BABY COLICS

Colic means cramping pains that babies sometimes have, as their gut and digestion system develops.

Before considering any intervention with homeopathic remedies or allopathic drugs, I always advise mothers to check the following:

-if you are breastfeeding, look at your diet and observe whether certain foods can be the trigger for colics: coffee, tea, spices, garlic and vegetables like cabbage or broccoli can sometimes trigger colic pains.

-if your baby is bottle fed, the issue might be the milk itself and a change of formula is needed.

-check that the teat on the bottle is the correct size for your baby, so that it doesn’t cause air-gulping while feeding, as that will cause discomfort.

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR BABY

-if your baby tends to cry before passing stools, try a gentle massage on the abdomen to ease the pain.

-you can put your child face down on your knees with a rolled up towel under the abdomen and gently roll the baby up and down over the towel.

-give your baby cooled down fennel tea to help with digestion.

HOMEOPATHY TO THE RESCUE

If all of the above fails, homeopathy can offer relief. Here are a few common remedies for colics:

–Chamomilla: this is a classic remedy and one of the essential remedies in the First Aid kit. It is well known for helping babies with teething pains, but it is really about pain in general, when the pain feels unbearable. The Chamomilla state is easy enough to spot: the child is screaming in pain and angry. The abdomen is bloated; stools are sometimes green and runny. The child arches her back backwards and the only way to calm them down is to hold them and move around the house, rocking them or bouncing them, but they will start screaming again once you put them down.

–Colocynthis: in this case there is pain in the abdomen with bloatedness and diarrhea. There can also be vomiting after feeding. The baby feels better by bending over and you will see them bending their legs and pulling them up to the chest to relieve the pain.

–Dioscorea: the picture of this remedy is a lot of rumbling noises coming from the stomach and a lot of wind. The baby will stretch out and backwards, stretching their legs.

–Magnesia Muriatica: worse for milk, so you will see the baby crying or regurgitating right after feeding. Theh stools are either hard, with a lot of straining or there is green diarrhea.

–Secale: if the mother has been given an injection to help expel the placenta, that can cause colic in the baby and the colics will start straightway. The abdomen is bloated and really tight and hard and diarrhoea can be present.

TEETHING

Teething can be very painful for some children and there are many remedies that can help.

One of the things you can do to alleviate the pain is gently rub the child’s gums with your fingers, as pressure can help. Another method that can help is letting your child chew on something hard or crunchy and cold, like a teething ring kept in the fridge or a piece of carrot.

HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR TEETHING

-Aconite/Belladonna: both remedies present a lot of pain especially during the night, red cheeks and in Belladonna state, swollen cheeks that feel hot.

–Chamomilla: the pain is severe, there can be green diarrhoea, face is pale or one cheek is red. The pain is unbearable and the baby is only calmer when rocked.

Other teethinig issues:

Sometimes teeth start to decay almost as soon as they come out: in this case, Kreosotum can help.

-teeth that are slow in coming out: Calcarea Carbonica is a good remedy for that.

-when teething is accompanies by colds and runny noses and the teeth are slow in coming out, Silica can help.

For more information, consultations or course on homeopathy for mother and baby, book a free 20 minute Breakthrough Session with me on Homeopathyheal.co.uk/contact-me