I have found this video on colic which is explained by Dr. Scott Cohen. It’s a mystery why colic exists in babies and why there’s no scientific medication to treat it so far. Great video for mother’s seeking additional info on colicky babies.

VideoJug: Colic

What is “colic”?

I don’t know if anybody knows what colic is. But I think colic can basically be described as this indistinguishable, incontrollable fussiness that happens anywhere around two to three weeks of age until about three months. They say colic is the rule of three, so it starts at about three weeks, it ends around three months, and I think the only good thing we can say about it is it does have a definitive ending. It happens at least three times a week where you have a really inconsolably crying baby for sometimes upwards of three hours a night. And we don’t know exactly what causes colic. There have been a lot of hypotheses, people thought it was gas, something wrong with the intestinal tract, things to do with being born too early, but we really don’t have a cause that fits every child that has colic.

How do I know if my baby has colic?

You’ll know if your baby has colic. Usually I’ll just hear from parents that their child just has this “witching” period, when it’s usually late afternoon or early evening, when they’re crying and inconsolable. If they were in my office or if I were at your house at that time, there is nothing medically wrong with them. The child’s exam is absolutely normal. They don’t have a fever, they don’t have infection, they’re just upset and they want something. It’s our job just to figure out what the child wants and how we can make them feel better.

What can I do to relieve my baby’s colic?

We try a lot of things to relieve colic that our parents have been doing and people around the world have been doing for hundreds of years.We swaddle them to make them feel close like they were in utero; we ‘shushh’ them; we rock them gently; we lay them on their side. If those don’t work there are some home remedies and homeopathic recipes that are absolutely safe. Now, again, these are not medically proven, but look: they may help; they may not, so it’s worth a try. We try things like chamomile tea with a little pinch of sugar. We try Mylicon drops, which is like Gas-X for babies. We also try things like Gripe Water and Hylands Colic Tabs, and these are herbal mixtures of ginger and fennel (and fennel is just licorice), which are herbal ingredients that can be soothing to their stomach. You should talk to your doctor before you use these remedies, but these are things that we often try, because we don’t know what causes colic and we don’t know with each child what can fix it every single time.

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