Care for Infants - Infantile Colic

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Colic is the term used to describe unexplainable and uncontrollable crying in babies from zero to three months old, for more than three hours a day, at least three days a week. If you are the parent of an infant who has colic, you know how frustrating it can be to suffer through, both for you and your child. There is no definitive agreement among experts on what causes colic or how to treat it.

Colic generally disappears on its own at three months of age, however some infants continue to demonstrate symptoms for several months thereafter. The most common symptom of colic is excessive crying, typically of a higher pitch than normal babies. Other symptoms normally include flexing of the knees against the abdomen, clenching of the fists, and straightening of the trunk, legs and arms.

It may surprise many people to know that safe, gentle chiropractic treatment of your infant can help alleviate the symptoms of colic. A recent study compared the effects of chiropractic spinal

"Safe, gentle chiropractic treatment of your infant can help alleviate the symptoms of colic."

manipulation with traditional drug intervention (dimethicone) normally offered by those in the medical profession. The study divided 50 infants with colic into two groups of 25. The first group received chiropractic spinal manipulation for two weeks, and the second group received traditional drug treatment (dimethicone) over the same two weeks. Results demonstrated that the chiropractic group spent less hours crying after the first five days of the study than the medically treated group, a reduction of 2.4 hours total between days 4-7 compared to only one hour in the dimethicone group. These results became even more disparate following the first week, with the Chiropractic group increasing the reduction in crying over the next several days. In addition, it is worth noting that nine infants in the dimethicone group dropped out before the end of the study (none of the chiropractic group dropped out), after having actually worsened since the testing started, indicating that the use of drugs was not effective compared with chiropractic care.

If you have an infant whom you fell may be suffering from colic, please contact for help. Both you and your child need not suffer needlessly, and our office can help to alleviate the symptoms and make this difficult period more tolerable.

Reference: Wiberg JMM, Nordsteen J, Nilsson N. The Short-Term Effect of Spinal Manipulation in the Treatment of Infantile Colic: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial with a Blinded Observer. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 1999:22(8), pp517-522.