Baby colic and solutions that work!
from an article on the Babywearing blog that was posted
on 28/05/2010: Got colic? Get over it easily!
“Baby colic”, the two words bring terror to the parents of small babies who have lived through it! Babies who cry for three hours or more, at least three times a week, a phase that starts at the age of 3-4 weeks and lasts about three months! With a quick search on the internet, you will find a great many articles about colic in babies, both in Greek and in English. But what you will read more and more in the new research is also what gives the best solution!
Well, in the past we believed that colic was caused by the baby’s immature digestive system, we blamed everything on “intestinal issues” and advised “patience”. Now, however, most experts agree that one of the main causes of colic and of the baby’s crying in the first trimester is the immature nervous system. The baby receives many stimuli during the day, it cannot manage them and towards the end of the day it bursts into tears. Babies who for some reason get “irritated” or are in a state of overstimulation find it hard to move on their own into a state of calm; this is a neurodevelopmental ability that has not yet fully developed in infants.
Besides, the validity of this theory is also easily proven by the fact that many babies calm down with “solutions” completely unrelated to their stomach or to “gas”, such as listening to “white noise” (e.g. the extractor fan, the hairdryer, the vacuum cleaner).
The most important thing of all, however, is to be able to “get ahead of” this situation, before the baby has the chance to become overstimulated, to feel an abundance of stimuli (over-stimulation), to “teach” it a little better how it will fall asleep when it is sleepy and how it will calm down when something bothers it.
The best solution is babywearing! The baby in a carrier, in the arms of its mum, is in the best environment it could be in. When it gets tired, it can comfortably hide its face in the warm embrace that wraps around it and “shut down” for as long as it needs.
It can fall asleep and wake up at its own rhythm, it can “choose” whether it wants to see and hear around it or whether it wants to calm itself down on its own. And the best part is that for all this you don’t need to do much, just wear it!
In his book “Baby Book”, Dr. Sears describes a study that was done on 99 mums with their babies in 1986. Half of the mums were asked to wear their babies at least 3 hours a day. The rest had their babies look at a mobile or a photo of a face when they were in their cots.
It was observed that the babies who received “lots of holding” cried and fussed 43% less than the others.
The element of the study that was considered outstanding was that the mums were encouraged to hold their babies in their arms throughout the day, regardless of the baby’s mood and not only as a response to its crying. In Western societies, the usual practice is to take our baby in our arms and try to calm it down after it starts to cry.
I have sometimes heard you tell me: “My Asteraki is amazing, but I haven’t worn it much yet because the baby has colic and cries all the time”! And I think how many things a different way of thinking could change: especially when the baby has colic, your sling will help you! It will help you be more comfortable and more rested when you try to comfort it by holding it in your arms, but it will also help your baby to NOT have colic or to get through it much more lightly, if you wear it a little more, in the morning, in the afternoon, or generally during the day!
Having seen up close very many mums with their babies, I can say with certainty that the more one wears one’s baby with a proper carrier, the less it cries, and the better it sleeps at night (in its bed)! What does your own experience say?
Take care, happy babywearing!
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Holding is a natural instinct!
