Acupuncture is normally associated with relieving pain, restoring gut function and inducing a calm state of mind, but now there is evidence to suggest that it could help with colicky babies. According to researchers, Kajsa Langdren and Inger Hallström, who looked at 147 babies diagnosed with infantile colic across four health centres in Sweden, the amount of time spent crying excessively (crying more than three hours per hour) fell dramatically in babies who had received acupuncture, compared to those who had not received any therapeutic treatment.
What’s more, a significantly higher proportion of babies who underwent acupuncture no longer fulfilled the criteria for colic after two weeks of treatment. While colic (which affects one in five babies) tends to clear up by itself within six months, the difference was significant enough for the scientists to conclude that acupuncture is an effective treatment for colic.
The research was published in the journal, Acupuncture in Medicine.
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