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Colic and its Discontents
In the latest in what seems to be an endless string of stories destined to make parents feel defensive and hopeless, and potential parents grateful that they haven't procreated, the New York Times puts COLIC on the front page today.
Make no mistake, the huge headline comes not because there's some sort of colic breakthrough. No, no, that might imply there is actual news to report on the unhappy topic. Sorry. This is one of those "everyone suffers and there's no solution" human interest stories. The Times offers a bunch of Remedies of All Nations:
Cinnamon tea from Colombia
Rosewater tonics from Egypt
Gripe Water famous in the UK
Acupuncture- China
Bellybinding- Haiti
Cowry shells- Africa
Cayenne pepper- Trinidad
Swaddling popularized everywhere.
But the piece is quite clear that nothing really works.
Now, I know my luck. I don't have a kid with colic, and I'm constantly grateful for that, but even I know that there is all sorts of new science on the subject and that there are new and often helpful remedies. There's no mention of the occasional link between acid reflux and colic that has gotten a lot of attention lately. The only medical study mentioned was published in 2001.
I really am all for home remedies and am interested in how all sorts of aspects of child rearing are handled elsewhere, but this not only doesn't seem to be breaking news, the article id actually doing a disservice by not providing more current information, albeit from the perspective of Western Medicine.
Colic isn't cute and I don't think many people in the throes of it feel that they can partake in any "we're all in this together" sort of levity. It would be nice if the Times worked a little harder to offer more actual information instead of saying, in more words but with just as patronizing a tone: This, too shall pass.
Of course colic passes. There are very few people in their 30s getting served with eviction notices because their colic is keeping the neighborhood awake. People need help in the moment, and an uninformed list of home remedies- offered with the caveat that they don't work so well- plastered on the front page is doing a real disservice.
posted by Elise at 8:50 AM
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said...
Horrible article, is it me or does it seem racist? Big disservice!!!!!!!! The issue no one warned me about before having a baby-like most first time mamas, I heard some really wild advice-was the amount of time I would spend burping the baby. My mom tried to impress upon me the importance of burping after every feeding when my son was born, not just a pat on the back over the shoulder for a second, but a full on walking, bouncing, patting marathon. I'll admit, it was tiring, especially when he didn't burp within the first 15 minutes, but a welcome chore in the face of the alternative, long nights of gassy continuous crying. I had to learn the hard way, since I couldn't just take my mother's advice. I've heard in more than one place, that infants build up gas throughout the course of the day and get cranky about the build up at night. Burping worked for us.
More than a few of my freinds think their babies are battling acid reflux & continuaaly feed them liquid zantac, but I never see them burp their babies. Hmmmm, this just seems weird to me, but maybe I'm just being insensitive to these less fortunate parents.
11/14/2005 8:35 AM
said...
I just tried a formula that worked really well for my 10 week old son. He suffered for several weeks until I discovered Colic Calm Gripe Water.
11/28/2005 11:29 AM
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