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“I felt useless, as a new mum I had no idea what I was doing. Emily was just 9 weeks old and I felt like she hadn’t stopped screaming since she was born. I was desperate for help and a friend suggested I visit a cranial osteopath. After just three visits Emily was calm and content.”

Calming Colic author Christian Bates writes:

Most new parents are looking for a magic cure that will get their baby out of pain and let everyone get more sleep. There are instances where overnight success is possible but there are several types of colic and you need to find the correct treatment.

A baby with lactose (the sugar in milk) intolerance may do really well by using a lactase enzyme in their milk (like Colief). This enzyme breaks the milk sugar down stopping digestion discomfort. If another baby has colic that has nothing to do with lactose issues then using an enzyme may not help at all.

If another baby has colic because it's friendly bowel bacteria is upset by a course of antibiotics then it’s breast feeding mother trying to help by avoiding colic causing foods won't help but replenishing the friendly bacteria will.

Most parents consult me with their baby and say they have colic. After questioning I try and determine the underlying causes and use the correct solutions to help. Technically some of these babies don't have colic at all. It is just an easy broad term used to say your baby isn't very happy! The most common "not colic" problem I see is trauma from the delivery which causes irritations particularly to the baby's head. Performing cranial osteopathy in these cases can produce excellent results and I would recommend every baby, whether they have colic or not, visits a cranial osteopath.

There are two important things I tell parents about cranial osteopathy.

Firstly, it is extremely gentle and secondly it works WITH your baby. The osteopath is assisting something your baby is trying to do for itself, which will be to get better. Cranial osteopaths help ease the tensions that your baby has picked up during delivery.

I have based as much as possible all the "causes" and solutions to colic in my book on scientific research. Recent research shows that manual therapies, like osteopathy and chiropractic treatments reduced the crying time on average by one hour and 12 minutes. The researchers stated "but these therapies did not seem to help babies make a complete recovery from colic". I completely agree it doesn't help cases and colic that are predominantly caused by antibiotics or a number of other reasons (explained in Calming Colic). The ideal treatment in this scenario is both cranial osteopathy and the supplementation of probiotics.

I always advise parents to do every piece of advice I have, it doesn't really matter which one works the best as long as the result is a happy baby and a peaceful night.

Colic is not a complete mystery. In my book I explain the 10 causes I have found, a few I see in nearly every baby and others are a bit more unusual.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of Calming Colic email “Calming Colic” to competitions@KalliKids.com before 31^st Jan 2014.

Christian Bates
Osteopath & naturopath