Oh, Baby! Colic Becalmed
Infant's road to joy takes a route less followed
Kim Westad , Victoria Times Colonist
Monday, March 03, 2003
Little Kaitlyn Aylesworth is one happy baby. A big smile rarely leaves
the 41/2-month-old's face, especially as she tries to grab the cat when
it sashays by. Her squeals of delight are music to her parents' ears.
But it's the timing that makes them even more special to Mary Murrell
and Rob Aylesworth.
It's almost 4 p.m., and there's no sign of Kaitlyn's joie de vivre letting
up. Three months ago, 4 p.m. was the "nightmare" hour. Like
thousands of other Canadian babies, Kaitlyn had colic. The otherwise happy
infant would begin crying at about 4 p.m. every day and cry inconsolably
for hours -- night after night after night. A six-hour crying stretch
each night was the norm.
Murrell and Aylesworth tried everything to comfort their only child.
Nothing worked until they turned to a chiropractor. Although initially
skeptical of the treatment, they now chalk up the turnaround in their
daughter's health to the chiropractic adjustments done on the little girl's
spine.
Chiropractic treatment for infants is somewhat controversial. The Canadian
Paediatric Society says there is no scientific evidence to support its
safety and effectiveness in treating non-musculoskeletal conditions in
children, such as colic.
And despite glowing anecdotal responses from many patients, and studies from chiropractic associations, the medical community remains leery of infant chiropractic treatment.
But more parents are turning to it, especially after trying everything else in the medical arsenal to deal with the rigours of colic.
'I'm a pretty patient person, but I was just about at the end of my rope," said Murrell, a wills and real estate lawyer. "It wasn't so much the crying that bothered me. It's that you feel so terrible for her because she looked like she was in so much pain. It wasn't fussiness crying -- it was pain crying. It was horrendous."
Murrell and Aylesworth read everything they could on colic, a broad term referring to episodes of uncontrollable, extended crying in a baby who is otherwise healthy. Between eight to 25 per cent of Canadian babies will experience colic during their first three months.
The baby often appears to be in pain, and can't be calmed. The cause
of colic isn't known, and babies usually outgrow it at about four months.
There is no single treatment for colic -- other than simply waiting it
out -- but suggestions abound, and Murrell and Aylesworth tried many to
no avail.
Someone recommended having ambient noise in the baby's nursery. They tried
a blow dryer. Then a vacuum cleaner. They tried different drops. They
rubbed her stomach clockwise and moved her legs in a bicycle fashion as
the physician recommended. Nothing worked.
"There were two adults with this screaming baby and we were trying anything," Murrell says with a laugh.
Aylesworth works at Royal Jubilee Hospital, and nurses there suggested chiropractic treatment for the colic. Both parents were doubtful, but decided to at least talk to a chiropractor after six weeks of very little sleep.
"It was just one more thing we thought we'd try," Murrell said.
"As a parent, even though I was a little bit worried about it, I just couldn't see Kaitlyn every night in so much pain. I felt I owed it to her to at least try. When it worked, I was so thankful."
Murrell herself uses a chiropractor when she has back problems, and the thought of a chiropractor "cracking" an infant's back worried her. But she talked to Dr. Chris Votova, who explained that the amount of pressure used on an infant is comparable to a light massage, not the adjustments used for adults.
"It was like a massage with his thumb," Murrell said.
One chiropractor likened it to testing the ripeness of a tomato.
Murrell laid on her back, with Kaitlyn lying on top of her, stomach to stomach, so Kaitlyn could see her mother's face. Before Votova did any treatment, he'd have Murrell feel the area of Kaitlyn's back where he was going to adjust.
"One side would be soft, the other hard. He'd massage it, and then have me feel it, and both sides were soft."
After about six adjustments over about two weeks around Christmas, Murrell and Aylesworth noticed a marked difference in Kaitlyn. She regularly had bowel movements, was able to pass gas and was consolable when she cried.
The theory is that spinal alignment is important to allow the body to do its job properly. An infant's back may be misaligned as a result of the actual birth process, or even from being picked up.
"It can be a misalignment or sometimes it's not moving as well as it could be and just requires a little mobilization," said Votova, who has helped about 20 babies.
Chiropractors often see parents who are at their wit's end, and have tried everything else for colic. "One of the most rewarding things you see is a mom and baby leaving happy," Votova said.
Dr. Jenny Armstrong too loves seeing a family leave healthier and happier,
and said more education is needed about how babies can be helped.
"Most people say just wait three or four months and the colic will
stop. Well, those are a very long three or four months," said Armstrong,
who often uses her pinky fingers to adjust babies.
Chiropractic treatment doesn't "cure" colic, Armstrong said.
Rather, it corrects the bio-mechanics, and the symptoms tend to dissipate.
"We know that typically with colicky babies, when we feel their backs,
they tend to be locked up through the upper and midback area. When we
can get that freely moving, the colic seems to remove itself," Armstrong
said. "The goal is to put movement in the joint."
About 15 per cent of newborns need some adjustment just because of the birth process.
Chiropractors say studies show a 94 per cent success rate in alleviating the symptoms of colic, usually within one to seven adjustments. Fifty-one per cent of those infants had prior unsuccessful medical treatment, usually drug therapy.
The adjustments are also helpful in dealing with chronic ear infections and nursing problems.
Still, parents who take babies to chiropractors sometimes feel judged.
"Some people said, "Are you crazy?" when I told them I took my baby to a chiropractor," said Kathie Cessford, who has taken two of her children to Dr. Stewart Blaikie. "But it worked for us."
Blaikie has been treating babies for 20 years, and has seen the attitude slowly evolve.
Still, many physicians are unconvinced.
Dr. Denis Leduc of the Canadian Paediatric Society, said he is open-minded about alternative therapies, but can't recommend chiropractic treatment for infants without solid scientific evidence.
"There are many chiropractic studies which lack the scientific rigour and methodology we have come to require in terms of validating the efficacy of a treatment," Leduc said.
As for improvements in symptoms, Leduc said, "They either got better because they were going to get better anyway, or they felt better because they felt they had someone listen to them."
A gentle hands-on approach combined with empathetic listening can offer so much solace to the patient or family that "the symptoms are invariably perceived as improved," Leduc said.
Dr. Don Nixdorf, the executive director of the B.C. Chiropractic Association,
has heard this explanation before and challenges it.
There are myriad studies showing chiropractic services help infants, Nixdorf
said, but physicians tend to choose not to pay attention to them.
"There is not only literature and research, there is basic anatomical
knowledge and science. And let's not forget 100 years of patient and clinical
experience and outcomes," Nixdorf said.
"For example, if the crying and colic stopped, you could choose to say it's coincidence, but you tried six other things before and they didn't work and this one did. So am I going to convince you that the treatment did not stop your child's colic?"
As for claims the studies are not done in a sound scientific nature, Nixdorf turns the tables on the medical profession.
"When it is said there is no scientific evidence, it implies that for everything that is done in medicine, there is scientific evidence. But only about 18 per cent of all medical procedures have a scientific evidence base. So it would be nice if we could have a scientific evidence base for every single health procedure that is done to the human body. The fact is it doesn't exist."
Despite his skepticism about its effectiveness, Leduc said there's no
data to suggest chiropractic treatment on children causes harm.
Nixdorf too said that ordinarily, the worst thing that can happen is the
patient will not respond.
About 500,000 people are seen each year in B.C. by the province's 820
chiropractic doctors. About half a per cent of the total visits are from
infants less than one year old.
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