Infant Colic Emergencies – Make Big Progress with Chiropractic Care
It’s heartbreaking to see a “colicky” baby but don’t blame yourself for constant crying and clenched fingers. Infant colic is a common condition that affects many newborns during early weeks of life. Your baby could become calmer and quieter by the time he/she is 4 months old. However, sometimes your baby may cry controllably for as long as six months.
What Causes Infant Colic?
Sadly, you could only speculate colic causes as there is no particularly known cause. The most popular reasons include constipation, gas, lactose intolerance and problems with the digestive system. Lactose intolerance means your baby is allergic to infant milk formula you are using.
Babies who are breastfed are also affected by their mother’s diet. This means if your baby is allergic to milk, nuts, wheat or cheese, he/she may cry more if your diet contains large quantities of these potentially allergic items. It is also seen that babies born to smoking mothers have an increased risk for colic.
Your newborn may also have colic especially if he/she swallows too much air during feeding. Air or gas in your baby’s stomach can move back into the esophagus and cause troubles.
How You Can Comfort Your Baby
It is important that you stay calm to cope with your baby’s colic. If you suspect your angel is allergic to infant formula, change your baby’s milk to see if it helps. Also, you should try to avoid allergic foods such as wheat, nuts, milk and cheese if you breastfeed your baby. As mentioned earlier, these items may cause allergies in your newborn.
You should always hold your baby in a comfortable upright position while feeding. Interestingly, this position makes your baby feel relaxed and doesn’t allow him/her to swallow air from the feeding bottle. Babies also feel comfortable if you burp them after every feed. Even gentle soothing motions on the back and upper tummy comforts your baby and you can remove gas from your baby’s stomach.
There’s one important thing you need to keep in mind. Never feed your baby every time he/she starts crying. Newborns get irritated and start crying if they are in a cramped position or need a diaper change. So make sure you only feed your baby when he/she is hungry.
Contact a Pediatric Chiropractor
Colic babies show significant improvement in response to chiropractic care. If you haven’t heard about pediatric chiropractors, well, we have experienced chiropractors who are trained to work with babies and children. Remember, pediatric chiropractic care is a gentle, effective option to help relieve discomfort in colic babies.
Because the delivery process is very stressful on the neck and spine of your newborn, they could be misalignments in the neck and back that can be a huge factor in the development of colic. One of our experienced pediatric chiropractors will assess the baby’s spine and nervous system and perform a few gentle adjustments. The result will hopefully be a happy baby and of course a happier and relieved you. You will be guided about the number of adjustment sessions and follow-up process by our chiropractor.