Parents are naturally wired to care for crying babies, ensuring they are well-fed, changed, and soothed. But when intense crying persists for hours a day without consoling, leaving both baby and parents exhausted, it becomes concerning.
This all-too-common infant health challenge has a name: infantile colic.
If your baby has prolonged crying fits over 3 hours a day, at least three days a week, they likely have colic, and you’re not alone. Colic affects 1 in 4 babies in the first three months of life.
Yet, despite its prevalence, conventional medicine claims its causes “remain a mystery” and suggests just waiting it out, leaving parents feeling dismissed and hopeless.
However, emerging evidence reveals colic is not simply normal crying to outgrow but rather a signal of neurological dysfunction requiring support. When providers dig deep with parents to help them get to the root cause of their child’s colic, rather than just managing the symptoms, it can then be addressed naturally and without drugs. This also helps prevent any undesirable long-term outcomes.
So, what is a colic baby and what can you do? In this article, we’ll examine how addressing the root causes of colic through Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care early in life can improve the nervous system and digestion function, prevent long-term issues colic often leads to, and help families thrive.
What is a “Colic Baby?”
A colic baby is an otherwise healthy infant who experiences intense, extended, and inconsolable crying. Experts define colic as crying that lasts over three hours per day, occurs more than three days per week, persists over three weeks, and resists soothing.
Compared to typical hunger or wet diaper cries, colicky cries sound more urgent. These babies often clench their fists, arch their backs, and bear down, suggesting intestinal discomfort. The arching and stiffening of the neurospinal system is often a strong indication of the root cause of tension and dysfunction.
This may be a result of subluxation—or misalignment and tension along neural communication channels—and neurological dysfunction that could have been originally triggered by in-utero constraint or physical injury via birth intervention and trauma.
While most people will look to the stomach or digestive system for the root cause of colic, the cause is often found even deeper—within the nervous system and its control and coordination of digestive motility, absorption, and elimination.
When tension and subluxation build up along the neurospinal system, a colic baby will often arch its back and crane its neck, trying to release or dissipate that tension. This is an almost sure sign that neurospinal discomfort and tension are the root causes of their discomfort, not merely digestive dysfunction.
Signs of Colic Baby
Colic is a condition that affects babies and is characterized by intense and prolonged crying bouts that last for more than three hours a day, for at least three days a week. This condition is different from normal crying because it is more severe and may occur at specific times of the day, such as late afternoon and evening.
During these crying episodes, colicky babies may exhibit several signs that accompany their distress. For instance, they may cry in a high-pitched and urgent tone, unlike the general discomfort cries that are less intense. Additionally, they may tense their muscles, clench their fists, and even arch their back or draw their legs up towards their abdomen.
Facial flushing or skin discoloration may also be present, and the baby may pass gas or experience abdominal rumbling. A colicky baby may resist soothing techniques such as rocking, swaddling, or pacifiers. This may be frustrating for exhausted parents who may not know how to calm their baby.
While colic isn’t dangerous, the nonstop crying significantly disrupts sleep, feeding, digestion, and comfort for both baby and parents.
What Causes Colic?
Contrary to common belief, colic is not solely caused by digestive issues like gas or food sensitivities. Instead, it is commonly triggered by nervous system dysfunction and interference that can impair digestive and other important bodily functions and leave the child uncomfortable.
When tension and dysfunction build up within the neuromuscular system, a condition known as subluxation can disrupt communication between the brain and organs such as the gut.
In most cases, helping parents find the real root cause of colic is a relatively simple process. This is because, by the time most parents seek out Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care to help, they’ve already gone through a whole host of diet changes and restrictions, probiotics and other supplements, gripe water, essential oils, and other natural treatments that target the gut and digestive system.
If a family has already done all they can to support the child’s gut nutritionally, it almost certainly leaves what we refer to as neurogenic colic as the real root cause of the discomfort. This means that tension and subluxation originate first within the nervous system.
The resulting neurological dysfunction creates a “neuro-storm” of signals that disrupt sleep, digestive function, and much more. A colicky baby’s system then constantly cries, moves, twists, and torques to try and find calm and regulation amidst that storm of stress and tension.
The Impact of Colic
Babies who experience persistent distress and lack of sleep may encounter difficulties in physiological regulation, sensory integration, and overall growth and development. These disruptions can further affect their self-soothing abilities, behavior, relating, and learning in the long run.
Colic, in particular, can present obstacles in breastfeeding, hinder optimal bonding during a sensitive period, and pose formula risks. In addition, colic can also result in sleep disruptions for the entire family, causing exhaustion, work disruptions, and other issues that can affect fathers, siblings, and marriages.
In severe cases, colic can lead to shaken baby syndrome or postpartum depression for mothers. Even milder cases of colic should be addressed with solutions that can ease unnecessary suffering for everyone involved.
Common Misconceptions of Colic
A primary care physician often offers explanations, such as digestive upset caused by gas or food sensitivities, as the causes of colic. Still, these explanations do not fully account for the distress caused by colic, and solutions that solely target these factors often fall short.
Some suggest that colicky babies cry and swallow more air, leading to gas pain, but in reality, colicky babies do not produce more gas than other infants. While minor relief can be achieved through probiotics, formula changes, and anti-gas drops, they do not fully resolve colic.
Others suggest that cow’s milk allergies or lactose intolerance may cause crying bouts in babies. Still, research suggests that formula intolerances are rare, and a nursing mother eliminating dairy from her diet is largely ineffective in reducing crying time.
More misconceptions around colic include:
- Crying is normal, and babies will just “grow out of it.”
- Digestive upsets, such as gas pains or food sensitivities alone, cause colic.
- Formula changes or probiotics can fully cure colic.
- Eliminating dairy from a nursing mother’s diet will fully resolve colic.
- Colicky babies just have more gas and need to pass it.
- Parents can do nothing besides wait it out and “let the baby cry.”
- Excessive crying won’t cause any long-term issues.
- Colic happens randomly in some babies and can’t be prevented.
Digestive factors and food intolerances play a role. But first, we need to ask the deeper question: Why are there digestive problems and food intolerances in the first place?
For most infants, the gut issues result from more disruption and dysfunction of the nervous system, often triggered by an overly stressful pregnancy or physically traumatic birth intervention.
“The Perfect Storm” of Colic
To understand the neurological basis of colic, it is important to understand the concept of “The Perfect Storm.” This phenomenon refers to a sequence of stressors that disrupt healthy development.
“The Perfect Storm” begins with maternal emotional trauma, inflammation, or chronic distress during pregnancy, which can shift the developing nervous system of both mother and baby into a sustained sympathetic fight or flight response. Excessive maternal stress may also interfere with the vagus nerve and autonomic nervous system development.
Birth interventions like forceps, vacuum extraction, C-section, and induction can create physical tension and constraint that leads to subluxation in the upper neck and upper back—the areas that protect the delicate nerves that control latching, swallowing, sleeping, soothing, and digestive motility.
For most families, the neurological elements that trigger colic symptoms, vagus nerve dysfunction, and dysautonomia, are not communicated as potential causes of colic and other common pediatric conditions. For this reason, more parents need to know about these potential causes to understand better and address their child’s colic symptoms.
PX Docs is committed to spreading awareness about the actual underlying cause of various health issues. We prioritize addressing nervous system dysfunction before tackling other crucial factors, such as gut health and microbiome.
There are Answers: Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care
Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care is a specialized field that focuses on identifying and addressing subluxation and neurological dysfunction.
Unlike traditional medicine, it does not merely suppress symptoms but goes straight to the root cause. Our PX Docs Network specializes in identifying these areas of subluxation and neurological dysfunction in infants using a gentle physical exam and an advanced neuro-scanning technology called INSiGHT Scans. These scans help to pinpoint and quantify the neurological stress patterns often associated with colic.
Our PX Docs have seen countless cases of positive changes throughout their clinical practices, and research studies have also demonstrated how much chiropractic care can help families struggling with colicky babies.
If you’re struggling with the signs of a colic baby, there is hope, answers, and drug-free help. Head to our PX Docs Directory to schedule your consultation and exam today.
