Colicky babies and brain chemistry: Effects of temperament & sensitivity

© 2009 – 2022 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

By definition, colicky babies cry excessively and inconsolably. But why? As I note in opens in a new windowthis evidence-based overview of colic, some babies may suffer from specific physical ailments, similar allergies, migraine, or gastroesophageal reflux illness.

Just there is also evidence that some infants are "wired up" a picayune differently.

They may react negatively to care-giving maneuvers that non-colicky babies regard as neutral or pleasant.

They may be more than prone to negative emotions.

They may lack the daily hormonal rhythms that assistance them wind downward and sleep at night.

And they may feel greater sensitivity to hurting.

What's special almost colicky babies?

Individual differences of temperament have been observed during the first few days postpartum (Tsuchiya 2011), and to some caste, you lot can predict which newborns will get colicky by seeing how they respond to being undressed, handled, or put downwards. The babies who are most upset by these maneuvers are virtually likely to develop colic (St  James-Roberts et al 2003).

And so possibly colicky babies are simply less tolerant of disruptions and transitions.

Consistent with this thought, several studies have found that colic symptoms improve when parents are instructed to stimulate their babiesless (Lucassen et al 1998).

Some other possibility concerns a baby'southward circadian rhythms — in particular, the cyclic, daily production of the hormones like melatonin.

If babies don't produce enough melatonin at night, it could interfere with their ability to wind down and slumber well. This, in turn, could worsen their moods, and make them more than intolerant of pain and discomfort (Leuchter et al 2013; Cohen et al 2012).

It too appears that colicky babies take more trouble calming down once they brainstorm crying.

In ane controlled study, researchers establish that normal and colicky babies had the same frequency of crying bouts. What distinguished colicky babies was that they colic criedlonger (Barr et al 1992).

And colicky babies seem to react differently to care-giving maneuvers that are meant to soothe them.

You lot tin run into this in an experiment that tested the effects of sugar on babies.

In everyday life, babies don't encounter sugar by itself. But milk contains natural sugars, and in that location is evidence that the sweetness of milk is intrinsically calming to infants.

When Ronald Barr and his colleagues gave 6-week old babies a sugar solution to gustation, the researchers discovered that all babies — those with colic and those without — responded to the sugar by calming downward.

But the calming issue lasted longer for normal infants. Babies with colic were more likely to resume crying two minutes later (Barr et al 1999).

Why these differences? Maybe, Barr speculates, something is wrong with the system that rewards the brain with endogenous opioids — natural, cocky-produced painkillers.

In normal babies, the sugar is a signal for the brain to release these experience-expert drugs. In colicky babies, this response is dumb (Barr 1999). According to this thought, colic eventually improves because the opioid release system matures.

Another inkling comes from enquiry on the effects of carrying and holding infants — and responding quickly to their cries.

In a couple of experiments, assigned Western parents to care for the babies the way that traditional hunter-gatherers do: Hold or carry the baby at to the lowest degree 80% of the fourth dimension. If your baby cries, respond inside seconds by feeding or soothing the babe.

What happened when parents used this approach? Information technology reduced crying in normal babies, but not in babies with who had been diagnosed with colic (Hunziger and Barr 1986; Barr et al 1991). The same attempts to soothe didn't have the same effect.

Finally, in that location is the theory that babies have more than hurting receptors in their intestines — making them more sensitive to pain.

In recent years, researchers have clustered compelling bear witness that babies with colic have a different mix of bacteria in their large intestines.

Compared with non-colicky infants, they are more likely to have high concentrations of the blazon of bacteria that can cause inflammation and excess gas. They may also have lower concentrations of the "good," probiotic bacteria.

This alone might explicate the crankiness of colicky infants: They might have low grade inflammation of the gut.

But researchers also speculate that the imbalance of gut flora might also activate nerve receptors in the intestines, making babies more than sensitive to intestinal hurting (Pärtty and Kalliomäki 2017; O'Mahoney et al 2016).

If this is the cause of an infant'southward problems, it's possible that physician-supervised doses of the probiotic bacteria,Lactobacillus reuteri,could aid. Just the research on this subject is mixed (Pärtty and Kalliomäki 2017). In some studies of breastfed babies, probiotic treatment helped substantially. In other studies, it made little divergence.

More studies are needed to empathise why probiotics don't ever work. One likely factor is that it depends on an private's pre-existing mix of bacteria (Pärtty and Kalliomäki 2017). This may vary co-ordinate to local differences in diet, and other environmental factors. Only adding probiotics might not crowd out enough of the troublesome leaner — not for some babies.

In addition, it's important to understand that probiotics therapy isn't prophylactic for babies with impaired allowed systems. You shouldn't try probiotics therapy without the approval of your baby'southward doctor.

For more than information nigh the causes of colic, see opens in a new windowthis overview.

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References: Colicky babies and encephalon chemical science

Barr RG, McMullan SJ, Spiess H, Leduc DG, Yaremko J, Barfield R, Francoeur TE, Hunziker UA. 1991. Conveying as colic "therapy": a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 87(5):623-30.

Barr RG, Young SN, Wright JH, Gravel R, and Alkawaf R. 1999. Differential calming responses to sucrose taste in crying infants with and without colic. Pediatrics. 103(5):e68.

Barr RG, Rotman A, Yaremko J, Leduc D and Francoear TE. 1992. The crying of infants with colic: A controlled empirical description. Pediatrics 90: xiv-21.

Cohen EA, Hadash A, Shehadeh N, Colonnade K. 2012. Breastfeeding may meliorate nocturnal slumber and reduce infantile colic: potential role of breast milk melatonin. Eur J Pediatr  171:729–32

Hunziker UA and Barr RG. 1986. Increased carrying reduces infant crying: a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 77(5):641-eight.

Leuchter HVR, Darque A, and Hüppi PS. 2013. Brain maturation, early on sensory processing, and infant colic Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Diet.57: S18-S25

Lucassen PL, Assendelft WJ, Gubbels JW, van Eijk JT, van Geldrop WJ, Neven AK. 1998. Effectiveness of treatments for infantile colic: systematic review. BMJ. 316(7144):1563-9.

O'Mahony SM, Dinan TG, Cryan JF. 2016. The gut microbiota as a key regulator of visceral pain. Pain 58(1):S19–S28.

Pärtty A and Kalliomäki M. 2017. opens in a new windowInfant colic is still a mysterious disorder of the microbiota-gut-brain centrality. Acta Paediatr. 106(iv):528-529.

St James-Roberts I, Goodwin J, Peter B, Adams D, and Hunt S. 2003. Individual differences in responsivity to a neurobehavioural examination predict crying patterns of 1-week-old infants at home Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 45(half-dozen):400-407.

Tsuchiya H. 2011. Emergence of temperament in the neonate: neonates who cry longer during their outset bath still weep longer at their side by side bathings. Infant Behav Dev. 34(four):627-31.

image of colicky babe in father'southward arms by Atstock productions / istock

content last modified x/2017

For references cited in my other articles near colic, opens in a new windowclick here.

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