He uncontrolled crying baby, better known (erroneously) as colic of the infant, is one of the conditions that more worries generate in the parents, since they usually occur in the first weeks of life, just when the parents have more doubts and more guilty they feel when they see They fail to calm their baby.
These are episodes of intense and inconsolable crying that can last up to 2-3 hours a day, happens more than three days a week and occur when the baby is less than 3 months old.
The cause is still unknown, although the hypotheses say that it could be a mixture between intestinal discomfort and maladjustment in the environment: babies are born with a tremendously immature brain and find a world full of stimuli that they cannot manage.
No one manages to opt for one reason or another, since if they were intestinal problems, crying should happen at other times of the day and not only in the afternoon and if it were only a problem of adaptation, feeding changes and studies that show that Lactobacillus reuteri Decreases crying episodes would give little result.
The last study carried out
The results of the last study carried out in this regard have been published a few days ago. This study has been carried out at the University of Turin, Italy, where pediatricians from that university have shown that Lactobacillus reuteri reduces episodes of uncontrolled crying of the baby by 74% after administering it for a week.
For the study, 50 babies diagnosed with uncontrolled crying of the baby (infant colic) were used, randomly assigned a treatment with 10 daily drops of Lactobacillus reuteri or 10 drops of a placebo for 21 consecutive days.
The proportion of babies who reduced crying episodes was significantly higher in the group that took Lactobacillus reuteri than in the group that took the placebo.
Lactobacillus reuteri vs Simethicone
This finding is not new, as there are other previous studies that sought a positive effect of L. reuteri as a treatment for colic.
In 2007, for example, a study was carried out to observe the impact of two treatments, one with L. reuteri and another with Simethicone (antiflatulent that eliminates pain and abdominal discomfort), on the uncontrolled crying of the baby.
For this study, 90 children were randomly grouped to take the probiotic or simethicone for 28 days.
At seven days, children who took reuteri cried, on average, 159 minutes a day, for 177 minutes those who took simethicone. At 28 days, the group of children taking the probiotic cried on average 51 minutes a day, while those of the other group did so for 145 minutes daily.
This study, however, has a limitation: the parents knew what substance they were giving to their children (for a study to be reliable the subjects must not know what they are taking or, in this case, what they are giving to their children).
A possible solution?
The results of these and other studies appear to be positive. Further studies are likely to be necessary to demonstrate the efficacy of Lactobacillus reuteri as a treatment for uncontrolled crying of the baby, however, as no side effects have been demonstrated, it is Good news that there is a substance that can help relieve the discomfort of babies.
This does not mean that parents should do prevention if their babies suffer these crying episodes. At best, observing the second study, babies cried an average of 51 minutes a day, which is said soon.
Other studies have shown that taking babies upright (in arms, basically) as prevention, that is, before they cry, is also effective and, similarly, it is preferable to try to protect babies from possible excess stimulation. It is understood that the family wants to see the newcomer baby and wants to be with the newly released parents, however they are themselves, and especially the baby, who pay the consequences of excessive visits, voices, lights and arms.
Concluding, Ideally, to prevent uncontrolled crying of the baby is to carry the baby in his arms as much as possible and avoid overstimulating him. If, despite this, the baby suffers these episodes, you can choose to massage the baby and / or give it Lactobacillus reuteri. Ideally, discuss it with the pediatrician to see what he thinks or what measures he proposes.
Photos | Flickr - kennymatic, N8tr0n
In Babies and more | Heat in the tripita to relieve infant colic, Infant colic: what they are, Infant colic. Can I help my baby ?, Probiotics can relieve infant colic, A bacterium, possibly guilty of infant colic
