Infantile Colic

Having to deal with a child that is suffering from colic is very frustrating to new parents. Typical response from doctors is, "if it is colic, it would run its course in three months." Recent studies show that chiropractic care may be useful in managing the situation.

In a study conducted in South Africa by Mercer and Cook, thirty infants who had been diagnosed medically with colic were randomly divided into two groups. One group received chiropractic care while the other group did not. All infants in this study were newborn to 8 weeks old and had been diagnosed with colic by a pediatrician. 

The infants in the chiropractic group received care for a two-week period with a maximum of six adjustments (spinal adjusting). In the group that received chiropractic care, there was complete resolution of symptoms in 93% of the infants within the two-week period. What is more impressive, though is the finding that in a follow up survey performed one month later, none of the infants had experienced a reoccurrence of problems from colic.

In another study, the National Health Service in Ballerup (Copenhagen, Denmark) conducted a study involving 50 infants diagnosed with infantile colic. Half of the group was given the drug dimethicon while the other half was given chiropractic care. In this study, nine of the 25 taking the drug dropped out of the study because the infants were getting worse. These infants were then not counted in the final results which would have shown a worse result for the drug than published. 

After 4 to 7 days into the study, the infants remaining in the drug group had reduced their hours of crying by only one hour while the entire chiropractic group had reduced crying hours by an average of 2.4 hours. After 8 to 10 days, the study continued to show the drug therapy infants at a one hour improvement while the chiropractic group further improved to 2.7 hours less of crying. The researchers noted that the removal from the study of the infants that got worse from the drug made the results from the drug look better than they actually were.

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