FOOD PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN: ONE ASPECT OF COLIC
One aspect of colic is difficult to explain from either viewpoint – the fact that the symptoms tend to disappear or diminish at about three months of age. The traditional explanation is that all mothers with colicky babies – regardless of what sort of people they are or what else is happening in their lives – suddenly become more confident and relaxed at this point. This seems implausible, to say the least, but is there an alternative explanation that is compatible with food intolerance? One possibility is that the colic represents an initial ‘crisis’ reaction as the child is exposed to large amounts of cow’s-milk or other foreign proteins. The child later ‘adapts’ to the problem foods, and the colic apparently clears up, but its sensitivity continues in the form of other, less acute symptoms, such as eczema, asthma or diarrhoea. There is ample evidence from case-histories that this might happen – and the retrospective study described above supports the idea.
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