Understanding Colic

[00:00:00] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: Welcome to the fifth season of The Parenting Brief. I’m your host, Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez, an Arizona working mom and Chief of the Office of Children’s Health at the Arizona Department of Health Services. We’re here to share helpful parenting tips, expert advice, and some much needed peace of mind when it comes to raising your little ones.

[00:00:28] About one in five babies will experience colic, which means they might cry for long stretches without any clear reason, even when they’re perfectly healthy, fed, changed, rested, and comforted. It’s important for families to remember that colic itself isn’t harmful to your baby. With time, it goes away on its own, but there are strategies parents can use to help calm their baby, along with methods for managing their own stress.

[00:00:52] We have more on that up next.

[00:00:59] With us today is Adrienne Brotherton, a Birth to Five Helpline Specialist at Southwest Human Development. Thank you so much for being here today. 

[00:01:07] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Thanks for having me. 

[00:01:09] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: So let’s first start out by learning about what colic is. Can you help explain that a little bit? 

[00:01:15] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Sure. So colic is technically defined as periods of crying- sometimes intense crying, sometimes just fussiness- that lasts usually at least about three hours a day, occurring three times or more a week, and lasting for about three weeks.

[00:01:31] So that’s the technical definition of colic, is using that rule of threes, but it usually follows some sort of a pattern. Either around a typical time of day, late afternoon and early evening is a really typical time to have those periods of intense fussiness or crying. 

[00:01:50] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: And what age do we typically see that behavior in?

[00:01:54] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Yeah, so crying and fussiness typically starts around the end of the first month and really peaks at that six-to-eight-week mark. And then usually after six to eight weeks, you’ll see some decrease and then evening out or stopping completely, at least those long periods of crying, around the three-to-four-month mark.

[00:02:15] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: Do we know anything about what causes colic in infants?

[00:02:20] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: You know it’s really tough to say. It’s hard to research, so there hasn’t been really conclusive studies done about what really causes colic. There’s been some thought about digestive discomfort, and so I know we’ve been hearing a lot about probiotics and prebiotics for babies, and that sometimes that can be helpful if it is related to digestive discomfort.

[00:02:44] Others will say emerging developmental things happening. You know, big changes in the brain, changes in the body that happen during typical developmental leaps or phases. And parents, I think, will mostly agree that it seems to kind of come out of nowhere. And so there really hasn’t been any really conclusive evidence to show why colic happens and why it happens to some babies and not others.

[00:03:09] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: How can parents kind of figure out whether or not something is wrong with their baby versus just a colicky baby? 

[00:03:19] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Typically we say your pediatrician is going to be one of your best allies in helping to figure out, is this like a milk protein allergy or a food allergy of some sort? Do we need to change a formula or do we need to change a breastfeeding mom’s diet? Is there something else happening with this baby? 

[00:03:37] So that’s one of the biggest things that we encourage is to really partner with the pediatrician and make those extra appointments and go in there and really be an advocate for your baby. And see if there is something medical or underlying going on.

[00:03:52] Or sometimes it is just fussiness, and so finding supports for that also. We talk a lot about self care for parents in those first few months, and especially when you have a really fussy baby, making sure that you have a support system and that you’re caring well for yourself also so that you can care for that baby because it does take extra energy and effort to really help calm a fussy baby.

[00:04:22] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: What type of tactics have you seen work or that you may even suggest in order to help calm that fussy baby? 

[00:04:32] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: A lot of it’s going to be trial and error, right? It’s like trying to find things that work for you and work for your baby. And you might find that something works one day and it doesn’t necessarily work as well the next, and that’s okay.

[00:04:45] But things that we typically recommend: baby wearing. Lots of times babies, you know, they’re in mama’s belly for nine months and coming out into the outside world can be overwhelming and overstimulating for them and they really find comfort being close to mom. 

[00:05:03] Taking baby outside, getting natural light. There’s something about being outside that just calms babies, so trying that, going for a walk outside, bouncing or movement. We talk about white noise also, whether that’s the sound of the running shower or the sound of the vacuum or the sound of the dryer or having, you know, white noise machines are very popular. It could be sold in stores.

[00:05:29] Sometimes soft music, lowering stimulation in the home, so turning the TV off, having lights low. Those types of things. But again, it’s going to be kind of having a little list and going on the list and seeing what works for your baby on that particular day and on that particular time. 

[00:05:48] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: As a mom, I would be like “Running the vacuum?” Like, “No, that’s going to wake up baby. That’s a loud noise. We don’t want that.” And yet I have heard not only from my own mom’s experience, but even as you said, that running the vacuum or even some of those sounds that we may think are louder sounds actually, somehow, create some calm amongst the chaos. 

[00:06:09] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Yes. Well, and those are nice kind of consistent sounds as opposed to if you have the television on and it goes from music to quiet to talking to, it’s those like, very constant kind of white-noise sounds that tends to be most calming to them.

[00:06:25] So yeah, vacuums or the dryer. If you think back to when they were in the womb, it’s actually really loud in there. There’s a constant heartbeat sound, there’s a lot of fluid swishing around, you know, there’s a lot of sounds in there. So to be out and be in complete silence is weird for them. 

[00:06:43] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: Yeah.

[00:06:44] You talked a little bit about the importance of that support system and self care for the parents. How do we really support parents in getting that time, having a child who’s experiencing this colicky time? 

[00:06:59] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: You know, we encourage for families to ask for help in their community or from their partners or from family members.

[00:07:07] We also say that it’s okay if baby is really fussy and you’re by yourself and there’s really, you know, you feel yourself getting really worked up, you’re feeling yourself getting dysregulated or irritated or anxious or upset by the crying. It’s also okay to lay baby down in a safe place and to walk away for a few moments where you just kind of collect yourself and take some deep breaths, do some self-talk and remind yourself that this isn’t going to last forever.

[00:07:37] But certainly, you know, even during times where maybe baby isn’t fussy, if they are taking a little bit of a nap, to take that time to just kind of focus on filling up your own cup in those moments. Because it’s very rare that babies are fussy all the time. They do usually sleep at some point during the day or during the evening, and so to take those times to really prioritize you and to let the dishes and the laundry and things go. Just give yourself lots of grace in that those things might just not get done today, but I need to really focus on me in those moments so that I can be the best caregiver for my baby. 

[00:08:21] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: And I think even in that support system piece, I know as a mom, it can be really tough to allow somebody else to help, even if it’s your partner. Having somebody else help or feeling like they’re doing it wrong, or you’re the only one who can help, and recognizing that ultimately utilizing that support system is really important and that not everybody is going to approach it the same way, but that when you do have that infant that is colicky and you have that support to utilize it and to try and be patient, even if it looks different than how you may be approaching that situation.

[00:09:05] Adrienne Brotherton​​​​: Yes, absolutely. And support can look different. It can look like a phone call with another mom who has gone through this or maybe hasn’t necessarily, but just talking about how difficult this is, that can feel supportive. Or having your partner bring you something to eat or food while you’re feeding the baby. You know, it can look really different and I think we kind of have to be open and be kind of willing to accept help in the way that it feels most helpful to us.

[00:09:45] Jessica Stewart-Gonzalez: You can find more resources on colic in the episode show notes. Tap the follow button to get a notification when our next episode is live. And feel free to share this episode with families in your community. 

[00:09:56] Until next time, this is Jessica. You’ve got this.