colic

Colic is defined as an unexplainable and uncontrollable crying in babies from 0 to 3 months old, more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, for 3 weeks or more, usually in the afternoon and evening hours. While colic is not harmful to the baby, it can be very stressful for the parents, family and caregivers.

While the cause of colic is unknown, there are several suggested remedies: changing the breastfeeding mother’s diet, trying a different formula, different positions to hold the baby to bring more comfort and even mylicon drops to ease gas in the babies’ stomach. And sometimes these suggestions do make a difference but most of the time it’s not enough.

However, research is showing that chiropractic care can help. A randomized clinical trial has concluded “Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic.” The research team enrolled infants who were diagnosed with infantile colic. For a period of 2 weeks, half of the subjects underwent chiropractic spinal manipulation, while the other half received the drug dimethicone. “From trial day 5 onward the manipulation group did significantly better than the dimethicone group, according to the report. Specifically, in the course of the 12 days of the study, the children receiving chiropractic adjustments saw a 67% reduction in crying and the drug group saw a 38% reduction in crying.

In another study of 132 infant’s with colic, 91% of the parents reported an improvement, which occurred after an average of two to three manipulations, and one week after the treatment started.