Heather Shelley <[log in to unmask]> wrote: in fact I've only seen one other baby with as
bad of colic as my first had. I couldn't soothe him no matter what I tried.
Dear friends,
I took this quote from Heather S, not to comment on her personally, but as an illustration for my musings.
It seems to me that "Babies have colics" is a "Knowledge of common sense" in our western societies. We seem to accept the "fact" that babies have colic in more of less severe proportions. It seems just to be the way a baby works, doesn't it.
But why on earth would it be normal for all youngs of a species to have a bad or very bad time at the start of their lives as a normal state? Does that make any sense? Not to me.
Colic is a kind of soothing term for baby unhappiness, pain and unsettledness. It is a kind of bagatalising (is this even English?) wording. It says: it's not really serious, not like illness or so, so don't look for reasons, just sit out your time and try and soothe the child.
But "colic", crying never ever are for the fun of it not for "that's just how babies are". It always is a symptom o something that is wrong. We may not know right away waht is wrong, we may even not find that out ever, but there is something wrong. And -being the baby's advocate as I'd like to be (see my answer to Diane W's question for our own Scopes)- I'd like to urge everyone dealing with crying babies -parents, hcp's of any kind, advisers and counselors- to first go and look for that reason.
Can I give you a story as example? I spoke to a mother of a 9 year old girl. This little girl had been crying from the moment of her birth up to three years of life, leaving the parents as train wrecks. Finally, they went with their daughter to a therapist (manual, CS, osteopath, .. not sure here) for her strangely developing feet (toes pointing more and more towards the middle) that caused troubles in walking. This therapist discovered an untreated KISS (birth had been heavy and very, very fast). It took the girl years to have her feet grow into the right direction again, but her recovery on other fields was remarkable. She's a happy girl now, no more tummy-aches, better BM. Mom now is in a proves of getting along with her grieve and guilt for not finding this out when her girl was a baby, sparing both child and family the stress and sorrow.
Others I see in my practice suffers in other ways from the routines surrounding birth, or they are allergic, just plain overstimulated, not enough time with mom, but hopping from daycare to grandmom to neighbor during moms working hours, leaving just some "qualitytime" for mom and babe.
Well, time for stepping of my soupbox now.
Warmly, Gonneke, IBCLC, LLLL in southern Netherlands
Met vriendelijke groet,
Gonneke van Veldhuizen, IBCLC
lactatiekundige
* * * * * * *
www.eurolac.net
praktijk voor lactatiekunde
centrum voor borstvoeding informatie en educatie
* * * * * * *
www.eurolac.net/forum
forum NEDlact: http://anne.messageboard.nl/16435/
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R).
There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
