What is Colic

First off what is Colic, well its distress caused by a digestive issue, and digestive issues can be split down further into the categories below, each of these may have different signs & symptoms and may need a different approach.

Colic

The 1st signs are lots of flatulence (farting) , baby can be in pain, distended stomach, may arch his back & may cry a lot. Its very common in babies aproximately 30% are effected, it usually improves as the baby reaches 3 months

Reflux

This is when the valve to the stomach isn't working as well as it could, the baby will 'reflux' milk up into its oesphogus (food pipe), this causes burning & pain. Usually it will occur on feeding or within 20 minutes, with the baby crying & in pain. Sometimes they bring up their feed into their mouth or vomit, but sometime they don't, when they don't this is silent reflux.

Gut Irritability

This is when the stomach empties too rapidly into the intestines, as the milk isn't digested properly it can cause problems & cause the gut to distend & this causes pain, and also sometimes flatulence & explosive poos. It usually occurs between half an hour and 90 min after feeding

Lactose Intolerance

This means a baby can not tolerate cows milk, usually occurs 2 hours after feeding as the milk hits the large intestine & causes swelling & pain. It usually doesn't occur if baby is solely breast fed, but if severely intolerant & sensitive, even the mum drinking cows milk can cause problems for a solely breast fed child. If unsure eliminatie the cows milk from the diet for a few days to test whether this helps

Other Allergies

Usually harder to diagnose especially if a child is still only breast fed, try to link symptoms to a trigger. Symptoms may include vomitiing, rash & general unwellness as well as pain & gut problems. If a baby is solely breast fed and you suspect allergies, try to cut out the most obvious triggers 1st, milk, gluten, nuts etc. However, this can be very difficult especially as the delay between mum eating a product and the reaction in the baby can be variable

Treatment

There are various medications that you can use, most of these will need to be prescribed by a GP. Xantac is one example, and I use that because it is often prescribed, with most of these medications if they are going to work then you should see a difference within 1 week, and definitely within 2 weeks. The reports i get from parents is that usually it works within 3 days, other parents have used it & it has not helped at all.

So what about non drug treatment? As you would expect I'm a big fan of osteopathy for children, and that's not because it pays the bills! It is as you can imagine far easier to earn your living treating adults who  lie nice & still, than it is to treat babies that cry, wriggle &  arch  & even throw up on you!  No, I treat them because we have seen a lot of babies do well with gentle osteopathic treatment - trust me if they didn't like it then it certainly wouldn't be fun, because a baby will definitely tell you very loudly if you are aren't doing a good job!

With regard to colic and reflux we will look at the following areas for baby

Nerves to the Gut

The vagus nerve helps control the gut, it travels to the gut all the way from the brain where it exists at the bottom of the skull so with the pressures of birth on the skull we want to examine the base of the skull to ensure they have been no excess pressure on thta part of the skull during birth

The Diaphragm

This is the big muscle that we use for breathing it spans the body just below your ribs, as the food pipe that goes to the stomach passes through the diaphragm to get from our mouth to the stomach the diaphragm is an area that we will want to focus on.

The Flight/fight Response

This is part of our overall nervous system, if baby was distressed in the womb or during or soon after birth then the body will go into a flight/fight response, if it does this it will produce lots of adrenaline. This response is hard wired into humans, ever since we had to learn to run away from tigers in cave man days & it helps us survive. So it was a positive response that helped baby during a stressful time. However, if it continues excessively it can influence our health an. One influence is that the adrenaline tells the body to contract the muscles in the arteries to the stomach & gut. In this way more blood will be pumped to the legs, arms & head. Why? So that we are faster at running & quicker at thinking, and we increase our chance of escaping that tiger. But that also means less blood to the stomach & guts, and without that blood it is much harder to digest food. As an adult remember the feeling of 'butterflies in the stomach' that's the effect of stress on the guts, and it probably meant you couldn't or didn't want to eat. Now imagine that effect on a baby whose body systems have only just got going & is still learning how to use them.

Please note that along with all other Doctors in Australia osteopaths are regulated and governed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). As such with regard to any non musculoskeletal conditions that are listed on this website it is it is a regulatory requirement that we inform you that our osteopaths treat the aspects of those conditions relevant to their practice of osteopathy (e.g. with a focus on the musculoskeletal system). In addition the role of this treatment can not be overstated in that every patient that we treat is a unique individual and as a result each patient's treatment outcome will vary and will be influenced by that patient's unique presentation.

Author : Dr Jonathan Evans (Osteopath) Clinic : Well Child Clinic Gold Coast Clinic Location : ION Osteopath Gold Coast, Nerang