Evaluation of the Causes of Infantile Colic in Persian Medicine

Abstract

Background:Infantile colic is a common condition among infants, but its etiology is not fully identified. The purpose of this research was to detect and treat this complication by investigating the experiences of Iranian physicians. Methods:In this review study, the infantile colic was initially studied from the point of view of modern medicine. Electronic search in databases like Web of Science, Medline, Scopus, EBASE, Up-to-date; Magiran, SID, Irandoc, and the Google Scholar search engine were done. Then, this complication was investigated in the original references of Persian medicine. Results:The results of this research indicated that factors such as maternal mood during pregnancy, inappropriate maternal nutrition, gastrointestinal problems, and infantile cerebral problems are some of the causes that have been mentioned regarding infantile colic in modern and Persian medicine. Other causes such as spinal nerve stimulation, insomnia, and sleep apnea are also raised in Persian medicine. Almost all of these causes are due to poor digestion of milk and pnuma in the gastrointestinal tract. Iranian physicians have considered solutions such as massage with special oils, nutrition modification, and the use of hypnotics, etc. to reduce pnuma production in the gastrointestinal tract as well as its side effects. Applying all of these recommendations together can help better treat infantile colic. In the same study, scientific information derived from the works of traditional Persian medicine has been classified with the findings of modern medicine. Now, based on modern and traditional medicine, a new definition of colic has been proposed and a new treatment method for colic has been explained. Conclusion:Because the positive role of some measures such as massage and swaddling in modern medicine is confirmed, studying the recommendations of Persian medicine in the field of infantile colic seems to be able to compensate for the gap in identifying, preventing, and treating this complication.