Can colic really be cured by acupuncture?

Conclusion This randomised controlled trial aimed to compare two types of acupuncture treatment with usual care in infants with colic. This trial has a number of strengths and limitations. It was well designed, and the researchers increased its validity by using a robust study protocol. Assessors were also blinded to treatment group. However, the researchers did not analyse enough infants to be able to reliably detect a meaningful difference between the two different types of acupuncture, and therefore had to pool the groups. As such, the study only looks at acupuncture in general and cannot provide information on a particular form of delivery.   It's also possible that parents who were willing to try acupuncture were not representative of all parents of children with colic. These cases may be more severe, causing parents to try more controversial treatments. The follow-up period was short at two weeks, and we do not know if any effects seen would be sustained without continuous treatment. There was also an imbalance at baseline in the number of infants who were breastfed – as this is a risk factor for colic, this may have increased the risk of bias. The researchers reported no serious side effects. But considering that this is a treatment for excessive crying, you could question the merit of a procedure that causes further crying. As this trial was not able to look at the effects of the two different forms of acupuncture on colic, a larger trial is required to co...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news