Could Your Baby's Gut Be to Blame for Colic?

New research shows a surprising link between colic and infant gut biomes

BY Monica Beyer, ParentMap

Nobody wants a colicky baby, but that doesn't mean that you won't wind up with a little one that fits the bill. And once your baby starts down that path, there's probably not a more helpless feeling you'll experience as a parent. There have been many tips and tricks parents have used to try solve the baby colic puzzle, but they don't always work for everyone. This means parents and babies simply have to continue to suffer while they wait for the colic to run its course.

Colic is defined as prolonged, excessive crying in an otherwise healthy newborn that often takes place in the evening — and parents, to their distress, usually have no idea what's causing it and subsequently can't fix it. However, a new study may help shed light on how infantile colic may actually relate to the balance of the gut microbiome (the bacterial landscape that resides inside everyone's intestines, including your newborn baby's).

Research conducted by the UC Davis Medical Center suggests that an imbalance in that gut microbiome may indeed play a role in an infant's daily wails. The gut has both good bacteria as well as bacteria that isn't so good, and if the balance tips in favor of the bad germs, those potentially harmful bacteria can take hold and thrive. "Studies have shown that dysbiosis [too much 'bad' bacteria and not enough 'good'] of your baby’s gut microbiome can result in colic," says Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh from Evivo, the company behind the probiotics used in the study. This can lead to intestinal distress and gut inflammation, which hurts, and babies tell their parents they're in pain by the only way they can — by crying... Read more on ParentMap