When we treat the crying and the colic of the child we speak not only of medicine but also of anthropology. It is in fact important to understand the behavior of the little ones
I have been a pediatrician for more than twenty years. During the specialization I attended the lanes, the departments, the clinics daily. I tried to learn everything he had to be learned. When I left the university and I embarked on the family pediatrician activity I was enthusiastic, I felt ready and safe. I had experienced many diseases and I knew well how a child grew.
Colic and cry in children
Colic were undoubtedly not very important as pathology. I just had to calm the parents, “don’t worry, pass in a few weeks, trust me!”. The remedies for the colic of the newborn were simple, it was started by prescribing X medicine, the safe one, which does not give side effects. Then, if the parents still complained about the child’s colic, the X medicine was replaced with the Y and, if it did not work even that, then I prescribed xyz. That worked for sure, even if it was better not to use it often, due to the side effects and contraindications.
Cry and gastroesophageal reflux
Usually, I also prescribed all the new products they had experimented experimentally to work, but The success of all these medications was, in truth, quite low. In the meantime, two or three months passed, the spontaneous resolution of the colic, and perhaps it was for this reason, and not thanks to the drugs, that the child had stopped crying and complaining. And so on, to fight every day against those symptoms of the child that mom and dad brought me like on a tray. Symptoms I had to eliminate. During the first years of activity, I also came across some new disease that I had never met before: gastroesophageal reflux disease. How many sick children! Luckily there were the right medicines to fight this pathology too.
Crying and breastfeeding
One day, the book of an anthropologist happened to me in my hands, a scientist who studied the behaviors of children and their mothers in different cultures, with particular regard to the oldest peoples, what we call primitives. Indeed, and for me it was a novelty, she studied the behaviors of mothers-scimms and their puppies and compared behaviors in the different species of mammals.
I will tell you a little secret, that book did not happen to me in the hand by chance. At that time I was looking for the absurd, monstrous, indecent reasons why some colleagues, very few in truth, stubborn themselves to say that the child should be breastfed freely, on request, and for a period of at least two years. Pure madness. Things were clear and safe: breastfeeding every three and a half hours – with a longer break at night – and interruption of breastfeeding at the completion of the twelfth month. «On the lady, now we have to stop the breast. It is not good to breastfeed longer. It’s a matter of energy and then, we wouldn’t want to spoil it, right? Come on, let’s not joke ». The breastfeeding hours were written in the folder. There were those who also used the pre -printed. Accipiccia!
Instead, how many things knew that anthropologist on children and their mothers. I had never learned anything like that until then. I read another book of anthropology and then another and so on, I also recovered scientific articles that no one had ever mentioned me. Why this ignorance? Why did I neglect to study these topics during my training years? Perhaps I was too concentrated on serious diseases that took care of the lane and I did not give the same importance to the help that the pediatrician can give in promoting the growth of a healthy child and supporting the family in this commitment. Now I have changed a bit compared to the enthusiasm of my professional youth. Already on the first visit, at the first meeting with the parents, I speak of the crying of the child and its meaning.
Each cry has its own story
If a parent knows the meaning of crying, he will not find himself unprepared and afraid to face this event. When the parents bring me the child by complaining because he cries, I try to scrutinize this family. What are the parents’ goals? What do they expect from the child? Does the child have a difficult character? Do parents know this character? Are the mom or dad unable to endure crying? Are they tired, frustrated or depressed? What other family problems can be there? Questions that I ask myself in silence, between me and me. You don’t interrogate, but you listen to what the parent manages to say, his story. Do parents have enough resources to do it? The child, despite his colic, will be well cared for or will he risk being treated badly or, even punished with a strong shake? Certainly I don’t say “don’t worry, if you can’t do it, we have to meet again”, concluding with “already, I forgot, the x, y and company medicines”.
Depend, or rather, hope for something that is outside of us – In this case, hope that the drug resolves a situation which, on the other hand, must be addressed through a change of behavior and thought – It is not always of help. Indeed, it can create an dependence on the outside by reducing one’s ability to control and action on oneself. The medicines, by now, I do not prescribe them almost anymore and not even use or recommend alternative therapies. I rigorously apply scientific evidence of effectiveness. In this way the child certainly swallows less drugs, and sees less doctors, obtaining the same results, perhaps even better.
And to think that colic were easy stuff.
