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Help for writing babies Acupuncture worked in infant colic
Acupuncture has long been used in Western medicine against various ailments. The treatment method is effective in many common diseases such as headaches and migraines. One study has shown that needle therapy can also help treat infant colic.
When the baby keeps crying
Especially little-experienced parents are usually quickly disturbed when their little ones scream a lot. You should still avoid oncoming stress, because it can transfer to the child and make the situation worse. According to experts, two hours of crying a day in babies is normal. If the cause is not known, parents should not let their baby scream, experts say. Rather, it is important to find out why the offspring complains. If it is colic, acupuncture can help, as scientists have now found out.
If little babies cry often and violently, colic can be the trigger for it. One study showed that acupuncture can help these babies. (Image: lisalucia / fotolia.com) Infants with colic
Kajsa Landgren and Inger Hallström from the Swedish University of Lund have investigated whether the alternative cure can also help infants suffering from so-called three-month colic.
Especially in the first months of life, many babies are struggling with severe abdominal pain. The complaints of the little ones also lead to frequent and violent screaming attacks.
By treating with the needles, the children cried much less frequently than babies who were treated by default. In addition, the colic also healed faster in these infants. The results of the study were published in the journal "Acupuncture in Medicine".
Treatment with acupuncture
In the study, 147 babies diagnosed with colic were divided into three groups. The otherwise healthy children were between two and eight weeks old.
The infants of one group received a standardized minimum acupuncture on one acupuncture point for two to five seconds each. The second was treated with a mildly stimulating acupuncture to a maximum of five acupressure points, lasting 30 seconds. And the remaining children received a normal standard care without acupuncture.
The treatment, which was performed twice a week, lasted a total of fourteen days. During the course of the study, all parents kept a detailed Screaming Diary - without knowing how their child was treated.
Scream attacks decreased significantly
It turned out that the babies in all three groups shrieked less over time, but this is not surprising since colic usually heals by itself and the symptoms become less as the disease progresses.
There was, however, one crucial difference: In the two acupuncture groups, the cry attacks decreased more and faster. The positive effects were also clear one week after the treatment.
In addition, less colic was observed in the infants two weeks after treatment. According to the information, 16 or 21 babies had colic in the two acupuncture groups, compared to 31 in the standard group.
"For babies who cry more than three hours a day, acupuncture can be an effective treatment option," write the study authors in a statement.
But let's not forget: "Whining and crying are normal communication for a baby, so the goal of the treatment is a reduction to a normal level (rather than silence)".
Laser light full of needles
In Austria, needle therapy is already successfully used in children. "We do not prick the babies in Austria, but apply laser light on the respective acupuncture point - also with it one can achieve very good successes", explained Dr. med. Karin Stockert, President of the Austrian Society for Acupuncture, in a report on "kurier.at".
Although needle treatment is used safely in China, "in Austria we would not do that, because it can be quite painful and the inhibition threshold of the parents is very high, to let their children sting".
In addition, the little ones would have to lie quietly during treatment, which is naturally very difficult at a young age. (Ad)