Colic and Reflux in Infants

Prolonged infant crying and frequent spit up often involve feeding mechanics, the diaphragm, fascia, vagal signaling, and gut development. We look at each gently and support the whole family.

What you may be noticing

Your baby cries for long stretches, often in the evening, pulling up their legs or arching their back. Feeds are short and fussy, spit up is frequent, and sleep comes only in your arms. You are exhausted, and you want to understand what your baby is communicating.

Seek medical care promptly for fever, poor weight gain, forceful or green vomiting, blood in stool, fewer wet diapers, lethargy, or any change that worries you. Infant care always begins with your pediatrician.

Why it is rarely one thing

Colic is a description, not a diagnosis. It describes prolonged crying in a healthy, growing infant, and it often eases with time. Many families still find specific, addressable factors beneath it, and frequent spit up is often more than reflux.

Feeding mechanics come first. A shallow latch or a tongue tie can lead a baby to swallow air and struggle to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing. The diaphragm is central: it forms part of the barrier between the stomach and the esophagus, so tension in the diaphragm and surrounding fascia, together with raised pressure in the abdomen, can encourage spit up. The vagus nerve coordinates swallowing, stomach emptying, and calm digestion, and birth can leave tension in the neck, jaw, and upper back where these pathways travel. The link between infant fascial tension and vagal signaling is a working clinical hypothesis that guides my gentle hands-on care.

The immature gut and its developing microbiome shape gas and comfort, influenced by birth mode, antibiotics, and feeding. Cow milk protein in the parent diet affects some breastfed babies. And an unsettled nervous system struggles to shift into the calm state in which digestion works best.

Patterns we look for

• Latch, suck, swallow, and breathing coordination.
• Tongue, lip, and cheek ties.
• Diaphragm mobility and fascial tension in the neck, jaw, and upper back.
• Head turning preference and asymmetry.
• Air swallowing, burping, and stool patterns, including constipation.
• Gut microbiome development, birth mode, and antibiotic exposure.
• Possible cow milk protein reactions.
• Primitive reflexes and nervous system regulation.
• Sleep and feeding rhythm, and the support around you as parents.

How I evaluate it

A gentle infant neurological assessment looks at reflexes, tone, head and neck movement, symmetry, sucking, breathing mechanics, and responses to touch and movement. I observe a feed when possible and coordinate with a lactation consultant or feeding specialist when latch or oral restrictions are suspected.

Testing in infants is selective and coordinated with your pediatrician. I do not order unnecessary testing for babies.

How we address it

• Rule out medical causes with your pediatrician.
• Improve feeding mechanics with latch support, upright positioning, paced bottle feeding, and frequent burping.
• Evaluate and address oral restrictions with appropriate specialists.
• Release neck, jaw, diaphragm, and fascial tension with gentle, age-appropriate pediatric chiropractic and myofascial care.
• Support gut development and gentle drainage, including soft, regular stools, and consider a guided trial of removing cow milk protein when indicated.
• Calm the nervous system with skin-to-skin contact, rhythmic movement, swaddling, and white noise.
• Support you with sleep, nutrition, and help, because a regulated parent helps regulate a baby.

I see gentle pediatric chiropractic care as nervous system regulation: more calm, easier sleep, and more comfortable digestion. Research on manual therapy for colic is still limited and mixed, so I use it as one part of a comprehensive plan rather than a stand-alone answer.

Colic is one of the most demanding seasons of early parenthood. Reaching out for help is part of caring for your baby well.

Calm feeding, a calmer gut, and a calmer nervous system often arrive together.

Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.