DESCRIPTION

• Crying is usually a normal physiologic response to stress, discomfort, unfulfilled needs such as hunger, pain, over- or understimulation, or temperature change.
• Crying is felt to be potentially pathologic if it is interpreted by caregivers as differing in quality and duration without apparent explanation and/or persists without consolability beyond a reasonable time (generally 1 to 2 hours).

EPIDEMIOLOGY

Excessive crying in the 1st months of life, per parental reports, occurs in about 1 in 5 infants.

ETIOLOGY

• The most likely cause of inconsolable crying in the first few months of life is infantile colic.
  • However, colic is a diagnosis of exclusion.
  • Practitioners must be familiar with the clinical pattern of infantile colic so that deviations are readily recognized.
• Organic problems are identified in 5% or less of afebrile excessively crying infants.