Treatment of Infant Colic [Internet]

Background The Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services was asked by the Norwegian Pharmacy Association to review national and international research concerning treatment of infantile colic.

Objective The aim of this report was to answer the following question: What are the effects of treatments for infantile colic?

Methods We systematically searched for literature in relevant international databases, we included articles that met our inclusion criteria, and critically appraised and summarised the results descriptively.

Results We summarised results from four systematic reviews and found that the following interventions might somewhat reduce the duration of crying:

1. Advise parents to reduce stimulation of the child

2. Cows’ milk free formula to child

Use of sucrose may have an ameliorating effect on infant colic. There is great uncertainty about the effects of the other evaluated options in the included overviews.

Conclusion Our review shows four promising interventions that might reduce infant crying duration. The interventions are reducing stimulation of the child, use of sucrose and cows’ milk free formula to child. These results must be interpreted with great caution because of great methodological concerns regarding the individual studies included in the reviews.