First off, I want to congratulate Sheri Hall on the birth of her daughter Charlotte, born on October 13th weighing in at 8 pounds 4 ounces!! Since babies have been on my mind in anticipation of Sheri’s maternity leave, a recent review about crying and colic behavior caught my eye.
Apparently, excessive infant crying or fussing for no apparent reason affects up to 20 percent of infants younger than 3 months. I’m glad I didn’t know this statistic when my three grown children were first born! Not only can excessive infant crying have a negative impact on the mother’s mental health, but it also can impact the overall family quality of life and be a risk factor for child abuse. Is there anything that you can do to avoid colic?
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined whether the use of probiotics can be effective in preventing and managing colic infants three months or younger. Probiotics are microorganisms commonly found in fermented foods such as yogurt, soy yogurt, or in dietary supplements. Although they are claimed to have health benefits when consumed — we lack scientific proof.
The findings of the review were very mixed: Six of the randomized trials that were included found that probiotics did reduce crying, while six did not. Three out of five trials, which examined the management of colic, found that probiotics worked best in breastfed babies, but the others did not. Only two of seven trials that examined whether probiotics prevented infant colic found a decrease in crying time when compared with placebo; the other five found no difference.
The investigators concluded that there’s just not enough evidence: even though the use of some probiotics in breastfed term infants with colic is promising, there is still insufficient evidence to support its general use in all infants with colic or to recommend its use in preventing colic.
So far, according to mom’s report — baby Charlotte has been very quiet and easy-going. Since this is her third child, I sure hope this continues for everyone’s sake. But just in case, maybe eating a container of yogurt here and there, might not be such a bad idea.
I have heard of babies being helped by probiotics but I’ve also heard of situations where they didn’t help. It is such a topic.
I am however intrigued that noone mentions proper breastfeeding (or at least very few people do).
There is a theory that proper breastfeeding prevents colic. It states that there are two kinds of milk in a breast. The fore milk and the hind milk and that only consuming the fore milk makes the baby colicky. I do not know why it is mentioned rarely :/ And also take into account that it is free and easy to do unlike many mentioned products and advice.
I wrote a comprehensive article on the subject (including the breastfeeding) titled simply Colic