FOODS PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN: WHAT TO DO ABOUT COLIC

Apr
20
2009

Posted by: admin in Categories: Allergies.
Using Tags: Allergies

The first and most important step is to get the baby examined by a doctor, who should check for serious problems such as gastro-oesophageal reflux – acid passing from the stomach up into the gullet (oesophagus), and thus causing pain – or intestinal obstruction. Assuming that there are no such problems, and that your doctor can suggest no other likely causes for the excessive-crying, then it is worth investigating the possible role of food.

Bottle-fed babies

Try giving smaller, more frequent feeds as an initial step – if the baby has slight difficulties with lactose then this may be the answer. Should this produce no improvement.

Breast-fed babies

There are two main possibilities to be considered here: temporary lactose intolerance or other forms of food sensitivity.

If your baby only has colic in the evening, then a temporary deficit in lactase, due to the morning feed being larger than usual, is a possibility. There are various ways of reducing the amount of milk in the morning feed, and these are worth trying. The simplest approach is to let the baby feed first from one breast only and then from the other – rather than keep switching breasts. This reduces the amount of milk produced overall. If this has no effect, try expressing some milk before the morning feed; refrigerate or freeze it for use later. Another method is to give the baby a small amount of boiled water from a bottle before the morning feed, so that it feels full more quickly, or to feed from one breast only – this will tend to reduce your supply of milk overall, so you should only do this if you know your milk is plentiful.

For the baby who does not respond to this, or who has colic at any time of day, food intolerance should be investigated.