Abstract
BackgroundThe aim was to describe the feeding- and stooling patterns of infants with colic and evaluate the influence of minimal acupuncture.MethodsA prospective, randomized, controlled, blind clinical study was conducted at a private acupuncture clinic in Sweden. 90 otherwise healthy 2-8 weeks old infants, born after gestational week 36, fulfilling the criteria for infantile colic and not medicated with dicyclomine, were included. 81 infants went through a structured program consisting of six visits to the clinic, twice weekly. Infants randomized to receive acupuncture were given minimal, standardized acupuncture for two seconds in LI4. Frequency and size of stooling, as well as duration of, and intervals between, feeding sessions were reported by parents in a diary. Parental assessment of sleep and comments on stooling and side effects were collected in a questionnaire.ResultsAt baseline when the mean age was five weeks, infants in both groups were fed a median of eight times/day, 148 min/day, with considerable variations. No differences were found between groups in the frequency and duration of feeding during the intervention weeks. Furthermore there were no significant differences between the groups regarding the frequency of stooling, neither at baseline, at which point the infants of both groups had bowel movements 4.2 times/day, nor during the intervention weeks. There was an expected decrease in frequency of stooling in both groups, reaching 2.1 (p = 0,001) in the acupuncture group and 3.1 (p < 0,001) in the control group. The groups differed regarding large bowel movements which decreased linearly in the control group (p = 0,011) but not in the acupuncture group (p = 0,787). More parents in the acupuncture group than in the control group (28% and 15% respectively, p = 0.006) experienced the infant's sleep to be "better" or "much better." No other significant differences were found. However, parents described a normalized stooling and experienced an improvement in colic in their infants more frequently in the acupuncture group than in the control group.ConclusionsInfants with colic in the present study had a higher frequency of stooling than reported internationally in healthy infants. Minimal acupuncture had no major effect on feeding, stooling and sleep, although a minor effect of minimal acupuncture on stooling and sleep cannot be ruled out.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.govID NCT00860301
Highlights
Infantile colic, with a prevalence of approximately 10% of infants[1], is often related to gastrointestinal factors by the parents[2] the aetiology is unclear[3]
There were no significant differences between groups, neither regarding the background characteristics of the infants (Table 1), nor in feeding and stooling patterns, during the baseline registration week (Table 2)
At inclusion the appetite of the infant was described as “gluttonous” by 56% of the parents, as “good” by 42% and as “bad” by 2% with no difference between the groups. This correlates well to the thesis that infants with colic may be comforted with food and be fed more often than healthy infants [2]
Summary
With a prevalence of approximately 10% of infants[1], is often related to gastrointestinal factors by the parents[2] the aetiology is unclear[3]. Few studies describe feeding frequency and bowel habits during the first months in healthy infants[4,5,6,7,8,9,10], even fewer describe this in infants with colic[11,12]. The aim was to describe the feeding- and stooling patterns of infants with colic and evaluate the influence of minimal acupuncture. Healthy infants have bowel movements approximately four times/day during their first 1-2 weeks [5,6,7]. At the age of one month infants are registered to have 2.2 stoolings/day [7], approximately three stoolings/day [6,8,9,10] and in one study six stoolings/day [11].
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