A problem shared... Plans for colic support group

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 16

A problem shared... Plans for colic support group

When Judy Elvidge’s two children were babies she had to use the vacuum cleaner day and night. But not for cleaning — there wasn’t time for that. It was the noise of the machine she wanted. It helped send her colicky babies off to sleep, or at least calm them down for a short while so she could hang the washing out or make a phone call. Both Judy’s babies had colic for five months. Her second, Libby, screamed for 18 hours a day. "My husband was very supportive. He’d come home from work and push her in the pram so I could go to the bathroom, or dash out to the supermarket. We pushed the pram at all hours of the day and night,” she recalls. Judy, who is president of Christchurch Parents’ Centre, says she was physically and mentally exhausted. Housework suffered, and even their social life disappeared. “Once the screaming started, friends left. Noone likes crying babies. It’s very demoralising,” she says. Judy is on a committee of women from the Parents’ Centre who are in the process of setting up a colic support group. The women, all mothers of babies who have, or have had colic, feel

women are not getting the help and information they need.

"Mothers with colicky babies don’t have political clout We’re usually patted on the head and told it will all go away in a few months’ time,” says Judy.

Which is true. Babies do grow out of colic, sooner or later. But what do you do in the meantime when your baby shrieks with pain, or stops breathing and turns blue?

“And even when a baby has grown out of it, they often continue to whinge and grizzle and' cry —- because that’s what they’re used to. Patterns of sleep and behaviour can be disturbed for a long time.”

Research has failed to come up with the causes of and cure for colic. A helpful drug, used in New Zealand for 25 years, was withdrawn from the market last year because of possible detrimental side effects. Infant colic is found in both breastfed and bottlefed babies but more in bottlefed. It is more prevalent in boys than girls and in babies with a rapid growth pattern. One theory is that it is caused by the rapid absorption of milk from the stomach, causing a spasm similar to hunger pain. Judy feels that colicky

babies are more likely to become battered babies — “especially in solo parents’ situations or where there is a bad marriage. The bonding between a mother and her baby is often seriously affected and feeding is usually very difficult.” The committee of women are talking with medical people and collecting information which they plan to publish in a leaflet, to be distributed through the Plunket Society. For more details phone Judy at 428-655. Grieving young Loss of a loved one through death or separation is traumatic at any age, but perhaps none are more vulnerable than the young at a time like this. The Young Adult Beginning Experience Programme has been specially set up to help people aged from 17 to 26 make a new start after the trauma of a bereavement or separation. Held during three weekends a year, it offers the chance to share with others the loss, come to terms with it and look to the future.

Run by an ecumenical Christian group of specially trained adults, all of whom have experienced grief in their own lives, it is affiliated with

Adult Beginning Experience, an American-based concern which began in Christchurch in 1979.

The leaders stress they are not professional counsellors and say they do not push the teachings of any church group. Participants are encouraged to make their own decisions about the future, they say. The group is holding a course this weekend, August 1 to 3, at Nolan House in Kirwee, 32 kilometres from Christchurch. Beginning at 7.30 p.m. on the Friday it runs until 4.30 p.m. on Sunday. Cost is $3O.

Participants must be past the initial trauma of the loss — one year or more. Those in professional counselling must have written permission

from their counsellor. For more details phone Kath, at 587-177.

Birth intervention

What’s a normal pregnancy? Do we need scans? Is medical care the whole answer?

These and other questions will be discussed by four speakers at a Maternity Action Alliance seminar to be held next Wednesday evening, August 6. Speakers are Carol Cawston, mother of four, Gerald Duff, - obstetrics lecturer, Lois Tucker, physiology and nutrition lecturer, and Shifty Miller, educationalist. This is the second of Maternity Action Alliance’s series of three seminars on intervention