Baby Care

The first months of baby’s life are not only very happy but also very tense time for its parents. They have an important task: to understand the child, to look after him/her and assist him/her in overcoming the inevitable challenges of growth.

One of the first challenges which have the vast majority of children and parents is infantile intestinal colic. As a rule, they start during the first three weeks and continue up to the first three months of the child’s life, delivering a lot of suffering to the baby as well as its surrounding adults.

Why does it arise?

Intestinal colic is not considered to be a disease. This is a so-called functional disorder, which is a natural stage of maturing baby’s digestive system and the adaptation of the gastrointestinal tract for digestion of food. However, these processes are accompanied by a rather unpleasant and painful effects such as intestinal spasm, excess gas, a violation of intestinal peristalsis.

Over time, the digestion comes right and colic passes without a trace. But this does not mean that the kid can do without the help of adults – they need to understand him/her when he/she has colic and alleviate the child’s sufferings.

How you can understand it?

As a rule, colic torment baby during the evening hours. During the attack of pain the child is crying, fidgets legs and makes “vermiform” movements. It doesn’t stop even during lactation – while sucking the intestine changes its sizes (spasm), increasing the pain. Because of this, the kid is a little more nervous during feeding.

What should you do?

If the child is breastfed, the mother will have to adjust the diet, removing from it products that are fermented (black bread, sauerkraut, grape, radish, beans, etc.). While feeding the baby should tightly capture the teat in order not to swallow excess air.

For children who already use artificial feeding, it is desirable to feed with special anti-colic bottles that prevent swallowing excess air.

After feeding hold the kid so that he/she could take out the swallowed air. It is important that the intervals between feedings are not less than two hours, otherwise the milk will not fully digest, which can increase the baby’s discomfort.

Remember also that after feeding the child should be put on the side – this will prevent the diversion of milk into the respiratory tract. In addition, this position facilitates the evacuation of milk from the stomach into the gut. It is also good to often put the kid on the stomach after feeding. This position helps to strengthen muscles of the front abdominal wall, which favorably affects the peristalsis of the bowel and helps to reduce colic.

To facilitate the child’s condition you can use herbs, such as chamomile, fennel, dill and anise. They have proved themselves as effective ways to combat colic. For example you can give your child medicinal herbal preparations, such as Planteks based on the fruit and fennel essential oil. It comes in the form of soluble beverage, which is very easy to brew, while respecting the required dosage. The drug has mild antispasmodic effect, regulates the processes of digestion, reduces gas and helps reduce the frequency and severity of colic.
Light massage can also help the child. It includes clockwise massage of tummy, bending legs, stroking the back with the sides in the direction of the stomach to the waist.

And try to remain calm even when the baby cries bitterly, – it has been proven that the anxiety of parents is transmitted to children and makes them to feel uncomfortable.