Calming Colic by Christian Bates
Why is my baby crying? Christian Bates qualified as an Osteopath and Naturopath in 1997. In 2008 he opened the award-winning Perrymount Clinic in Haywards Heath and he also won the CAM award “Outstanding Contribution To The Community” in 2013 due to his work with babies and for writing the book 'Calming Colic'. One of my pet hates is the common advice that “all babies cry” and to “wait until 12 weeks and your baby’s colic will go”. This is typical advice for a new parent. If they were to do some internet searching for help with a colicky, crying baby they might also get information such as “there are no known causes of colic”, “colic is not understood” and there “is no cure for colic”. None of which are true. There is lots of science to back this up now and getting this information to mums in an easy and effective way to help their baby is what I am passionate about. My 20 years experience as an osteopath and naturopath and the research I have done has led me to find that the causes for colic are actually known and understood, yet not told to those that need the knowledge; new mums! There is certainly plenty you can do to help a colicky, crying, upset, not sleeping baby. Also let me clarify here that I’m not speaking about a baby that is crying because they are tired, need a nappy change or are hungry. The babies I mean are excessively crying, even though they are fed, clean and not tired! The mum doesn’t know what to do, feels helpless and just doesn’t understand what’s wrong with their baby. Unfortunately there is no “magic” cure for a colic, crying baby, if there was everyone would have it and there wouldn’t be any colicky babies! Instead there are a number of “causes” that have triggered a baby to have colic, wind, reflux and excessively cry. These are what a mum needs to understand to help her baby. Once you know the “cause” you can apply the help. A very common cause of an upset baby occurs after antibiotics, which upset the balance of good / bad gut bacteria in the baby’s gut. Just like they do when adults have them. Huge amounts of research comes out almost daily on the benefits of good gut bacteria and how it is preventative of disease but can promote problems when out of balance. I love reading research on this and translating it into useful help for mums and their baby. New research shows that the bacteria starts to get established in the baby whilst INSIDE mum during pregnancy, not just picked up at the delivery. This gives the opportunity for mum to start to help her baby’s bacteria balance whilst pregnant. For example, a mum could take a probiotic herself in the last trimester to encourage this. I very often use probiotics specifically designed for babies after they are born, especially if mum has had antibiotics, which is very common. A mum can take these and pass them in her breast milk or because they are in drops, they can be given direct to baby. They are very effective. I am very happy to help you with these if you want to email me.
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