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Complementary, Holistic, and Integrative Medicine

Colic

Lawrence D. Rosen, MD^*
Cecilia Bukutu, PhD
Christopher Le
Larissa Shamseer
Sunita Vohra, MD, MSc

^* Chair, Integrative Pediatrics Council, Old Tappen, NJ
Complementary and Alternative Research and Education (CARE) Program, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. On behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics Provisional Section on Complementary, Holistic, and Integrative Medicine

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Introduction

 
According to the Wessel criteria, infantile colic is defined as excessive crying for more than 3 hours a day at least 3 days a week for 3 weeks or more in an otherwise healthy baby. (1) As many as 26% of infants are diagnosed with colic, (2) making the condition one of the most common reasons for infant visits to primary care practitioners today. Colic is a self-limiting condition that resolves in approximately 50% of cases at about 3 months of age. (3) Due, in part, to poor understanding of its causes, (2) there is no widely accepted conventional treatment, and families often turn to complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies. (4) The largest systematic review to date of treatments for colic found little evidence to support many conventional therapies, while noting that some nutritional- and botanical-based approaches were relatively safe and effective. (5) This review of published scientific literature assesses the efficacy and safety of common CAM therapies in treating infantile colic.

	Natural Health Products

 
Natural health products have been used historically to treat infantile colic, due, in part, to presumed antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory activity. (6)(7) However, few of these products have been assessed in terms of efficacy and safety for use in infants through well-designed clinical trials.

     Fennel Seed Oil
The effectiveness of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) seed oil in treating infantile colic was investigated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Russia of 125 colicky infants between the ages of 2 and 12 weeks. (8) Infants were assigned randomly to receive 5 to 20 mL of a 0.1% fennel seed oil emulsion and 0.4% polysorbate-80 or a placebo (0.4% polysorbate-80 in water) up to four times per day for 1 week. Parents recorded symptoms in a diary for 3 weeks that included the week before, the week during, and the week after . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. J. Friedman Osteopathic Manipulation: Promise for Infantile Colic J Am Osteopath Assoc, September 1, 2008; 108(9): 483 - 483. [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Bukutu, C. Le, and S. Vohra Asthma: A Review of Complementary and Alternative Therapies Pediatr. Rev., August 1, 2008; 29(8): e44 - e49. [Full Text] [PDF]