Resolving Infantile Colic with Whey-Based Formula

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Resolving Infantile Colic with Whey-Based Formula

When considered as a syndrome, infantile colic manifests as a variety of symptoms in an otherwise healthy infant. The common symptoms are excessive crying, facial flushing, inconsolableness, abdominal distention, and gastrointestinal difficulties that begin in the first weeks of life and cease at the age of four or five months.

Cow's milk allergy is a primary consideration when evaluating the etiology of this condition, although the effectiveness of alternative formulas on reducing colic has yet to be established.
This study evaluated the efficacy of whey hydrolysate in the treatment of infantile colic. Forty-three healthy, formula-fed infants with symptoms of colic (less than six months old and with more than three hours per day of crying on at least three days per week) comprised the study group. Infants randomly received either whey hydrolysate formula or standard formula for one week, and improvements were documented by caregivers at 10-minute intervals, 24 hours per day. Parents were blinded as to which type of formula their children were scheduled to receive.
Duration of crying (total minutes per day) decreased significantly in the whey formula group compared to the standard formula group. Specifically, infants receiving whey formula cried an average of 63 minutes less per day compared with their formula-fed counterparts. The authors conclude that "substitution of cow's milk formula by an extensively hydrolyzed whey formula is effective in the treatment of infantile colic." They also note that because their study involved infants with only the primary symptom of colic, excessive crying, further research is needed as to the efficacy of whey formula in infants with multiple symptoms.
Lucassen PLBJ, Assendelft WJJ, Gubbels JW, et al. Infantile colic: crying time reduction with a whey hydrolysate: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Pediatrics, Dec. 2000:106(6), pp1349-54.