Infantile colic: incidence and treatment in a Norfolk community

Abstract

In a prospective study of 1019 infant and mother pairs, 268 infants suffered with 'infantile colic'. Significantly more of these were breast fed, supporting the proposed theory of a colic-producing factor in breast milk. Social class and maternal education were not related to the incidence of colic. Seventy-two percent of our infants with colic suffered from classical evening colic. The symptoms did not disappear from all the infants by 3 months - over 38% continued to have symptoms after 3 1/2 months of age. Treatment is limited, but merbentyl helped to relieve symptoms to a varying degree in over 60% of the infants who tried it. The family relationships are often strained during this period and this appears to persist when at one year of age significantly more of these infants were described as demanding, miserable and bad-tempered by their mothers.

Incidence and risk factors for infantile colic in Iranian infants

“…Among sur veys compared breast fed and for mula fed infants: four found no difference [17,18,26,27] , in three studies the occurrence rates among breast fed infants were slightly higher [2,28,29] , and in one it was slightly lower [22] . When analyzing the presence of association between breastfeeding and the development of colic, reverse causality is an important distorting factor, since the mother of crying children may stop breastfeeding because they relate the condition to feeding or believe that their milk is insufficient or weak.…”

Systematic review of the occurrence of infantile colic in the community

“…Five studies reported on influence of socioeconomic class: three found no differences,20 35 37 while two reported slightly higher rates in higher socioeconomic classes 3436 Seven surveys compared breast fed and formula fed infants: four found no difference,29 34 36 37 in two studies the occurrence rates among breast fed infants were slightly higher,35 42and in one it was slightly lower 43. Only two studies reported separately on a positive family history of atopy: both found no association between the presence of a positive family history of atopy and the presence of infantile colic 20…”

“…29-31 33 Most surveys had been performed in Scandinavian countries20 28-33 37 41 and the UK 1934 35 42 Seven studies had a prospective design,28 32-35 37 41 seven a retrospective design,19 20 30 31 36 42 43 and one study had a prospective and retrospective part 29. Tables 1 and 2present a tabular summary of the surveys.…”

“…Eight studies reported on occurrence in boys and girls separately: seven found no difference in occurrence of colic,20 29-32 35 42 and one reported a significantly higher proportion of boys crying more than three hours per day 43. Five studies reported on influence of socioeconomic class: three found no differences,20 35 37 while two reported slightly higher rates in higher socioeconomic classes 34…”

Infants with colic: A study of maternal stress and anxiety

“…Recent large, prospective studies have reported that colic affects 16% (Hide & Guyer, 1982) to 26% (Rubin & Prendergast, 1984) of the normal infants followed. There has been a long-standing history of confusion regarding the definition of colic that may contribute to differences in the reported frequency of this problem.…”