs easing off by three months. Babies with colic typically clench their little fists, pull up their knees and turn tomato. No matter what you do, nothing seems to help. There are no miracle cures.

The good news is that colic is not medically harmful: babies develop and put on weight normally, despite the tears. However, it is acutely stressful for parents and can damage the relationship you have with your baby. Colic also puts a baby more at risk of abuse for obvious reasons.

What causes colic?

Gut reaction?

Most theories about colic focus on painful contractions in the gut. The tendency of the baby to curl up its legs, as if to relieve stomach cramp, would seem to support this view. There are a number of possible causes:A baby’s immature digestive tract might go into internal spasm as food is propelled through the digestive tract Theories about lactose intolerance are currently popular; it is suspected to result in undigested lactose building up in the baby’s intestinesThere are also theories that, some babies may have intolerance to cow’s milk protein (breast fed babies may be reacting to the cow’s milk protein in their mother’s diet). Switching to dairy-free formula milk has been shown to help some babies, although many are also found to be sensitive to soy protein as wellOr it might be wind. Tiny bubbles of air are swallowed during the feed, which cause pain and spasm in the intestines.