Effects of Fumaria Extract on Colic Pain in 3-16 Weeks Infants

Abstract

<em>Introduction</em> <br/>Infantile colic is somehow believed to be the worst pain a baby has thus experienced. It is usually manifested as an acute abdominal pain with intense spasmodic cramping accompanied by intense crying lasting for more than 3 hours a day during at least a three days period. Accordingly, this study is aimed to investigate the effects of Fumaria on such pain in 3-16 weeks-old infants. <br/><br/><em>Materials and Methods</em> <br/>A double-blind clinical trial has been conducted on 60 newborns. The cases were selected through simple random sampling and divided into two groups, namely control and treatment group and given 2.5cc placebo or Fumaria extract. Daily symptoms were gathered and recorded via a specially designed questionnaire. Chi-squared test was used to analyze the mustered data. <br/><br/><em>Results</em> <br/>Out of the 60 cases, 50 newborns completely participated in the study. This study revealed a significant difference between the two aforementioned study groups as regards to the length and frequency of crying periods and the number of times an infant would wake up due to colic pain (P<0.05). <br/>Concerning the demographic characteristics, there was no statistically significant difference between the control and the treatment group (p>0.05) . <br/><br/><em>Conclusion</em> <br/>It was revealed that Fumaria extract is of great help in reducing the colic pain in 3-16 week-old infants.