If you’ve endured the relentless cries of colic with your little one, you’re not alone. Colic impacts about 1 in 4 infants in the first months of life, defined as crying exceeding three hours a day for over three days a week.
Yet despite its prevalence, pediatricians often dismiss excessive crying as normal fussiness babies outgrow.
Emerging research challenges this perspective, revealing colic as possible early evidence of neurological dysfunction, setting the stage for chronic issues later if left unaddressed.
Fortunately, if you’re wondering how to prevent colic, there is hope. Targeted chiropractic care early on can rapidly relieve colic and potentially avoid long-term issues. This article clarifies the causes of colic and offers preventative, neurologically-focused care options that bring hope.
What is Colic in Babies?
Intense crying lasting over 3 hours daily in healthy babies is known as colic. It usually starts around two weeks of age and peaks around six weeks, coinciding with important neurological development. These persistent and inconsolable cries are different from occasional fussiness.
Colic is characterized by intense, inconsolable crying in infants that:
- Lasts over 3 hours per day
- Occurs more than three days per week
- Persists over three weeks
- Resists soothing techniques
Colicky cries carry a distinct urgent tone compared to those signaling basic needs like hunger. These babies frequently clench their fists, arch their backs, and bear down, suggesting intestinal cramping and bloating.
Yet what makes colic especially agonizing for both children and parents compared to periodic fussiness is its relentlessness — the intense discomfort and sleep disruption drag on for months.
What Causes Colic?
While conventional medicine suggests the cause of colic remains unknown, emerging research implicates several possible root causes tied to nervous system dysfunction:
- Brain-Gut Disconnection: The network of nerves linking digestion to brain development relies on timely signaling. But when tension builds up in areas like the brainstem, it’s like pinching this neural “highway.” Digestion suffers.
- Vagus Nerve Disruption: This key pathway managing the parasympathetic “rest and digest” response gets impinged, exiting the upper neck, and stuck in emergency mode. Smooth rhythms of eating, pooping, and sleeping then fail.
- Fight-or-Flight Imbalance: Physical and emotional stress trigger the nervous system’s alarm pathways. Unable to “power down,” digestion, immunity, and growth networks struggle amidst the neuro-excitation. Crying signals the system overload.
The Conventional Colic Narrative
The medical establishment has long claimed that the underlying cause of colic remains unclear, instead focusing treatment on symptom relief. Grasping at straws, pediatricians cite a handful of theories that likely contribute but fall short of fully explaining intense crying bouts.
For instance, some propose that digestive upsets, like gas pains or food sensitivities, drive colic. So, solutions target gastrointestinal issues—eliminating allergens from a mother’s diet if breastfeeding, switching formulas, or administering anti-gas drops.
However, established research reveals that true formula intolerances are rare, and restricted diets are largely ineffective. Other studies show colicky babies don’t produce more gas than typical peers. So, while digestive factors are secondary in creating discomfort, they do not account for the extent of crying and misery many babies endure. In essence, gut troubles result from colic rather than directly causing it in most infants.
“The Perfect Storm” of Factors Surrounding Colic
In many infants, colic follows a succession or combination of stresses, which we refer to as “The Perfect Storm.” These stressors disrupt the development of delicate nervous system infrastructure, resulting in neural misalignments that can cause various health issues. These stressors can include:
- Maternal emotional trauma, anxiety, or chronic stress during pregnancy can impact the baby’s developing nervous system via distress signals across the placenta.
- During birth, interventions like C-sections with anesthesia or sedation and vacuum or forceps assistance can cause tension and misalignments that affect delicate nerve tissue.
- Neural interference develops, affecting existing nerves. This condition, known as subluxation, impairs signaling between the brain, gut, and other pathways essential for coordinated digestion.
When a baby’s immature system experiences dysfunction, it can cause excessive and inconsolable crying, which is commonly referred to as colic. To identify the root cause of this dysfunction, it’s important to look for tension, misalignment, or distortion of the neural structures, which can lead to neurological dysfunction. Restoring proper neurological flow early on is critical to balancing and alleviating colic symptoms.
How to Prevent Colic
The solution begins with early nervous system support when preventing colic.
Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care during pregnancy focuses on maintaining alignment and mobility of neural pathways through targeted chiropractic adjustments. Releasing structural and muscular tension encourages optimal baby positioning for a smoother journey through the birth canal. Precise techniques can also stimulate critical uterine and cranial nerves to develop robustness.
As the nervous system operates free of hindrances, babies gain resiliency to handle contractions and compressions of labor. Key areas housing nerves essential for digestive coordination develop durability against traumatic births.
Once the baby is born, PX Docs use advanced scanning technology, called INSiGHT Scans, to detect vertebral or cranial asymmetry from birth stresses. Based on this insight, targeted neural corrections can then be applied, helping to restore healthy neural communication and making digestion upset from poor drainage, inflammation, or food sensitivities less likely.
Although there is no foolproof way to prevent colic, enhancing the mother’s nervous system flexibility during pregnancy and ensuring proper alignment for the newborn after delivery can significantly increase the chances of smooth functioning. If the baby still experiences intense crying, it is necessary to address the root causes by administering corrective care instead of merely suppressing the symptoms.
A Different Approach: Neurologically-Focused Care
While conventional pediatricians often overlook nervous system involvement, neurologically-focused chiropractors detect and address neural dysfunction precisely as an underlying contributor to infant health issues like colic, reflux, sleep disruption, and more.
By assessing neural, soft tissue, and other neurophysiological misalignments with INSiGHT Scans, PX Docs gain insight into sites of subluxation and general nervous system dysregulation in children with colic symptoms.
Then, precise manual techniques are applied to specific vertebral or cranial fixation areas. Precisely guided force redirects misalignments to restore mobility, decompress nerves, and enhance neurological communication across gut, immune, and endocrine networks.
Symptoms improve quickly as nerve flow enhances digestion, ear fluid drainage, cognition, and more.
Restoring Hope and Harmony
Living with a baby suffering from colic can be challenging and discouraging for both parents and the colicky baby. However, promising new approaches offer hope and relief. Although neurologically-focused alignment techniques do not resolve every case, trained specialists can identify and address neural irritation that may be the root cause of many infant health issues.
If your baby’s crying persists even after your best efforts, it might be helpful to seek the advice of qualified neuro-specialist doctors for a fresh perspective. Our PX Docs use precise physical evaluations and advanced neuro-scanning technology to identify and correct neurological dysfunction in infants.
If you’re struggling with a colicky baby, hope is available. Get drug-free help for colic by scheduling a consult and exam through our PX Docs Directory.
