Dr. Komarovsky about colic in newborns, video, what to do.

Why is there a myth that a child constantly cries and is capricious while still in infancy? In fact, this is not a myth but a natural reality, which is caused by a number of circumstances.

Firstly, children begin to get used to their environment, and this process does not always go smoothly; secondly, babies often experience colic, which can be caused by multiple factors.

One way or another, scientists have not yet invented a perfect cure for colic, and therefore mothers are trying to cope with the advice of doctors and traditional medicine.

But when your child’s piercing cry is heard in the middle of the night, even the most strict and correct mother at one moment loses her composure and cannot decide what exactly she should do to help her baby and at least somehow calm him down.

In fact, there is a way out, and first of all, turn to the articles and speeches of the famous doctor Komarovsky, who proved not only in theory, but also in practice that colic can be fought, the main thing is to know the reason for its appearance and also carefully listen to the recommendations.

What is the difference between colic and gas in newborns?

By the word gas, children's doctors mean the accumulation of gases in the baby's intestines. This is accompanied by unpleasant sensations, as well as bloating in the child. At the same time, the child experiences some discomfort, may release gases, grunt, and press his legs to his tummy.

Moderate accumulation of gases in a child’s intestines is normal. Therefore, it does not usually cause the baby to scream or cry. But when a lot of them accumulate, parents find out about it by the cry of the child. In other words, their excessive accumulation is accompanied by so-called colic.

If gases can cause slight discomfort, then intestinal spasms, on the contrary, cause sharp, severe pain in the child’s stomach. It is accompanied by a long, heart-rending cry of the baby. To understand what is bothering the child, it is important to distinguish colic from gas.

Symptoms of colic:

unreasonable anxiety of the baby;
the child presses his legs to his tummy, which indicates cutting pain in the stomach or intestines;
at the same time he cries shrilly;
releases gases;
paleness appears on the face;
loose stools or constipation.

When medical attention is needed

Medical attention may be necessary when the following are added to the symptoms of colic:

temperature, fever;
vomit;
diarrhea;
convulsions;
weight loss;
blood in urine or stool;
signs of intestinal obstruction, volvulus or intussusception, strangulation of the umbilical hernia, which were mentioned earlier.

These symptoms indicate serious illnesses, some of which can even be fatal. Therefore, you should not delay your visit to the doctor.

Even if there are no listed symptoms, if you suspect colic, it is still better to consult a pediatrician. Only he will be able to determine the cause of the baby’s anxiety by collecting anamnesis, conducting a visual examination and conducting laboratory and instrumental diagnostic methods.

To summarize, we can conclude that colic appears in most newborns in the first month of life and lasts up to 3-4 months. Parents should not panic, because their emotional state is bad for the baby. Colic is not a disease or pathological condition; it is a temporary and safe phenomenon that needs to be waited out.

How long does a baby have colic?

Many parents are afraid of problems associated with excessive accumulation of gases in the child, so they are interested in when colic appears and how long it has bothered the baby.

Most often, colic and gassy begin to appear 2-3 weeks after the baby is born. This has already been mentioned above. Colic intensifies at one and a half to two months and usually goes away by 3-4 months. At this stage of life, the child’s digestive system is already adapted to the food offered. The ailments gradually begin to recede. However, do not forget that all children are different. Some people experience similar problems earlier, others later.

If your baby starts having intestinal spasms at 2 months, they can bother him for up to six months. This is often observed in premature babies. This is a very big problem for parents. Such problems can only be avoided with the help of special diets. To receive qualified assistance, parents are advised to consult a nutritionist.

Doctor Komarovsky about colic

Evgeny Komarovsky calls on parents who are extremely tired of their child’s intestinal colic to understand the main thing: colic is completely normal and temporary. A lot of important processes take place in the baby’s intestines, the purpose of which is to prepare the child for life in this world, with its bacteria, viruses, antigen proteins and other threats.

Previously, the baby received food through the placenta.

After birth, the way of eating has changed radically, he needs to get used to it, and the intestines react with spasms to the stretching and new way of feeding its little owner. As soon as the adaptation process is completed, colic will disappear without a trace.

However, this, Komarovsky emphasizes, is also just one of the theories, since the true cause of the phenomenon is unknown to medicine.

Even inexperienced parents can recognize colic quite simply, because the baby’s crying in front of them cannot be explained by anything - the baby is well-fed, dry, healthy. And at the same time he screams, sometimes for several hours a day. Komarovsky emphasizes that, as a rule, crying with colic most often begins in the afternoon and closer to night.

Feeding a baby who suffers from abdominal pain is quite difficult. Great patience is required from parents - the little one turns out, throws the breast or pacifier, shrinks and arches. He gets tired quickly, while he remains half-starved, and he does not have the strength to continue sucking. It is at this moment that the child very sensitively senses the mood of the parents. Their powerlessness and confusion, and even anger and resentment, even if they suppress it, are very well perceived by the baby, and he begins to act up with renewed vigor. Remember that the emotional connection between mother and child is still very, very strong.

The realization that colic is not so much a child’s problem as a big problem for his parents will help you calm down and pull yourself together. It is they who have elevated an ordinary physiological process to the category of a terrible, painful disease; they are worried, afraid, and nervous.

There is no need to treat infant intestinal colic, says Evgeny Komarovsky. Since medicine has not found a reasonable explanation for their appearance, there is nothing to treat.

But the pharmaceutical industry and pharmacists have found a way to make money from parents who want to alleviate the child’s condition at any cost. They are offered a lot of medications, herbal and synthetic, supposedly for colic, and special feeding bottles with a nipple that supposedly does not allow them to swallow air during feeding.

There are also a lot of adapted milk formulas with a tempting inscription on the box “Anti-colic”. They, according to manufacturers, do not cause colic at all and “extinguish” them in the bud.

All this expensive pleasure is nothing more than a publicity stunt, Komarovsky believes. There is no cure for colic! This physiological state goes away on its own when the time comes , but parents who cannot do nothing at all when their baby is in pain are absolutely sure that one of the many tried remedies helped them.

By and large, there is nothing harmful in the various drops and syrups for removing gases, Komarovsky emphasizes. That is, parents give the baby harmless medications, but the benefits of simethicone (all synthetic drugs for such cases consist of it) are quite doubtful. Even with a significant overdose, these remedies for increased gas formation do not have a negative effect on the child’s body. Therefore, the doctor is calm about such remedies; if parents want to do something to feel that they have not abandoned the baby in trouble, let them give such drops.

It’s much worse if active mothers and fathers begin to fight colic in more dangerous ways - shoving gas tubes into the child, giving him enemas, dragging him around for examinations and demanding that the pediatrician prescribe painkillers (yes, such parents also exist in nature!) .

About feeding

You should also not try to cope with the problem by giving breasts or bottles with formula to a screaming child. He has already developed gas, most likely from overeating, there is no need to aggravate the situation, in the hope that this will calm the baby. This mistake, according to Komarovsky, is made by every second mother, regardless of her parental experience. Grandma’s instructions are very firmly ingrained in the minds of mothers: if he yells, it means he’s hungry. This is a mistake and should not be allowed to happen.

The correct actions in this situation should be based on increasing the intervals between feedings, let the child drink more water, let him have a abdominal massage twice as often, but feeding him at the first cry is a detrimental practice for both the mother and the child himself.

About mom's nutrition

A lot has been said and written about the nutrition of a nursing mother, which can somehow influence the presence or absence of colic in a baby. And often the pediatrician puzzledly asks the mother of a screaming colicky child what she actually eats. This is completely unnecessary information for the doctor, says Komarovsky, since the mother’s nutrition and diet do not in any way affect whether the babies will have a stomach ache from gas.

Evgeniy Olegovich asks young mothers to stop bullying themselves and experimenting with diets, which are offered in abundance by other parents on the Internet. New mothers should eat with pleasure, be calm and joyful, then the child will scream much less.

About motion sickness

Many mothers say that motion sickness helps their child with severe pain in the tummy. But there are also children who cannot be calmed down by carrying them in their arms. Evgeny Komarovsky recommends stopping rocking the baby and carrying him back and forth around the apartment if motion sickness does not help. You should stop on time . And after stopping, sit down and think about this.

Evgeniy Olegovich claims that with real colic, no motion sickness will have any effect. If a child screams whenever you try to put him in a crib, despite the fact that he has been carried and rocked for several hours in a row, then this is not colic. This little man shows his great character in this way, tries to establish “his power” and here it is necessary to urgently correct the behavior and reactions of the parents in the name of saving the future character of the child. Of course, there are other reasons for this behavior, including illness, so if in doubt, it is better to invite a doctor and consult in person.

About laying on the tummy

Very often, doctors and authoritative medical publications advise parents to place the baby on the tummy more often, as this strengthens the abdominal muscles and helps reduce the intensity of pain. Evgeniy Komarovsky advises taking such recommendations seriously for the very reason that it is one thing to lie on your stomach for five minutes under the supervision of your mother or father, and quite another thing to put your baby to sleep on his stomach.

Modern medicine has a different view of children’s sleep in this position, and Komarovsky completely shares it. Sleeping on your stomach is dangerous to your health. The risks are great - sudden infant death syndrome, which, as doctors have proven, happens more often to babies who sleep with their butts up.

Be patient and try to “close” the ranks. Colic is a problem for both mom and dad, a common problem. Therefore, all decisions about how to alleviate the baby’s condition, what to give him, and whether to give him anything at all, must be made jointly by both parents. Komarovsky says that colic in his rich medical practice very often became the cause of divorce. After all, an unkempt mother who carries a baby screaming from colic for 24 hours in her arms is not the best company for a dad who has returned from work and wants food, drink and the comfort of home.

Every family that plans to have a baby or has recently born one needs to master the technique of tummy massage. This helps to alleviate the child’s condition; such procedures can be done in the intervals between feedings for 5-10 minutes. Place your baby on his back and use your fingertips to massage the belly around the navel in a clockwise direction. This will help remove excess gases. Massage is simple and accessible at home on your own.

If the causes of spasmodic pain in a child’s intestines are not completely clear to scientists and doctors, then practicing doctors have long noticed two main factors that can increase the intensity of pain during colic and the frequency of attacks. The first is overheating, and the second is overfeeding. A child who is wrapped up and protected from any draft, and at the same time forcefully stuffed with milk or formula, is more likely to suffer from colic than a child whose parents are more adequate in organizing the life of their child.

Proper organization of a child's day is the best way to combat colic and at the same time the best way of prevention. Dr. Komarovsky is confident that a baby who does not overeat often walks in the fresh air, in whose room the parents not only do wet cleaning every day, but also humidify the air and ventilate it, make sure it is not hot, and suffer from colic much less often.

The best remedy for colic, according to Evgeniy Komarovsky, is time and the normal, adequate attitude of parents towards this temporary phenomenon. Only patience and love for each other from all family members can help us to endure these difficult few months.

My daughter will turn one month old in three days. Everything is fine, only one problem - the child screams for a long time, it happened that from 10 o'clock in the morning until the evening, and loudly. What is this? How to help a child? Doctor save me!

Answered by Komarovsky E. O.

With the highest possible probability, your girl has the so-called. infant colic.

Colic (from a scientific point of view) refers to unexplained bouts of crying that occur in a completely healthy child, last at least 3 hours a day and occur more than 3 days a week.

The most important and reassuring thing: it is unpleasant, but not dangerous, in most children it goes away by 3, maximum by 4 months.

Medical science cannot answer with certainty the question of what is the true cause of colic. But there are a number of observations and assumptions that allow us to pay attention to the following factors: violation of the feeding regime (especially overfeeding), non-compliance with optimal air parameters (especially overheating), underdevelopment of the gastrointestinal tract, which results in increased peristalsis and gas formation, some hormones that cause spasms in the intestines, inadequate (excessively emotional) reaction of parents to the crying of the child and increased anxiety of the mother.

It is important to understand that there are no methods that are guaranteed to relieve your child of colic, but there are certain recommendations that will help you calm your baby and alleviate his condition:

• do not overfeed the baby, overfeeding provokes colic. Remember that at least 2-2 ½ hours should pass between feedings,

• maintain optimal temperature and humidity in the room where the child is,

• in between feedings, offer the child a pacifier; many children calm down when sucking;

• try changing your diet, this can also reduce colic:

If your baby is breastfed, try changing your diet. Reduce the amount of dairy products and caffeine. Observe your child's reaction: if he does not become calmer after the changes, return to your normal diet. Some nursing mothers have been helped by eliminating spices or foods that cause increased gas (cabbage, onions, etc.), but this has not yet been scientifically proven.
if the child is bottle-fed, discuss with your pediatrician the advisability of changing the formula. In some cases this helps.

Colic is perhaps the most common cause of baby crying in the first months of life. What young parents don’t do to calm their baby down at such moments! The best advice and recommendations are given by the famous doctor Komarovsky.

First aid for a baby with colic

There are many traditional ways to help your baby with intestinal cramps. Let's describe the best of them.

Before each feeding, the baby should be placed on his tummy. So he should lie down for 10-15 minutes. In this situation, the gases will come out and it will not come to colic.

After feeding, it is recommended to hold the baby upright for several minutes so that he burps.

A warm compress from an ironed diaper is also a very good way. You need to iron the diaper so that it becomes warm, but not hot, and tie it around the baby’s tummy. This is a very effective method. Even in the old days, our grandmothers used it. A gentle mother’s tummy massage also helps a lot. It should be done with light clockwise movements.

During intestinal cramps, the mother should hold the baby to her chest. This will distract him from the pain and the colic will become less severe.

What to do?

Dr. Komarovsky developed his theory according to which it is not worth treating colic, but taking action to prevent or slightly calm the pain. Unfortunately, to date, no remedy has yet been invented that can save a child from such a disease.

If your baby is breastfed, try to feed him properly. You should not place the child completely on his back, let him be in a slightly elevated state so that the food does not stagnate in the body.
Try to teach your child to eat in such a way that he does not grab excess air. Cover him a little when he starts to eat, watch the rhythm and pace.
If you feed your baby formula, opt for thicker ones.

In order for the baby’s stomach to work at the proper pace, you can give him Hilak Forte in a small dosage, but the doctor himself must prescribe this for you.

Preventive measures

Try to ensure that your child spends as little time as possible in a lying position . Additionally, you can try massaging your baby's belly frequently. This is done in order to disperse a large accumulation of oxygen so that it would be evenly distributed throughout the cells.

Try to feed your baby by the hour . Avoid greedily swallowing liquid food by your child.

Try to be outdoors more often . Often, due to the fact that the child receives a large volume of air, not so often, it turns out that immediately, once outside, the baby tries to swallow as much as possible.

Try to do as much physical movement with your baby as possible , and then you can definitely prevent colic. However, even if they appear, don’t worry, you may have already prevented their more serious manifestation on your own.

Now you know how to protect your child from such troubles as colic. However, do not neglect consulting your doctor. Only through joint efforts will your baby safely survive such a difficult period for him, and you will do without long-term whims. Health to you and your baby.

Colic and gas in newborns: treatment

All medications intended for the treatment of colic are divided into two types: drugs for prevention, drugs for relieving intestinal spasms.

The use of prophylactic anticolic drugs does not guarantee complete disappearance of colic, but makes attacks rare and less painful. Such drugs are very effective. They reduce gas formation, which causes colic. Their active ingredients, such as dill, fennel, and anise, have anti-colic properties.

Drugs that help overcome intestinal spasms are used at the time of an attack to stop it. These drugs are made from simiticone. It relieves tension in the intestinal walls, breaking down accumulated gases and reducing discomfort. With the birth of a child, it is recommended to have medications for the treatment of colic and gas in your home medicine cabinet.

Symptoms

An infant is unable to clearly identify the problem that is causing concern. It is determined by the characteristic behavior of the baby. Symptoms of colic in a newborn are expressed as follows:

Abdominal bloating occurs in the afternoon, towards evening, at approximately 17-19 hours.
The baby shows anxiety and cries.
A swollen belly is a pronounced symptom of pathology. Accumulated gases swell the abdominal cavity. On palpation a hard abdomen is revealed.
The legs are pulled towards the stomach. The child is experiencing severe stress. This sign is clearly identified by a face filled with paint.
Flatulence occurs. Gases put pressure on the intestinal walls from the inside, causing colic and pain.
Spasms appear, leading to painful contractions of the intestines.
Colic disappears after the gases are released. But this does not exclude their reappearance.

Symptoms of gas formation are similar to signs of other, more dangerous diseases. The baby behaves in a similar way when developing ailments that require surgery (for example, appendicitis).

The child should be seen by a doctor if the following signs appear:

attack that persists for 4 hours;
heat;
vomit;
loose stools with bloody or green spots;
worsening condition.

Means and preparations for the prevention of colic

A good remedy for preventing colic is Plantex tea. This tea is made from fennel. The package contains 10 granulated tea bags. To prepare the drink, you need to pour 1 sachet with 100 ml of boiling water. Let it brew. Give a newborn this tea 1-2 times a day between feedings, dividing 1 bag into 2 doses.

Another good remedy is dill water. It can be purchased at a pharmacy. Sold in glass bottles of 15 ml. This drink is given to the baby 2 times a day between feedings.

If the pharmacy doesn’t have dill water, you can prepare it yourself. To do this, dill seeds are poured with boiling water. Let it brew for 40–45 minutes. After this, filter.

This drink removes gases well and relieves intestinal spasms. Regular use of this product helps improve digestion and also relieves pain in a child.

It should be added that dill water is useful not only for the baby, but also for the mother. It improves lactation, digestion in the mother and has a calming effect.

Together with the above remedies for the prevention of colic, you can use the drug Baby Calm. This is an Israeli drug based on vegetable oils. It contains dill, anise and mint oils.

Causes

There are many reasons for increased gas formation. Sometimes the opinions of pediatricians are diametrically opposed, especially when it comes to the diet of a nursing mother and the diet of a newborn child.

Dr. Komarovsky indicates the following, the most significant causes of intestinal colic:

imperfection of enzymatic systems, as a result of which the processes of food digestion are combined with rotting and fermentation;
defective intestinal microflora, which is also directly involved in the processes of food digestion;
imperfection of intestinal innervation;
persistent smoking of a nursing mother;
feeding the child too often or excessive amounts of food (especially when it comes to artificial feeding).

Dr. Komarovsky believes that the mother's diet does not have a significant effect on the occurrence of colic.