Dear Everyone, 

I am busy working on a translation into English of an article interviewing  
Dr Nils Bergman, on Kangaroo Mother Care.  In the course of this, I  
came across the material below, on the causes of colic in babies, some  
of which was new to me (it may not be to others here, but in case it  
might be, I am sharing it): 

"Colic, according to Nils Bergman, can be caused by too much food  
being given at any one time, or by the fact that the normal digestive  
process in the newborn baby stops when it is separated from the  
mother.  According to him, the natural situation would be one where  
babies feed approximately every 90 minutes, and consume 30 mls,  
which in turn corresponds to the volume of the excretion reflex. 
  
"In breastfeeding counseling, one often hears people talk about several  
excretion reflexes taking place during one feed. But according to  
Bergman, this is a reflex that occurs because the baby is not fed often  
enough, and then is given too much at one single feeding. 

"On day one after the baby has been born, the stomach can contain 5  
ml.  By the time the baby is a week old, its stomach can hold 30 mls.  If  
the stomach is filled with more than 30 ml, the excess content goes out  
either by excretion or by the baby beinging up some of the milk.  If  
neither of these happen, the excess milk gets stuck in the stomach and  
the stomach muscles then become stretched.   That causes colic,  
explains Nils Bergman. 

"Also if the baby is separated from its mother after it has fed, its level  
of stress hormones increases due to the stress being separated from  
her, and as a result the digestion stops, which can also cause colic. The  
proper digestive processes in a baby are totally dependent on the fact  
that it should not separated from its mother." 

We always seem to come back to the same beginnings -- never  
separate mothers and young babies! 

Best wishes, 
Pat (Cape Town) 

------- End of forwarded message -------

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