Dear lactnetters,
The recent gripewater posts have been interesting reading indeed. Indeed
many cultures have used the aromatic seeds, and other plants such as catnip
to relieve colic in babies. However, the practice in many places is for
mother to take the medicine. Aromatics constituents, being of small
molecular weight, would be expected to pass into the bloodstream and the
milk; traditional use suggests that they do.

Aromatic herbs such as caraway, dill, fennel, anise, cumin and catnip have
been taken by moms to help baby. It may take a few hours for the effect,
however. (the caution is for a mom who tends to oversupply...catnip may have
least effect - not enough known here to determine how big this concern may
be but have one case where mom was treating baby colic by consuming fennel
herself and had developed oversupply; became hard to separate out the colic
from reaction to oversupply...)

But as one herbalist LC has clarified to me, situations can arise where some
risk must be taken: E.g. mother is going to wean to formula if baby does not
stop crying now! The quick fix by feeding baby the colic remedy may be the
best short-term response.

However, after doing so, mom can always immediately start drinking the
aromatic teas or the gripewater herself while other strategies to help with
the colic are worked on. Follow-up is key.

Alternative: she could consider massaging baby's belly with a few drops of
caraway essential oil diluted in olive oil or some other carrier oil (should
be at least 90-95% carrier oil). At least baby's GI tract is not breached.
In all likelihood this method works due to tiny amounts of the EO components
entering the baby's bloodstream via the skin. Caraway has no allergic or
toxic potential according to German Comm E  (anise and fennel are
allergenic, dill and caraway are not.)

Risks of direct feeding:
Alternate feeds fill up baby; some sources suggest mom put colic remedy in a
bottle; risk of allergy KNOWN with fennel or anise (trans-anethole
component); baby is exposed to all constituents and dose is not limited to
milk-entry amounts.
Direct feeding of fennel means the liver must deal with estragole, a
relatively toxic if minor (5%) component of the essential oil of fennel; the
mature liver of the adult can handle even very large quantities quickly and
none reaches the bloodstream, but a very young baby would not have as much
capacity for metabolizing it. If mom were to continually dose her infant
with too much essential oil, a foreseeable toxicity could conceivably
result. The German Comm E specifically contraindicated fennel essential oil
for infants. At least fennel seed tea contains only minimal amounts of the
essential oil constituents as they are not well-extracted in water.

Evidence: a small study in Israel used simple fennel seed tea to treat colic
in healthy full-term babies ( no infant-feeding information was given) and
found no adverse effects only good effects. However, the authors did not
discuss the potential risks of allergy and estragole toxicity, nor the risks
generally associated with breaching the GI/loss of exclusive breast milk
feeds. I would certainly not take this study to "prove" that fennel is safe
for the exclusively breastfed infant.

Only one herbal brand of gripewater I've collected sees fit to warn
consumers that their colic product is not a recommended "first food" for an
infant. So far this brand has not been mentioned in this discussion; Herbs
for Kids specialise in herbal preparations for children and their products
are widely available in stores. At least they have an ethical label. (I have
no financial interest in any herbal product, btw, nor am I promoting the
practice of giving herbs to young infants, hardly.)

I intensively dislike seeing gripewater promoted to breastfeeding mothers
and their helpers. At the very least the mom pays many dollars for something
that she can prepare at home with a few teaspoons of seeds that she may
already have in her cupboard. We could at the very least teach mom the risks
and benefits of the various ways to use these most helpful colic herbs and
herbal products rather than just take the word of company reps that their
products are "safe".

Sincerely,
Sheila
Sheila Humphrey
BSc RN IBCLC
in hot and dry Minnesota

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