Föräldrars erfarenhet av behandling med Minifom och Semper magdroppar vid kolik: en kvantitativ, deskriptiv studie

Background: Colic affects at least 10% of newborns and parents seek help. The aim was to present why infants whose parents sought help for colic, where not included in two trials studying the effect of acupuncture in infantile colic and to describe the use of simethicone and probiotics amongst those infants that according to a diary still fulfilled the criteria for infantile colic after a baseline week with cows milk free diet.Method: A quantitative, descriptive sub-study based on unpublished data, collected in two RCTs, examining the effect of acupuncture in 228 infants with colic. Screening lists and background data from a questionnaire answered by the infant’s parents was analyzed.Results: 636 infants were screened for participation in the two trials. Of these, 389 were not included as they according to the diary cried < 3 hours per day and thereby did not fulfill the criteria for colic. Either parents had overestimated the crying or infants reduced symptoms of colic when introducing a cow’s milk free diet. Almost every included infant in the first trial (2010) and 76% in the second (2015) had been treated with simethicone but only 2,7 % and 5,4% of the parents reported effect. The use of probiotics increased from 14,8% to 86,3% in the second trial. Zero and 3,2% respectively reported effect. There was a significant association between treatment with simethicone and having more than one child, having earlier experience from colic in the family and having a normal delivery. Treatment with probiotics was associated with higher frequency of complications during pregnancy, exclusive breastfeeding, food allergies and/or intolerances in the infant’s family and having less problems with eczema and skin rashes.Conclusion: The use of a diary is valuable to assess the infants crying and can help nurses to adapt their advice and support to these families. Excluding cows milk protein helped many infants with excessive crying. Most parents had tried simethicone and probiotics without experiencing effect.