July 30, 2003 – Good news for exhausted parents who don’t know which way to turn to relieve their baby’s colic: an emulsion of fennel seed oil could allow them to start sleeping again at night.
This is the conclusion reached by an international team of researchers, after studying a group of 125 babies aged between two and twelve weeks1. All of them met the Wessel criteria for colic, which was that they cried at least three hours a day, at least three times a week.
Half of the babies were given a placebo, while the other half received water to which had been added 0.1% fennel seed oil and 0.4% sorbitan. The results are encouraging: 65% of infants who received the fennel emulsion saw their symptoms improve markedly, compared to only 23.7% of children in the control group. In addition, babies in the first group cried just under nine hours per week on average, compared to more than 12 hours per week for those who took the placebo.
The researchers point out that fennel is a complex plant, which contains several active biological elements. They believe that one of them, anethole, helps reduce the intensity of intestinal spasms while increasing the motility of the small intestine.
Parents on the verge of a nervous breakdown, meanwhile, will be happy to learn that it is no longer necessary to run the dryer empty – and at a price of gold – to relieve the ailment of their little love. …
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
1. Alexandrovich I, Rakovitskaya O, Kolmo E, Sidorova T, Shushunov S. The effect of fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare) seed oil emulsion in infantile colic: a randomized, placebo-controlled study.Altern Ther Health Med 2003 Jul-Aug; 9 (4): 58-61.
-1573839383.jpg "Can alternative treatments help treat infant colic?")
