Intestinal colic in newborn babies occurs quite often. They are one of the most common causes of loud crying of a child , provided there are no other annoying and discomforting factors - hunger, heat or cold, wet diapers or lack of a mother in sight . In this article, we will consider the colic in newborns, the causes of their occurrence and the main ways to alleviate the child's condition. By the term "colic" is meant not a specific disease, but a set of certain symptoms, such as swelling, spasms, fermentation, increased gas formation, pain. When do babies begin to have colic? As a rule, more than 70% of all kids experience discomfort in the intestine almost from the first weeks of life. By the age of four months, colic usually goes away, since it is believed that the gastrointestinal tract adapts to eating.
Colic in newborns. Causes of painful symptoms
So far, modern medicine has not established a specific cause of colic in newborns. Several hypotheses are put forward as hypotheses of the origin of pain in the abdomen:
- Immaturity of the child's digestive system or insufficient quantity of enzymes to break down the food.
- At artificial feeding, during sucking of a mixture from a bottle with a pacifier of the wrong form, it can swallow excess air.
- Lactose intolerance and allergy to the mixture.
- Infringement of intestinal microflora.
- An anxious or depressed emotional state of the mother during breastfeeding.
- Overheat.
- Overfeeding of the child.
Colic in newborns, the causes of which depend on different factors or their combination, each child can manifest themselves in different ways: the baby can be too restless, some babies cry sharply and shrilly, especially in the evenings and before going to sleep at night. The child can badly sleep, constantly waking up, plaintively cry out, and after the gases or defecation come to rest for a while. In this case the baby's belly may look pouted. Despite all these harassing babies and their parents , intestinal colic is not a disease, but is considered a transitory condition. After observing the regime and feeding habits, the temperature conditions in the apartment and your emotional state, you can independently identify the specific cause that causes anxiety and pain in the abdomen of your child.
Colic in newborns: the causes and ways to relieve the baby's condition
How can you help a bitterly crying and painful child? First of all, you must normalize its nutrition. It is worth remembering that the ideal meal for a newborn is your breast milk, which has not yet been invented a full-fledged alternative. Feeding should be carried out at the request of the child, but not overfeed. Giving the child for every small squeak of the breast, you can thereby oversaturate it. If the baby more recently sucked his mother's breast well and ate, and later afterwards cries again, try to calm and distract him with something interesting. Remember that a hungry baby cries in a special way - demanding and impatient. If the child is on artificial feeding, then it is necessary to purchase highly adapted mixtures containing bifidobacteria. Select the mixture for your child should be administered by a pediatrician. Also, you need to choose the right bottle for feeding - its nipple should be of a special shape and with a small hole. Make sure that the child's chair is regular. Long stool retention can cause abdominal pain. The newborn can perform defecation from 7-8 times a day and up to 1 time in two days. Do not overheat the child in any case. The air in the children's room should be cool (+20 ° C) and humid. Do not wrap the child in several layers of clothing. Overheating is terrible because intestinal juices, due to lack of liquid, become more dense and as a result poorly digest food.
Methods for the prevention of intestinal colic
If your baby suffers from spasmodic attacks of abdominal pain, try to do a light tummy massage (clockwise), as well as simple exercises (bending the legs in the knees and then pressing to the tummy). These manipulations contribute to the escape of accumulated gases and overcoming painful sensations. Also, you should often lay the baby on your tummy. What should I give a newborn baby with colic? Often with preventive purposes use drugs that reduce gas formation, for example "Simethicone", "Bobotik" or "Plantex". Take the gas pipe very carefully and only as a last resort, when you are sure that the child is really tormented by gases.