As an exhausted parent, being jolted awake yet again by your baby’s shrill cries is disheartening. No amount of rocking, shushing, white noise, feeding, or pacing brings relief, making you worried and exhausted!
These scary nights are typical for parents of babies with colic—inconsolable crying for over 3 hours daily. This disheartening condition affects approximately 1 in 4 infants, disrupting the whole family’s quality of life.
While some call colic just “normal fussiness,” emerging research reveals the neurological dysfunction behind what causes colic in babies. Without care support, it contributes to issues later on, like digestive troubles and feeding problems. Fortunately, with the right approach, communication flow within the nervous system can be restored, bringing much-needed relief to babies and their families.
In this article, we’ll examine colic, the factors that can cause neurological dysfunction, and how Neurologically Focused Chiropractic Care can help restore balance naturally.
What Exactly Is Colic?
Colic involves intense crying lasting over 3 hours daily in healthy babies. It typically arises around 2 weeks old and peaks around 6 weeks during important neurological development. These urgent, inconsolable cries are distinct from occasional fussiness.
Besides excessive crying for hours resisting soothing, colic signs include:
- Clenched fists
- Arched back
- Leg pulling
- A red, flushed face
- Hard, distended belly
- Passing gas with temporary relief
Colic severely disrupts sleep and feeding needed for growth. Going beyond “normal crying,” colic indicates the baby is in actual distress from activities meant to smooth nervous system functions. Left unaddressed, engrained neurological dysfunction can contribute to issues later on.
What Causes Colic in Babies?
The medical community has stated that the root cause of colic, a common condition in infants, is often unknown. However, it has been suggested that subluxation may be a contributing factor.
Subluxation refers to interference and dysfunction in the nervous system, which can result in stress and tension building up in the upper neck and brainstem regions. These areas are home to the vagus nerve, a critical nerve that controls essential parasympathetic “rest and digest” functions.
Contributing factors that can lead to this neurological stress and tension include:
- Maternal stress, anxiety, and fear during pregnancy. The mother’s nervous system is connected to her developing baby’s. High levels of the mom’s distress feed into the baby’s developing wiring.
- Physical trauma during childbirth. Interventions like c-sections, forceps, vacuum extraction, or challenging deliveries can damage delicate nerves. Neck tension and misalignment then develop.
When a baby experiences a subluxation, it can cause their nervous system to become hyperactive, leading to a constant “fight or flight” state. This can cause dysfunction in the vagus nerve, which makes it difficult for the baby to perform activities that are supposed to be automatic, such as eating, sleeping, digesting food, and pooping.
As a result, the baby may display various symptoms, such as excessive crying, difficulty latching during breastfeeding, spitting up after eating, abdominal discomfort, arching the back, and problems with self-soothing. When these parasympathetic functions fail to work smoothly, colic may develop.
“The Perfect Storm” of symptoms can leave the baby’s nervous system overwhelmed and in distress, with the sympathetic “fight or flight” response overpowering the “rest and digest” mode. As a result, the normal functions of sleeping, eating, and pooping fail to work smoothly, which can trigger colic. However, neurological care can help release any stuck stress patterns and bring hope.
How This “Perfect Storm” of Factors Can Cause Colic
Think of a baby’s developing nervous system as a stream flowing through the earth—vulnerable, indirectly shaped by surroundings. Stress hormones and inflammation from an anxious mom resemble storm runoff muddying the waters.
Then intense birth interventions act like dams and redirection channels installed improperly. Pathways hit obstacles and back up instead of flowing to organs needing direction. Crying results until nerves are cleared.
While medicine overlooks communication flow, specialized providers can identify “neurological dams” through assessments and scans visualizing nerve tension. Precision correction releases patterns, so flow and function resettle.
Lasting Impact of Unaddressed Subluxation
Left unaddressed, the neurological dysfunction and nervous system imbalance underlying colic can have lasting consequences. Colicky babies are significantly more likely to continue experiencing episodic abdominal pain, sleeping issues, and feeding difficulties later in childhood.
Allowing dysfunction to become ingrained during the crucial early months of a baby’s life can have significant developmental implications. This is because early neurological wiring lays the foundation for emerging skills such as language, cognition, motor control, and behavioral regulation.
If dysfunction is not addressed during this critical window, it can lead to later challenges such as:
- Cognitive, behavioral, and social issues stemming from an imbalanced nervous system.
- Impaired sensory processing due to retained tension, limiting sensory nerve supply, digestive problems arising from engrained vagus nerve strain impacting gut mobility, vulnerability to infections from chronic inflammation, and feeding aversions related to unresolved throat and GI neural tension.
Colic represents the early signs of nervous system disruption during pivotal development windows. Fortunately, by releasing dysfunction and restoring proper structural alignment, we can help re-establish smooth, balanced communication critical in that neurological foundation-setting period.
As research increasingly ties early exposure to trauma and neurological dysfunction with chronic issues later on, addressing root causes with the nervous system early on brings hope not just for relieving colic but also for promoting a trajectory of lifelong health.
Achieving Long-Term Restoration of Nervous System Function
While traditional medical approaches focus only on temporary solutions, Neurologically Focused Chiropractic Care gets to the root of the problem for lasting impact.
INSiGHT Scans, a sophisticated assessment tool, and noninvasive chiropractic adjustments can eliminate nerve blockages at their roots, helping to restore nervous system regulation naturally.
If you’re struggling to find relief for your baby’s colic and nothing else has seemed to help, head to our directory to find a qualified PX Doc near you. Our team of experienced providers can help address the true roots of this condition with compassion and understanding.
