s in which restlessness passes into grunting, writhing, and
kicking; the forehead becomes puckered and the face has an
agonized expression; the baby tends to scream violently and draws
his thighs up against his belly, which will usually be found to
be hard and more or less distended.

A colicky baby completely upsets the household and greatly disturbs
the mother, who requires both quiet and rest that she may the better
produce the life-sustaining stream so much needed for the upbuilding
and development of the growing child.

COLIC IN THE BREAST-FED

While colic is so often seen in the bottle-fed babe, it often occurs
in the breast-fed child, and is usually traceable to some error in the
mother's diet or to some other maternal nutritional disturbance. One
mother who was sure she had eaten nothing outside the diet suggestions
she had received, was requested to bring to the office a fresh
voiding of her own urine which was found to be highly acid. The
administration of an alkaline such as simple baking soda or calcined
magnesia to the mother, corrected this acidity, and the colic in the
baby entirely disappeared. I recall the case of one mother who ate her
dinner in the middle of the day, with a light meal in the evening and
thereby stopped the colic in her babe.

Another source of colic in the breast-fed baby is the unclean nipple.
The nipples should be washed with soap and water and rinsed in boracic
acid solution before each nursing. If the mother worries greatly, or
thoughtlessly "gets very angry" just before the nursing hour, there is
a substance known as "epinephrin" secreted by the glands located just
above the kidneys which is thrown into the blood stream and which
raises the blood pressure of the mother and often produces not only
colic in the babe, but many times throws him into severe convulsions.

COLIC IN BOTTLE-FED BABIES

There are many opportunities for colic in the bottle-fed baby; for
instance, dirty bottles, dirty nipples, careless cleansing of utensils
used in the preparation of baby's food, improper mixtures, too much
flour, the wrong kind of sugar, too much cream or too little
water--all these things help to produce wind under pressure in the
intestine, which is commonly known as colic. Underfeeding or
overfeeding, too rapid feeding or too frequent feeding also contribute
their mite in producing colic.

As a rule, the bottle-fed child is fed too often. In the new born,