Product Reviews

Colic solved: The Essential guide to infant reflux and the care of your crying, difficult-to-soothe baby
By Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Ballantine Books, 2007
ISBN 978 0 345 49068 1 pbk
RRP: $24.95

Horses can die of colic, but thankfully it’s usually a more minor malady with babies. Perhaps it is often over diagnosed by families but it is certainly does cause much angst with new parents and much distress for their newborns.

The inconsolable crying, pain and vomiting that colic causes strike when parents are at their most vulnerable — suddenly responsible for total care of a brand-new baby. The important things you have to do when caring for a newborn is to feed and cuddle. If you have the spectre of colic in the equation both of these activities seem only to cause the baby grief. What is a parent to do? The old advice was to wear out the carpet walking back and forth whilst keeping the baby upright and gritting your teeth as it was bound to pass by 6 weeks. That is certainly still an option but this book aims to provide more effective answers and an assessment of what treatment is available.

Chapter headings are:
1. The Truth About Crying Babies
2. Reflux 101
3. Seven Signs of Reflux in Your baby
4. Recognising the Sick Baby: when it’s more than just the spits
5. Milk Protein Allergy: the other colic
6. The Care and Handling of your Crying, Spitting, Difficult-to-Soothe Baby
7. Medications for Reflux: to treat or not to treat?
8. A Parent’s Guide to Tests and Studies
9. What to Expect from your Physician
10. Reflux Beyond Infancy: what to do when the reflux that’s supposed to have gone away hasn’t?

If you are breastfeeding and your babies vomits a lot and seems in pain after feeds it is hard not to take it personally. Is there something wrong with your milk? Maybe it is the cause of the baby’s distress? Maybe you should change to artificial baby milk?

Throughout the book Vartabedian stresses that when it comes to babies miserable with reflux, the breast is definitely best. He goes further to postulate:

It’s interesting to note that colic gained popularity in the 1960s when the rates of breastfeeding were approaching an all-time low. While trying to draw a connection between rates of breastfeeding and the popularisation of colic is practically impossible, we can say with certainty that breastmilk is the best milk for babies suffering with reflux … infant reflux is in part a result of abnormal intestinal motility , or stomach squeezing. Breastmilk is the easiest milk for babies to eliminate from the stomach and consequently one of the best foods to feed your miserable refluxing baby. … Despite the fact that formula manufacturers have sought reflux solutions, nothing they produce matches the qualities of breastmilk.

That is a welcome affirmation for parents sorely tried by a miserable baby. A refluxing baby may arch back and scream when put to the breast, may need many small feeds, may seem to vomit up more milk than it could have possibly swallowed — even so, breastmilk is not the cause of the trouble, rather it is part of the solution.

No one method works for every baby and it is fair to say that not much will bring a 100% improvement immediately. Parental expectations are gently addressed as a miserable baby changing into one who is merely fussy maybe be as good as it gets. Nevertheless, the whole tone of the book validates parents’ concern about the effects of colic on their baby. It is hard to be a happy family if the baby is crying all the time. This is important. A baby has no better advocate for its health than its parents. Sure you can just ‘put a bib on ‘em and keep going’ but reading this book might help keep you sane.

Though not newly published, this book is new at Mothers Direct, ABA's trading arm, and deserves a good read by families with colic concerns. If nothing else, the picture of the baby on the front of the book looks like the treatment works! The author was one of the speakers at the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s Health Professional seminars, held in March 2010.

Recommended for health professionals and parents.

Prepared by: ABA Book Review Working Group

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Wow, what a touchy subject. Colic?, reflux?, but my health nurse says this, my doctor says that and then the paediatrician even said this …What am I supposed to think? Colic solved gave me the information I needed to feel confident to make the final decision about how to care for my baby girl. An invaluable resource to help parents partner with health care providers and fill the gap in knowledge about reflux. Thank you Dr Vartabedian!

Prepared by: ABA Subscriber