After I diagnosed the baby with colic, she challenged me. She was right. When an adult hurts, the doctor and patient do some detective work to track down the cause of the pain and fix it. So I started approaching my evaluation of colicky babies the same way. Besides being more accurate, this motivated my patients parents and me to keep searching for a cause and to keep working at ways of fixing it.
Labels can be therapeutic.
To thoroughly evaluate a hurting baby and the effects on his exhausted parents, a doctor needs time. Request an extended office visit, preferably when the doctor usually schedules consultations. Prior to your visit, it s a good idea to send the doctor a letter describing your baby s crying episodes. If possible, both mother and father should attend the appointment. While some mothers tend to downplay the magnitude of the problem, dads usually tell it like it is.