Is the crying of your baby nerve-wracking? Although all babies do cry, some cry are more terrifying than others. Unexplained or excessive crying is probably because your baby is feeling colicky pain or perhaps he/she is suffering from reflux. But, how would you know if its colic irritating your baby or reflux causing him restlessness? To facilitate you further, I am going to differentiate between colic and reflux in this article.
What is baby colic?
It is the waves of pain linked with intestinal distension typically with air. It is a common condition affecting nearly more than one in five babies during their initial few months. If your infant is crying uncontrollably and for no obvious reason, he possibly is colicky.
What is baby reflux?
It’s a medical condition characterized by the movement of food, fluid and/or acid into the esophagus reasoning spitting up of the infant. Reflux or gastro esophageal reflux (GER) affects more than of all babies to varying levels.
Causes:
Possibly, it’s indigestion or air that’s making your baby colicky. However, the causes of colic are generally unknown. Notably, babies are more likely to develop colic if their mothers had been smoking during pregnancy. When it comes to baby reflux, there are so many causes in addition to having incompletely matured esophagus. Since infants have short, broad esophagus, it becomes easy and sometimes copious for milk to reflux, resulting in spilling.
Other than that, if your baby is premature, or lies flat mostly, or having a completely liquid diet, he is more likely to develop reflux! Aside from this, some certain serious conditions can also cause reflux including GERD, Eosinophilic esophagitis, Food intolerance or pyloric stenosis.
Timing of symptom’s exhibition
A colicky baby usually remains happy in the daytime, however, becomes fussy around evening. On the flip side, you can observe the symptoms of reflux immediately after your baby ate something, no matter if it’s the daytime or night time.
Duration:
Colic lasts about three to four months after birth. While reflux can continue till the first 18 months.
Symptoms:
• Symptoms of colic are as follows:
• Irregular or interrupted sleep
• Altered postures such as clenched fists, arched spine, drawn-up knees and tensed muscles of the abdomen
• Intense crying
• Restlessness
• Passing of wind during intense crying
Contrasting to it, reflux’s symptoms are as follows:
• Poor weight gaining
• Consistent spitting up
• Refusal to food
• Bloody stools
• Chronic cough or difficult breathing
• Unusual irritation after eating
Luckily, colic is neither harmful nor dangerous. Nonetheless, it can physically and emotionally exhaust parents to deal with a colicky baby. Get advice from your pediatrician to soothe this condition. When it comes to considering reflux, it is not a cause of worry as it clears up on its own without causing any problem to the infant. However, you need to seek support from your pediatrician in case this condition progresses.