Treating Colic With Ancient Remedies

Treating colic... you’re imagination is a beautiful place, let’s start there:

Indigenous, primitive, native, hunter-gatherer societies. Conjure up a picture. Do you see native peoples living in huts, tepees, or igloos, clad in loin-cloths, beads, animal furs? Naked children running around. Women grinding wheat, carrying water, weaving, beading, nursing, working, laughing.

Men hunting, crouched low, noiseless, making their way through the forest, jungle, across the plain or ice. Intent upon providing the next meal for their families. I am not trying to be stereotypical, this is what I see and it is a peaceful, beautiful picture to me.

What do you hear? Chatter in a different language. Children laughing, feet stomping, singing, shouts of glee over the successful hunt.

Do you hear colicky crying? I don’t think you do; and anthropologists who have studies indigenous cultures didn't hear it either.

Look again at your scene again. There are babies in the scene, and they are being worn by their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, aunties and the like in all sorts of infant carriers. Baby slings, wraps, pouches, cradle boards. Some are awake, some are asleep. They are living and observing contently and alertly the world in which they will soon play an integral part.

The people are wearing their babies and responding to them because that is what their instincts tell them to do; the remedy for staving off colic is attentiveness and touch. They feel, just like you do, that ache in their chest when a baby cries. And they haven’t been conditioned by their society to ignore it. They aren’t being told such things as:

•   Make your baby understand who is boss
•   Your baby is manipulating you if you go to her every time she cries
•   If your baby is fed and dry there is nothing she really needs

Newborns have no sense of time or hope for that matter. They live in a constant state of now. When you are holding your baby all is right in the world for her. When she is alone, wrapped in a blanket in a plastic shell she has no concept of you returning.

Jean Liedloff wrote and amazing book called The Continuum Concept after living in the South American Jungle with Stone Age Indians for two and a half years.

In this entire time she said only once did she see a baby spit up, and this baby was also running a high fever. She also found that these same infants showed none of the colic symptoms we see in our culture today.

As I said before, colic is hard to diagnose, but there are a lot of things you can do to help your baby if she is experiencing colic symptoms.

1.   Wear your baby in a baby sling, motion seems to help and it’s a lot easier than driving around in the car all night.
2.   Allow your baby to eat or just suckle at the breast.
3.   If you are breastfeeding look at your diet, are you eating something that might be bothering your baby’s tummy?
4.   If you are bottle feeding, might your baby have a problem with the formula?
5.   Rub baby’s tummy or back.
6.   Take a bath together; warm water can calm you and baby.

All in all – know that your baby wants to be with you. Embrace the awesome position you hold in his life. Get yourself a baby sling or another carrier (baby slings are my favorite). They are comfortable, versatile, beautiful and available here on this website if you decide babywearing is for you.

You have the most awesome job on earth, the rearing of the next generation. Help create peace in the world. Start in your home!  


Author Bio with html

Josh Bill is the Owner of E-Learn About and an accomplished writer and Search Engine Optimization Specialist. Find more articles on <a href="http://e-learnabout.com/colic-and-crying.php">parenting</a> as well as a variety of other topics atE-Learn About on the web at http://e-learnabout.com.

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