Can Chiropractor Care Help Colicky Babies?

Can chiropractic care help a colicky baby? I saw a randomized controlled trial, but the sample size looked small. Desperate for anything at this point!
—Emily, mom of one-month-old and 2.5-year-old currently nursing typing with one hand

I wish I could tell you there is a magic bullet here, but there is not. There is one small RCT on chiropractic care for colicky infants, which found no significant or meaningful differences across groups after adjusting for baseline differences. Given the bias toward publication of significant findings in general, the fact that we see only one study and that it’s not significant makes me very skeptical that there are any impacts.

Little baby receiving chiropractic or osteopathic foot massage.

Are there treatments that might work? Again, nothing that is a magic bullet. A lot of colic just improves with time, peaking around six weeks and then starting to resolve from there. Two interventions with some possible impacts are (1) probiotics and (2) changes to your diet if you are breastfeeding. These changes would mostly involve eliminating high-allergen foods (dairy, wheat, eggs).

Infant probiotics are worth a try; they’re easy to get and administer. Changing your diet is harder, although sometimes people are willing to try, and relief tends to show up quickly if this works, so you do not necessarily need to try forever.There is more on this in Cribsheet. The most important point: it’s okay to need a break. Having a colicky baby is, unsurprisingly, associated with postpartum depression and sleep deprivation. If you need a break, please try to find a way to take one.