“It’s just a bit of colic,” they said
BMJ 2016; 354 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i4195 (Published 17 August 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;354:i4195
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It may not be just simple colic. It may be intestinal intussusception. So it may be a surgical emergency.
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I wish I had known in 1961 what I learned in the 1970s. After my son was born he screamed every evening due to spams of colic. I also developed a breast abscess with a dramatic rise in my temperature and needed antibiotics immediately.
In the 1970s one of my migraine clinic patients had been to see Dr John Mansfield who advised her to follow his lamb and pears exclusion and re-introduction diet which reveals masked food allergies. Although stopping progestogen and oestrogen use, smoking and ergot and other headache medications reduced the number of headaches by 10 times in migraine patients, some still got headaches.1 When 60 patients also followed the lamb and pears diet all improved and 85% became headache free. 2 Use of hormonal contraceptives increase the risk of zinc and magnesium deficiencies and impair liver clearance and increase the number of masked food allergies.3
In my experience a breast feeding mother who is overweight can lose weight while her baby gains weight if she eats high protein low allergy foods. A baby with severe colic who cries “all the time” may not always benefit from being given goats’ or sheep’s milk. However, if a mother uses a stone age rotation diet to find and exclude her own masked allergens, her baby may stop suffering from colic.
It is a mystery to me why the importance of masked food allergy is still not appreciated.
1 Grant ECG. Food allergies and migraine. Lancet 1979;1:966-69.
2 Grant ECG. Oral contraceptives, smoking, migraine and food allergies. Lancet 1978;2:581-2.
3 Grant ECG. The pill, hormone replacement therapy, vascular and mood over-reactivity, and mineral imbalance. J Nutr Environ Med 1998;8:105-116.
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This is a story heard all too often in my clinics. I would like to add that diaries and video evidence help hugely in getting your story heard and understood.
Just to clarify - it's not 'non- anaphylactic allergic reaction, it's 'non - IgE mediated allergic reactions'.
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Clinicians need to appreciate the concerns of parents especially mothers. Having said that if a GP, Health Visitor or Practice Nurse asks a mother a genuine question like is this her first child, that is reasonable. Regrettably Health Professionals don't go further & ask a few more questions like, how is she coping or does she feel low at times since delivery or does she get enough sleep or help at night as sleep deprivation can have serious consequences on a mother's overall well being.
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Re: “It’s just a bit of colic,” they said
Colicky pain and neurology
There are some neurological disorders that should also be considered as the causes for colicky pain in infants. They are infantile migraine, pre and post herpetic neurologia, radiculities muscle cramps and, rarely, lead poisoning.
Neurochemistry
Babies with colicky pain have higher levels of serum motilin, a hormone that stimulates contractions or spasms in the gastrointestinal tract. Colicky babies may also have increased levels of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates the appetite. And it’s possible that one of the causes of colic pain is related to levels of serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin increases intestinal contractions, melatonin suppresses them. In children and adults, serotonin and melatonin levels peak in the evening.Young babies are different. Their serotonin levels peak in the evening, but their melatonin levels don’t. As a result, there isn’t enough melatonin to counteract the serotonin and babies have more cramps. This would explain why colic tends to disappear after 3 months of age. That’s when melatonin circadian rhythms mature.
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