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“Colic” is one of the most common words parents hear when their baby cries a lot. But what many don’t realise is that colic isn’t actually a condition, it’s a descriptive label.
Traditionally, it’s defined by the “Rule of 3s”: crying more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, for at least 3 weeks, in an otherwise healthy baby (Wessel et al., 1954).
That might sound reassuringly specific, but here’s the problem: the label doesn’t tell you why your baby is crying. It simply renames the behaviour. A baby who cries a lot now becomes a baby “with colic.” The crying hasn’t changed, just the word we use for it.
Why This Matters
This renaming matters because:
It creates a false sense of diagnosis. Parents may believe something is medically “wrong,” when in fact colic is just a description (NHS, 2023).
It prevents exploration of what’s really happening. Babies cry for many reasons: adjusting to life outside the womb, needing comfort, hunger, tiredness, or sometimes digestive discomfort (Barr, 1998). Labelling all this as “colic” can shut down curiosity.
It leaves parents vulnerable. Exhausted families searching for answers are often sold products marketed as “colic remedies,” despite limited or no evidence for most of them (Gordon et al., 2018; Cochrane, 2019). The commercial market around colic is vast, and it thrives on parental worry.
It undermines parental confidence. When crying is rebranded as “colic,” parents may feel powerless, as though they can’t soothe or support their baby without a cure.
What We Do Know
Research hasn’t found a single cause of colic. Some babies simply cry more in the early weeks, and crying generally peaks around 6–8 weeks before easing off by 3–4 months (St James-Roberts et al., 2012). This is part of normal infant development, even though it can be incredibly challenging to live through.
What I Helps Families With
Reassurance: Knowing that frequent crying doesn’t mean you’re failing.
Support with feeding and soothing: Practical adjustments often make a difference (NICE CKS, 2021).
Rest and recovery for parents: Sometimes the best “treatment” is making sure parents are supported too.
Colic is not an illness and not a diagnosis. It’s simply a label that re-names crying without explaining it. While the word may be familiar, it doesn’t give families the clarity or help they deserve. What parents truly need is reassurance, practical guidance, and support, not another label, and not another product on the shelf.
References
Barr RG. (1998). Colic and crying syndromes in infants. Pediatrics, 102(5), 1282–1286.
Cochrane. (2019). Interventions for infantile colic. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Gordon M, Biagioli E, Sorrenti M, et al. (2018). Dietary modifications for infantile colic. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 10.
NHS. (2023). Colic in babies. Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk
NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries. (2021). Colic – infantile. Retrieved from https://cks.nice.org.uk
St James-Roberts I, Alvarez M, Csipke E, et al. (2012). Infant crying and sleeping in London, Copenhagen and when parents adopt a “proximal” form of care. Pediatrics, 129(3), e555–e564.
Wessel MA, Cobb JC, Jackson EB, Harris GS Jr, Detwiler AC. (1954). Paroxysmal fussing in infancy, sometimes called “colic.” Pediatrics, 14(5), 421–435.
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