Colic is a condition in which an infants yells for nothing serious and sometimes make your life miserable as you never come to the conclusion that why your child is crying. Breastfeeding is feeding the child with breast milk directly from the female breasts and not with the help of bottle or other container. Most mothers continue it for six months or more.

Currently nobody is unaware of the benefits and importance of the breast milk for a newborn but even breast milk fed infants can also develop colic. As breast milk has lots of benefits so there is no good reason for discontinuing breast milk. However few changes are mandatory to be made in breastfeeding technique in order to prevent colic.

The main reason of developing colic in breastfed infants is delivery of excessive amount and wrong type of breast milk. Another reason is that usually breastfed babies are hungry and they show an adequate weight gain, sometimes more than that. So parents think that their child requires more diet as compared to other infants. This idea of excessive feeding causes disaster and makes this infant fussy.

Why wrong type of milk is delivered to the baby is explained here:

Whenever baby starts sucking a hormone namely oxytoxin is released which causes contraction of mammary ducts, excretion of milk through the nipples and milk squirts into the baby. This stage of breastfeeding is recognized by pain in breasts in the beginning. During this fat in the breast milk sticks to the walls of the mammary ducts and is not released even till the end of episode. The milk secreted initially in called “foremilk” and is poor in fat, while fat rich breast milk is called “hindmilk”. Just because of low fat content infant feels hungry soon and cries. Moreover this foremilk is also rich in “lactose” a potent stimulator of intestinal contractions and thus causing cramps , diarrhea and a colicky child.

There are few techniques which can help breastfeeding colicky infants;

• Before starting feed some of the milk should be expressed and voided so that less amount of foremilk is delivered.
• Only one breast should be used for one feed so that both foremilk and hindmilk(rich in fat) could be received by the baby.
• Nurse your baby using the “football hold” in which the baby is held by your side facing the breast that the baby will feed from. If you are nursing on the left side, place the baby beside you, on your left side facing the left breast while your left arm is around the baby, along his/her back and hold him/her at the back of the head. You will need a soft pillow to create a little “seat” for the baby so that he/she is upright and not lying down.
• Other measures which can alleviate the symptoms include avoidance of stimulants such as caffeine and chocolate. Mothers should also eliminate dairy products and nuts for few weeks from diet.