What Is Colic?
Colic is well known to most parents, yet it's a topic that's shrouded with misconceptions and fear. An encounter with parents of a colicky baby can be quite emotionally charged. By the time the baby makes it to the pediatrician's office, the parents have already suffered countless hours of a highly stressful situation. They want (and frequently need) a solution as soon as possible.
Crying for No Apparent Reason
Medically, colic has a pretty exact definition. According to most medical textbooks, colic is when an infant less than six months old cries for more than ninety minutes a day. This might occur during a certain part of the day, with the early evening being most common. Since babies have no other mean of communicating, crying is their only way to express their needs and wants to the parents. All babies cry at one time or another, but when the crying becomes excessive compared to most other babies of the same age, health professionals call the condition colic.
Fact
Most parents associate colic with gas or constipation, but the truth is that there is absolutely no relationship between colic and the intestinal system. Colic is completely unrelated to the abdomen, even though your baby is likely to expel a lot of gas during a colicky spell. The passing of the gas is a result of forceful crying rather than the cause.
One inherent criterion for the colic diagnosis is that the baby must be completely healthy. Excessive crying caused by an infection or an injury does not qualify as colic. Colic is crying for no apparent reason. The key word here is “apparent.” All colicky babies cry for some reason, but with even the most advanced medical diagnostics, doctors cannot always determine the exact cause.
Of course, most parents have checked the obvious things by the time they seek medical attention. If your baby cries, you should first make sure that she is not hungry, that her diaper is not soiled or wet, and that she is not too hot or too cold. If you have gone through the list and eliminated the most common reasons for crying, and you still cannot ascertain why your baby is screaming, your baby may have colic.
No Pain
First off, it is important to clear up the most entrenched belief that colic is caused by pain. Most people believe this because when a colicky baby cries, he sounds as if he is being tortured. This is not a weak cry but a vigorous and blood-curdling scream. The characteristic colic cry stands out from all other types of crying, such as that due to hunger or a dirty diaper.
While pediatric experts still cannot agree on the exact cause of colic, the consensus is that it is not a result of pain. It makes intuitive sense that colic is not a painful experience because none of the numerous methods used to calm a colicky baby involve giving pain reducers. In fact, medications frequently used for pain relief have no effect on the colicky baby.
It is a great relief for parents to learn that colic is not painful. Most assume that if their baby is crying that hard, he must be in a world of pain. Parents are happy to hear that their baby isn't suffering after all.
