Pediatrics: The Nightly Crybabies

Evening is often a time of trial for new parents. It brings the dreaded hour when their otherwise happy infant starts screaming its tiny head off. Grandma, of course, knows just what is wrong: the baby has colic. But neither Grandma nor the doctor knows the cause of the trouble. And after years of searching, reports the British Medical Journal, the mystery remains.

Generations of medical men, says the B.M.J., have suggested just about every possible explanation. The baby has been underfed or overfed. The formula was too hot, too cold, too frequent, too infrequent, too weak, too strong, or it contained too much fat, carbohydrate or protein. All manner of diseases have been indicted. One writer suggested that colic comes from "bouncing the baby" too much. Another said that it is due to the father's smoking when he gets home, and a third thought that crybabies are simply malingering, that they are actually in less pain than they pretend. Many psychiatrists favor the theory that maternal anxiety can cause colicky offspring. Unfortunately, concludes the B.M.J., most of the suggestions hold less water than a diaper.

Citing a study by Dr. Jack Leon Paradise of the Bellaire (Ohio) Clinic, the B.M.J. reports that "the incidence of colic was unrelated to social class, the mother's age, the birth order, the child's sex, the weight gain, the type of feeding, a history of allergic disease or maternal emotional factors." All of which leaves colic as mysterious as ever.

But the doctors keep trying. Last week still another suggestion cropped up. Medical World News reported that five Chicago doctors suspect that at least some evening crybabies may be suffering from "growing pains." After observing 250 babies carefully, the doctors concluded that the normal plumpness in an infant's face, legs, thighs, buttocks and collarbone parallels quick bone growth in those areas. They also found a correlation between excessive crying and X rays that showed the bone growth to be particularly rapid.

If their theory is correct, though, such crying babies would not actually have colic, which characteristically involves wind trapped in the stomach and intestines and is relieved by passing the air orally or rectally. Otherwise, the bone-bothered babies behave much like their colicky brothers. They begin crying between 6 and 10 at night, keep it up for hours, even if fed or fondled, cannot be treated with complete success, and will suddenly quit their nightly crying jags when they are four months old.