Moms’ low-allergen diet may ease infants’ colic

For breast-fed babies who have colic, having mothers switch to a low-allergen diet seems to reduce the amount of time the infants spend crying and fussing, an Australian research team reports.

Previously, investigators have found that substituting a hydrolyzed casein- and whey-based preparation for regular formula appears to improve colic symptoms, as does elimination of some proteins from the breast-feeding mother’s diet. Results have not been conclusive, however.

Dr. David J. Hill, from Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, and his associates conducted a study, published in the journal Pediatrics, which included exclusively breastfed infants less than 6 weeks of age with colic and their mothers.

Colic was defined as “distress exceeding 180 minutes per 24 hours on 3 days in the week.”

Some of the mothers were put on a low-allergen experimental diet that excluded foods containing dairy products, soy, wheat, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and fish during days 3 through 10 of the study, while other mothers in a “control” group were encouraged to eat these foods, along with their regular diet.

Forty-seven mother-infant pairs in the low-allergen group and 43 pairs in the control group completed the study.

In the low-allergen group, 74 percent of infants reduced the amount of time spent crying and fussing by at least 25 percent on days 8 and 9 compared with days 1 and 2. The same decrease was seen in only 37 percent of babies of moms in the control group.

Overall, the average reduction in time spent crying or fussing per 48 hours was 40 percent and 16 percent in the experimental and control groups, respectively.

“These findings suggest that maternal intake of food allergens is an important factor in the pathogenesis of infantile colic among breastfed infants,” the authors indicate.

They add that longer periods of dietary restriction may improve colicky babies even more, as one week may not be sufficient time to remove all allergens from the breast milk.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, November 2005.

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