Colic Solved?

There is an interview with Bryan Vartabedian, M.D., in the newest issue of Wondertime magazine where he talks about colic and his new book, Colic Solved.



He believes that colic is a "wastebasket term that's used when we can't explain what's going on inside a baby."

He says, "Initially, I started out to write a book that tells parents about gastroesophageal reflux and milk protein allergies. But it became evident that parents of kids who have GERD or milk protein allergy are very often perceived as having colic.

The 'solved' part of it discusses the changes that have occurred over the past 50 years since colic was first described. What was once a mysterious condition can, in many cases, be explained."

Vartabedian goes on to say, "...in my practice, between acid reflux disease and milk protein allergy, probably 60 percent of the kids I evaluate for inexplicable irritability are ultimately found to have one of those two problems."

Vartabedian makes sure to point out that not all babies diagnosed with colic have an allergy or GERD: "There are adults who are cranky at the end of the day, or are bothered by lights and sounds. But we don't give babies the same latitude. We expect them all to be, you know, placid, cherubic little creatures what just do exactly what we want them to do. Expectations are very important in this regard."

As someone whose child was diagnosed with colic and was later found to have a milk protein allergy, I found this article to be a very interesting read. It is a long interview, but I'd recommend reading it when you have a few minutes. I'd love to hear what other parents whose babies were diagnosed with colic think about his findings.