Colic - Awaken Chiropractic & Sports Medicine

Babies with colic can add stress to an already stressed household with a new baby. Colic is defined as comfortless crying in a baby or young child. They can exhibit periodic fussiness that can last hours to days. The most common age group for this to occur can be anywhere form 3 weeks old to 6 months. It’s estimated that up to 20-25% of babies in the US exhibit symptoms of colic. Research has shown that chiropractic care for colic has a 94% success rate!

The crying may even get as intense as extreme crying that sounds like they are in intense pain. Other symptoms can include facial discoloring, such as reddening of the face or paler skin around the mouth or bodily tension, such as pulled up or stiffened legs, stiffened arms, clenched fists, arched back, or tense abdomen. This can be quite scary as they don’t know what the cause of it is especially to new parents.

Colic Research

A study published in 1999 in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics tested manipulative therapy vs medicine administered. the Study was a randomized double blind study in order to ensure fairness throughout. The medication given to group 2 was dimethicone and both were administered over 2 weeks. The results were astonishing! The babies in the chiropractic group showed a decrease of crying by 67% whereas only 38% decrease in the medication group. The article concluded “Spinal manipulation is effective in relieving infantile colic”. This is good news for anyone with a colicky baby!

Colic and Chiropractic

Chiropractic is a natural science that neither stimulates or inhibits the nervous system but rather allows it to normalize to where it needs to be at. Colicky babies can add a lot of stress to the household and are usually the victims of “shaken baby syndrome and child abuse from this. Many parents are apprehensive to take their baby to a chiropractor because of the “snap, crackle, pop” way of adjusting. In our office we do not do that anyways and especially not to an infant. Actually, the adjustment to an infant is extremely gentle and takes the same amount of pressure it takes to check a peach for ripeness.

Any vertebral sublimation in the spine can inhibit the proper nerve function of the stomach, intestines and other intestinal organs. This in turn causes gas, discomfort, and other colic symptoms. Through removing this interference we help to normalize the function of those organs so they work properly. As a chiropractor, we are trained in detecting and removing these vertebral subluxations, especially in babies that are causing these problems. The result is a happy baby!

If you have a child with colic, please follow the link below to schedule an assessment to get them checked out.