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A baby cries to communicate his needs. Sometimes, a baby's crying is a warning that he has a health issue or he is suffering from colic.
By Joy Cagil
I just saw a book where the author (an MD) claims that a colicky baby cries, not because he is in pain, but because he has a message to tell or his crying is leading to his speech development. That may be the case in some instances, but considering our experiences with our oldest son, 36 years ago, I couldn't disagree more.
Our son's crying spells began when he was about 20 days old. No, he wasn't allergic to formula; he was breastfed. He wasn't sick at all; he didn't even catch a cold until after he was a year old. He never developed a diaper rash either, until we took him on a trip when he was nine and a half months old.
After coming home from the hospital, our son put on weight regularly and normally; he also began sleeping through the night when he was a month old. Yet, he cried, writhing in pain throughout the day and especially in the evening around 5 or 6 PM when his father returned home from work.
Every day and evening, as he screamed, he pulled his knees up; his stomach and belly got hard and swollen; and he passed gas, non-stop. Now, can anyone do that if he is not in pain?
His pediatrician shrugged the whole thing off. "Since it is your first child, that's normal," he said. Did that mean we were nervous parents? I don't think so. I was in my late twenties and my husband in his thirties. We considered ourselves mature adults on the conservative side. Still our baby cried uncontrollably, throughout the day, and even more vehemently, in the evening.
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