It’s More Than Just Colic

Colic. It’s what our oldest daughter was diagnosed with after months of screaming for no apparent reason. John Hopkins, a renowned university and hospital, uses the following definition. “Colic is when a healthy baby cries for a very long time, for no obvious reason. It is most common during the first 6 weeks of life. It usually goes away on its own by age 3 to 4 months.” Somewhere, in the blur of rotating shifts with my husband while she cried for hours on end, we both kept thinking something else was wrong.

I’d tried several recommendations from our naturopathic pediatrician: limit fats, cut out cruciferous veggies, pump her legs, rub her belly in a circular motion, try different baby bottles, give her prune juice, etc. We’d even taken her to the chiropractor several times. But nothing made a lasting difference.

About five months later, a family member suggested we try a specific chiropractor/nutritionist in a town 1.5 hours away. We still strongly felt something else was going on, but didn’t know where to turn. We were willing to do anything to bring her comfort and all of us some much needed rest. So we went.

What transpired while we were there, was enough to change the trajectory of our entire lives. We immediately saw positive changes and within two to three days, Q was an entirely different baby. It was surreal to go from a baby with colic who cried endlessly, to one who cooed and smiled.

We learned big time to trust our intuition (leading from the Holy Spirit), advocate for our child, and that we knew next to nothing about how intricately God designed our bodies.

*This blog post contains various health information. Nothing is intended to be, nor should it be construed as, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any supplement(s) discussed and/or listed should be reviewed by your health professional before using. If you have a medical concern, please consult with an appropriately-licensed physician. If you think you have a medical emergency, contact your doctor immediately. Full medical disclosure here.

The Second Diagnosis: Not Colic

Up until then, I had no clue what a nutritionist was. In my head, it was someone who helped you eat healthy and follow the typical food pyramid suggestions. I now know, a good nutritionist, considers way more than just food. Using Nutrition Response Testing (NRT), a form of muscle testing, we discovered baby Q was being effected by multiple stressors.

It was their opinion, she was not suffering from colic at all, but rather a myriad of sensitivities and toxic overloads. Here is a brief list of what we learned along with the supplements used (and how we used them, which may not be typical) over time to support the body’s natural ability to heal.

P.S. Although some of the supplements listed are now found at online retailers, I highly recommend finding a well-trained nutritionist, familiar with NRT, to discover what’s best for each individual’s needs.

Food Sensitivities

I don’t think either of us were too surprised to discover Q was reacting to dairy, eggs, soy, gluten, wheat, rice, and most processed food items. My diet was limited to organic: chicken, beef, and vegetables. I even refrained from condiments like ketchup and mustard.

It was not easy, but as I saw Q get better each day, it became more of a positive challenge. Staying home helped me have more time to look up new ways to prepare food (I like variety!). It also provided an opportunity for us to expand our diet with more vegetables. And my waist line thanked me as well!

Nutrional support

I immediately started taking digestive enzymes to pass through the breast milk. In addition, we would open a capsule and give her the powder on a finger or nookie. Within just a couple days, she would get excited when she saw what we had for her. At just five months old, she knew it was helping her feel better.

The whole food supplements we used (and still do) are literally made from just foods and organs. No preservatives, no fillers, no flavoring, no color additives; simply food grown in the most organic manner possible and harvested in ways to preserve the highest amount of nutrients in their natural form.

• Standard Process Multizyme (digestive enzymes – mom & baby took)
• Standard Process AF-Betafood (supports gallbladder/bile production/relieves gas – mom & baby took)
• Standard Process Zypan (restores pH balance in digestive tract – mom took)

Chemical/Environmental Sensitivities

In addition to food, Q was also struggling with chemical overload. This made no sense to me at first. She was a baby, how on earth could her body be burdened after just five months??? But again, NRT repeatedly showed stressors like various metals, chemicals, and even radiation. There were also personal care products I was using that triggered reactions.

Several of the chemicals could be traced back to things used in conventional farming, like fertilizers, weed killers, growth hormones, and other synthetics. All of the personal care products were big box name and full of ingredients I had no idea how to pronounce, no clue what purpose they served, and included fragrance.

Since we’ve learned more going through the GAPS Protocol, I now understand the mother’s body sees the baby as a detox organ. It thinks, “There’s a place to put all this stuff I’ve been holding on to and need to get rid of!”. The phrase “genetic disorder/hereditary” took on a whole new meaning, as well as healthy momma, healthy baby.

nutritional support

Focusing on organic food played a big role in reducing chemical stressors. We let Q’s body heal and “normalize” a bit before introducing supplements to help her body detox. The liver, spleen, and kidneys do a lot of heavy work there and we didn’t want to cause additional stress. When she was stronger, we used a combination of things to help detox. Most often, we would crush the supplements into powder and mix into apple sauce or she’d eat off our finger.

As far as personal care products, I started tackling those little by little, once things settled down. Find highlights on How to Shop for Healthier Personal Care Products and Minimize Toxicity here.

Household cleaners were addressed as I was able to. I experimented with homemade recipes for a couple years, and as life grew busier, went back to searching for healthier store bought alternatives.

• Standard Process Parotid PMG (detox, used with metal stressors)
• Standard Process Cholacol II (no longer available, bentonite & bile salts to help chelate)
• Medi Herbs ChelaCo (detox, used with chemical stressors)
• Medi Herbs Gingko Forte (support, used with radiation stressor)
• HVS Metals (water-based homeopathic formulation, used to regulate body with metal stressors)

Scar Tissue

One of the problems we always felt contributed to Q’s crying was constipation. We were consistently told a baby’s rhythm will change and as long as there’s movement once or twice a week, everything was fine. Ohhh did the nutritionist have a field day with this one!!!

What are the two main ways our body detoxes? Urine and stool. Without them, the body can’t properly detox. Therefore higher loads of negative “crap” sit in the body. (Pun intended!) Our nutritionist was adamant there should be at least one bowel movement each and every day.

At the first appointment, a low level light therapy laser was used on her belly button for just a couple minutes. Within no less than five minutes, I kid you not, she had the biggest blow out to date. Jason and I stood astonished. The nutritionist smiled and laughed, and went on to explain the belly button is the body’s first scar. The cold laser helps stimulate cell repair, thus helping inflamed and/or broken skin tissue heal.

how does this apply?

From this, we learned scars can interfere with how well the body sends and receive signals (autonomic nervous system). If you’ve ever had acupuncture, chances are you’re familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine’s use of meridian points. A few of those run through the center of the body near the belly button. In a strange way, her constipation made sense if the body simply couldn’t signal properly. Especially since it was working hard elsewhere.

This was one of those things I never dove into researching amidst everything else. What we knew was, if we faithfully lasered her belly button, her bowel movements came regularly. There were also times she would start crying again, despite the changes we’d been making, only to be calmed down after a few seconds of the laser hitting her belly button.

nutritional support

We started using the laser a couple times a day at home and slowly weaned over the course of the next several months. Wheat germ oil is high in Vitamin E and has antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, which makes it useful in healing scars. We would rub a little of this on her belly button and also give it to her internally (poke a hole in the capsule and squeeze onto skin/into the mouth).

It’s important to remember to support organs and feed the body healthy fats and minerals when detoxing and/or healing. These are additional supplements used throughout (not all at the same time).

• Standard Process Wheat Germ Oil
• Standard Process Cod Liver Oil
• Standard Process Tuna Omega-3 Oil
• Standard Process Organically Bound Minerals (body burns through minerals when stressed/healing)
• Standard Process Livaplex (supports liver function)
• Large amounts of green veggies
• Laseronix Laser

All Said and Done: No More Colic

The number of “colic” episodes we experienced after implementing these changes were few and far between. It was truly a night and day difference within just days. For months, we continued to make the 3 hour round trip to see our nutritionist. Every appointment showed improvement and individualized care. It was so refreshing after spending months living like zombies.

I’ve come to learn and accept there are things I will not fully understand and that’s ok. What I do know and understand, is God gave us everything we needed to survive and heal at the time of creation. Unfortunately, our human sin nature has led to cheapening, modifying, and not taking care of those things. The use of nutritionally dense, whole food supplements has been life changing for our entire family, along with paying careful attention to what we allow in and around our bodies.

Never in a million years did I expect to have a child with food and environmental sensitivities. I’m so thankful God gave me a husband with tenacity to learn new things and go outside the box to help us despite my initial hesitation.

We were disappointed when our son H was born two years later with a few food sensitivities as well. However, being much more prepared, we dove right into what we knew would help, and saw continual improvements in him as well.

Make sure to check out my other Healthy Living posts for more insight on our healing journey!