Roxy Sterbenz, seen here at 21 months, cried almost nonstop for almost six months, her mother says. Now researchers in Toronto have shown that probiotics can significantly reduce colic in breastfed babies.
Photo Credit: Seth Wenig/Associated Press

Infant colic reduced with probiotics: study

Babies with colic cry a lot and parents know too well that nothing seems to help. But a new study suggests that probiotics could ease their bouts of fussiness.

An infant is deemed to have colic when he or she is irritable, fussy or crying for at least three hours a day, three days a week and for three weeks. An estimated five to 40 per cent of children suffer from colic which usually starts at around six weeks of age and ends around three or four months.  It can however go on for a year.

Canadian parents will try just about anything to get the crying to stop including placing the child on top of a vibrating clothes dryer, driving it around in the car, or giving it any number of preparations sold in pharmacies. Until now, nothing has been found to work.

Beneficial gut microbes seem to help

Now, probiotics appear to significantly reduce colic in breastfed babies, according to research from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Scientists studied 52 infants, noting how long they cried and fussed. Next the group was divided into two which half the children receiving five drops of a probiotic and the other half got a placebo of sunflower oil over a period of 21 days.

By the end researchers found crying and fussing times dropped from an average 131 minutes per day to 60 minutes a day for the babies receiving probiotics. The probiotic contains good bacteria that are thought to aid in digestion.

The study is limited because researchers had to rely on the mothers’ diaries to record the times rather than using objective measurements. However the findings appear to be consistent with previous studies from Italy and Poland.

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