Colic in infants is painful cramps that are paroxysmal in nature and are accompanied by cries and anxiety of the child. If during feeding or a quiet sleep, games, the baby begins to squeeze, grunt, squeeze his legs to his stomach and scream, then he begins to have an attack of colic.
The causes of colic in infants are very diverse:
1) By the third week of a child’s life, his need for milk rises sharply, which means that the time that he used before was not enough for him. The child eats, in fact, only one "front" milk, which is saturated with carbohydrates. And these substances stimulate gas formation in the child's body, which in turn causes painful colic in the baby.
2) In a child, the muscular apparatus of the intestine is not yet mature enough.
3) Also, the immature enzymatic function of the intestines of the baby, which means increased sensitivity to those products that can cause gas formation.
4) During feeding, the baby may trap air due to improper attachment to the breast or use of bottles for feeding.
Most often, colic in a baby begins to appear from the third week of its life, lasts up to about three hours a day and passes independently until three months of age. More often this problem occurs in those children who quickly gain weight. How can I help to prevent colic in babies?
1) Babies need to be breastfed.
2) It is necessary to begin to feed the baby at his first request. The longer the intervals from one feeding to another, the greater the likelihood that the child will capture air during subsequent feeding, and this will naturally lead to the entry of gases into the intestines and, accordingly, to the appearance of painful colic in infants.
3) It is necessary to carefully monitor whether the baby is taking the breast correctly, it is necessary that he captures the areola, and not just the nipple, with such a capture the least chance of air entering the gastrointestinal tract of the child.
4) After feeding, the baby needs to be given a strictly upright position and held so until the gases are gone.
5) Mom should also adhere to a certain diet - it is necessary to refuse for the time of feeding those products that can stimulate gas formation - mushrooms, cabbage, tomatoes, canned meat, fried and fatty foods.
6) As soon as the child begins to push and show anxiety, sometimes it’s enough just to warm his tummy, for example, to put on it a diaper heated with an iron.
7) Also in such cases, a warm bath can help. It is better to add a decoction of herbs to the water, providing a calming effect, for example, motherwort, lemon balm, mint valerian.
8) A massage of the tummy can give a good effect - stroking it clockwise, as well as gymnastics - bringing the legs to the stomach with their bending and pressing them on the stomach, turning the child from back to side, on the stomach. These simple tricks help to facilitate the release of gases, which are the cause of bloating, difficulties with bowel movements and, in fact, anxiety of the child.
9) You can also use a vent tube or the softest syringe with a soft tip. Before the introduction of the tube, it is necessary to massage the tummy, then grease the tube with special sterile oil, put the child on his left side, bend his legs in his knees, bring them to the tummy, then insert the tip of the tube three to four centimeters and massage his tummy again. After seven to ten minutes, the gases and contents of the intestines will go away.
10) You can drink your child warm fennel herbal teas. Dill water is also used , which is prepared from one teaspoon of dill seeds in a glass of distilled water, put it in a water bath for twenty minutes, strain and bring the volume back to two hundred milliliters. Give the baby one teaspoon up to four times a day before meals.