Acupuncture for Infants

Approximately 10 percent of American babies experience colic. If you’ve ever tried to soothe a colicky infant, you know how exhausting it can be. You’re up all night, desperate to relieve your baby of obvious distress, and nothing you do seems to work. Parents who have to work and care for a colicky infant may feel like it’s too heavy a burden to bear.

Even if you have the patience and stamina to get through those rough nights (and days), it’s obvious that an unhappy baby can really bring down a family. Older siblings don’t get the attention they deserve; parents don’t get the sleep necessary to make wise decisions and perform well at work and home. Let’s face it: life is hard enough without the added strain of a crying baby.

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Conventional Colic Treatments

If you’ve got a colicky baby, I’m sure you’ve spent time on the internet searching for solutions. You’ve tried colic drops (simethicone). You’ve tried all kinds of baby swings and soothers. You’ve tried pacifiers, swaddling techniques, and the use of a warm bottle on your baby’s tummy. You’ve driven your infant all over town (just to have him or her wake up again when you pull into the driveway.)

Maybe your doctor prescribed a sedative, and you did your research and were appalled at the thought of sedating your baby. Or perhaps your doctor suggested you try an anti-spasm drug (scopolamine or dicyclomine) or a proton pump inhibitor. But you read the 2013 study performed by the University of Pittsburgh that concluded that proton pump inhibitors are no more effective than feeding your baby a bottle of water when it comes to soothing colic and can actually increase health problems, and you said thanks-but-no-thanks. You may think you just have to grit your teeth and get through this very challenging time.

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Acupuncture: A Safe Colic Treatment that Actually Works

The conventional Western treatments mentioned above usually don’t work, but Asian cultures have been performing acupuncture on infants for thousands of years. Why does acupuncture work when so many conventional Western remedies fail? Doctors still don’t really know what causes colic and general discomfort for infants, but it is likely related to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity.

Acupuncture works because it stimulates the release of neurochemicals such as endorphins, enkephalins, and serotonin, improving regulation of the autonomic nervous system. Dependent upon the site of stimulation, acupuncture can alter sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity. As a result, infants experience relief or lessening of distress, which is welcome news for parents and babies alike.

The following are three of several studies investigating the effectiveness of acupuncture on colic:

• A 2008 study concluded that 40 infants who received light needling at LI4 for 20 seconds on 4 occasions demonstrated significant improvement in colic symptoms. That’s impressive: significant improvement after just four sessions of light acupuncture.
• A 2011 study concluded that 913 infants needled at LI4 for 10-20 seconds daily for one week showed significant improvement of symptoms in 76% of the infants.
• A 2002 study published in Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine demonstrated a significant reduction in infants’ night crying (100 babies participated in the study).

Click here to read details of these studies and more.

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Worried About Needles? Understanding Modern Acupuncture

A lot of parents worry that their infant would not remain still long enough to safely undergo acupuncture. After all, we’re talking about needles, right?

Actually, modern acupuncture (electro-acupuncture) is very quick and is painless. Instead of inserting a needle into the skin, tiny electric pulses are applied very briefly on acupuncture points, producing the same stimulation at a fraction of the time required for traditional acupuncture. The skin is never broken, and the experience is complete in less than five minutes.

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Looking for an Acupuncturist in Huntersville, NC?

Give us a call or use our online contact form to discuss safe acupuncture for infants. Dr. Doyle uses the most gentle techniques and has a wealth of experience with babies, including his own three children.