British babies 'among the world's biggest criers' claim unproven

Conclusion This study suggests the prevalence of colic is highest in the first six weeks of a child's life and then decreases over the next six weeks. Colic seems to be less common in babies in Denmark, Germany and Japan and more common in babies from Canada, the UK and Italy. This study is valuable in demonstrating the pattern of fussing and crying over the first 12 weeks of a baby's life and how this varies across countries, but there are limitations to the research: There was a varied number of studies from the different countries. For example, there were seven studies from the UK, but only one study from Canada, Germany and Japan. Similarly the included studies varied in the age groups assessed. For example, the UK studies reported colic prevalence data at both 1-2 weeks and 5-6 weeks of age, whereas the Canadian study only looked at 3-4 weeks. Overall this variability in the quantity of data available from the different countries may weaken the strength of the findings. Also, relatively few countries were represented by this review, including no studies from developing countries for comparison. Therefore it cannot be said if the pattern of crying will be consistent across all countries globally. Mothers might interpret fussing/crying differently in different cultures so some might have reported fussing/crying more readily than others. Colic may have been more stringently defined in some studies than others. There may also be differences in how accurately the dia...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news