Has your baby ever had abnormal crying? Sudden abdominal pain in babies often leaves moms and dads flustered and overwhelmed. So, what is it?
There is a kind of crying called “intestinal spasm crying”, which occurs 2-4 weeks after birth, and the baby cries at a relatively fixed time every day, usually at night, showing great irritability, kicking and stirring, often bulging abdomen, rumbling in the stomach, and farting, which is difficult to soothe. After this time, babies are relatively calm. It occurs in about 2/5 of babies, so don’t be too alarmed.
What causes intestinal cramps?
Currently, there is no definitive explanation. Most cases believe that intestinal spasms occur because the infant is unusually sensitive to external stimuli, creating stress and tension that manifests itself in gastrointestinal function. As the body matures and the nervous system improves its ability to integrate changes in the external environment, this crying usually stops at 3-4 months, and some babies continue until they are half a year old.
There are also babies who are allergic to certain foods that their mothers eat or to milk proteins. Of course there are other disease factors that cause intestinal spasms, such as diarrhea, hernia, etc.
What should I do when faced with intestinal spasms?
1. Consult an experienced pediatrician to determine if the baby’s crying is caused by an illness.
2.If the mother is breastfeeding, try to stop the intake of dairy products, fish and shrimp and other stimulating foods, usually if this is the cause, the baby’s intestinal spasm-type crying will be reduced.
3.It is recommended to reduce the baby’s sense of environmental stress by reducing environmental noise and avoiding too much ambient light, especially in families with premature babies, thus reducing the baby’s sense of environmental stress, while giving the baby a gentle abdominal massage, the contact between the mother’s skin and the baby’s skin, and encouraging the mother or father to give the baby kangaroo-type care, that is, hugging the baby on the chest with the mother’s skin close to the baby’s skin, so that the baby can feel the mother’s heart beat and Breathing sounds, thus relieving the baby’s stress and promoting the development of the baby’s neurological integration ability, while also reducing the occurrence of intestinal cramps.
4. Children who cry with intestinal spasms often have active bowel sounds and abdominal distension, and can take oral probiotics and simethicone oil to help relieve intestinal spasms!