Colicky babies - diagnosis and treatment
[UPDATED JUNE 2022]
Introduction
This is an extremely common problem and extremely badly treated by conventional medicine. Typically colicky babies are restless and irritable, especially in the evenings. Despite one's best efforts they cannot be comforted, cry, go red in the face, pull up their knees and are generally miserable. Often there is posseting, vomiting and farting.
Breast Feeding
The cause of colic is allergy. Breast-fed babies sensitise to cows' milk protein in the breast milk. It gets there when their mothers consume dairy products. This was my introduction to allergy! My first born screamed her way through the first few weeks until the penny dropped. When I stopped eating dairy products, the colic all came to an end within days (it also cured my rhinitis). When I accidentally drank milk (being too polite to refuse tea with milk), Ruth and I were up all night with colic. However, it can be any food - many mums will tell me that a curry can play havoc with their breast-fed baby's insides!
Breast feeding is Nature's way to nourish a baby. The problem is that breast milk is full of fat and therefore toxins in the mother will be dumped in breast milk with the potential to poison the baby. Inuit Indians, who live in the North at the top of the global distillation of organochlorines, can no longer breast feed because their milk is too toxic. This emphasizes the need to do good detox regimes before pregnancy.
The best breast milk comes from mothers eating a Ketogenic diet - the practical details. Dairy products seem to be very good at switching off mother's milk production. Please see also My book - Paleo-Ketogenic: The Why and The How and
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - this is a diet which we all should follow
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - meals which require no cooking or preparation
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - PK Bread
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - PK Dairy
- Diet - what you need to eat to slow the normal ageing process
Bottle Feeding
With colicky bottle-fed babies, first change onto a soya based product (find one that is low in sugar), make up the bottles with spring water (allergy to tap water is common), stop sterilising the teat with chemicals (boil them instead) and sprinkle some probiotics into the milk (to get the right bugs into the gut). See Diabetes - how to prevent the complications and Kefir. The only problem with many of the commercial soya products is that they have a high sugar content. This is bad for the teeth, but also gets the baby hooked on sugar at an early age, which is very undesirable. Look for a soya milk with a low sugar content.
Some babies are sensitive to soya. So if the above fails, switch to one of the hypoallergenic milks such as Prosorbee or Nutramigen.
Related Articles
- Diabetes - how to prevent the complications
- Kefir
- Ketogenic diet - the practical details
- My book - Paleo-Ketogenic: The Why and The How
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - this is a diet which we all should follow
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - meals which require no cooking or preparation
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - PK Bread
- The Paleo Ketogenic Diet - PK Dairy
- Diet - what you need to eat to slow the normal ageing process
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