Do you have an infant with colic? Researchers at the UNMC College of Nursing are conducting a study to explore and describe mothers’ experiences of parenting an irritable infant.
“Even when parents find something that works, like driving around, it’s usually disrupting their lives. Families don’t want to spend their life driving around in the car,” said Peggy Wilson, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing and associate dean for graduate programs, UNMC College of Nursing.
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Peggy Wilson, Ph.D. | Mary Megel, Ph.D. |
Having an infant who cries non-stop is distressing, disrupts family life, and makes a mother especially feel inept at taking care of her baby.
Dr. Wilson and Mary Megel, Ph.D., UNMC College of Nursing associate professor, are recruiting 15 mothers, age 19 and older, who currently have an infant who cries excessively or has colic and has no identified reason for crying. Study participants will be interviewed for one hour in a setting of their choice to learn how the irritable baby affects the mother and family, both psychologically and physically.
The researchers say the condition threatens positive images about being a parent.
“If you can’t soothe your baby, that’s very difficult,” Dr. Wilson said. “It makes you question yourself and your parenting skills.
“The entire family is affected by the distressing behavior. Therefore, this condition may have serious effects on the mother-infant relationship and the family environment which is the total milieu for the infant’s early development.”
“Mothers are told by their providers, ‘Your baby has colic and it will be over in about three months,’ ” Dr. Wilson said. “That seems interminable to them. This is not satisfactory to the parent, nor does it help them manage the situation.”
She said most parents find something that works temporarily, but sometimes nothing works. “The baby just cries and cries and cries,” Dr. Wilson said. “Parents are really desperate to find something that works.”
Researchers have suggested that the term “colic” no longer be used because it suggests a gastrointestinal problem. Irritable baby may be a more preferred term. “Everyone has gas and it generally doesn’t cause a lot of pain,” Dr. Wilson said.
“Traditionally, colic is thought of as cramping and abdominal pain where the infant sometimes pulls their legs up to the chest. It’s natural for adults to read into the behavior that it’s painful. Otherwise, the baby doesn’t look sick. He or she is gaining weight and appears happy, until they start screaming and getting red in the face,” Dr. Wilson said.
The reported incidence of colic varies from 16 to 40 percent of infants. Though the condition is temporary – generally going away when the infant is three to four months old — it can seem like an eternity to the infant’s family.
In an irritable baby, crying and distress typically occurs in late afternoon or evening, begins around three weeks old and subsides around three months. “In general, it goes on for at least three days a week for at least three hours where the infant is inconsolable,” Dr. Wilson said. “Often nothing the parent does is helpful.”
The researchers found only two studies of family experiences with a colicky infant in the literature, both of which were reported in clinical journals and appear to have serious methodological flaws and/or were designed for purposes other than obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the mother’s experience of parenting an irritable baby.
“We want to find out how an irritable baby affects mothers since they are the ones who tend to spend the most hours with the crying baby,” Dr. Wilson said. “But this also affects fathers and the rest of the family. All the attention goes to this child you just cannot quiet.
“We want to know what the mothers have tried, what works, how an irritable baby affects their lives and their relationship with their spouse and children and if they’re getting any help. Mothers are reluctant to have anyone else step in, because who wants to be around a screaming baby. After a while, it starts to get on your nerves no matter how much you love the child,” Dr. Wilson said.
Drs. Wilson and Megel think one of the solutions is to develop an intervention that includes the family, to reduce the child’s distress and help parents and family manage the situation.
For more information about the study, call 559-7457 (Dr. Wilson) or 559-6555 (Dr. Megel).