Imagine the state of alarm continuing hour after hour, day after day, for months.
This is the reality for parents of colicky infants.
Colic has been called a “trash bin diagnosis” by critics. It is an expression of the frustration parents experience when the best advice from the healthcare system is to “hold it” and wait until the crying hopefully stops after several months.
And that leaves parents powerless
This is the background to a citizen’s proposal that nine women, including Ditte Maria Richter Sparre from North Jutland, have put forward, and that North Jutland has described.
In the citizens’ proposal, they demand a much better handling of colic and extended support for the families who are affected. Their goal is to secure investment in research that can identify the underlying causes of colic and develop more effective treatment methods.
But the citizens’ proposal is not only about the child. Parents also need support – professional advice and healthcare guidance, so that they are not alone.
Because although colic often subsides after three to five months, it can have consequences. The parents’ physical and mental health can be severely strained.
– When we can’t get our infant to stop crying, it goes against our urinary instincts. It is so deep in us that we have to make sure that our children survive and are healthy and strong. It’s an operation. So when we can’t get our child to stop crying, our body goes on alert, says midwife Laura Jacobsen in an interview with Nordjyske.
At the same time, the parents are often left to themselves with the message to persevere.
– We were very much on our own trying to find a solution. But at this point we were ready to try everything and buy everything if it could help him just a little bit, says Ditte Maria Richter Sparre in the interview with Nordjyske.
The family sought out a wide range of private treatments and went to an osteopath, chiropractor, reflexology and craniosacral therapy. At the same time, they isolated themselves at home, where even simple daily tasks felt unmanageable. The constant strain robbed them of the surplus to do anything but try to help their child.
It is an unreasonable situation to leave the parents in.
One is that colic and crying can be impossible to stop, but the least we as a society can do is support and acknowledge the parents who go through it. They must not stand alone.
We must be able to help the parents with support, advice and a system that engages them. It should not only be for the few who can afford and have the resources to seek out private solutions.
2024-09-23 18:37:52
#leave #parents #unfair #situation
