to be annoyed about infacol

[entropygirl]

The NHS clincal evidence database says: 'Studies of simeticone have not demonstrated benefit in infantile colic.'

The infacol (simeticone) webpage says: 'Clinically proven to significantly reduce the frequency and severity of crying attacks associated with colic.'

So AIBU to be annoyed with them for extracting money from tired unhappy stressed parents when water drops work equally well?

ps. I will be taking the names of anyone who says ' but it worked for me' and enrolling them in a remedial course on statistics and in particular the concept that just because thing B happened after thing A doesnt mean that thing B was caused by thing A or in other words your DCs got better on their own.

[BattyDevineIntervention]

Sounds reasonable that you are annoyed about this, knowing what you do, definitely. Have you thought of running it by the Advertising Standards agency or whoever they are? If nothing else they might come back to you and at least justify why they are allowed to say this.

It might be that they are allowed to use any clinical trial, and they may have done it on 3 babies and skewed the results!

I thought they were a bit more closely regulated than that though.

YANBU

[MotherPanda]

it really helps my dd to burp - honest. we notice a huge difference for any feeds where we don't use it.

I know it's not just a placebo,

[MotherPanda]

[worraliberty]

Well it worked for all 3 of my kids so there!

[vincentvangogh]

It's a placebo. It has a positive effect. The placebo effect. And both my DSs liked the taste.

[Katiebeau]

Hmm, this is most odd. As far as I know Infacol is a fully licenced medicines which means there must be clinically and statistically relevent data to have been approved and have the claim on the label. You could ask the MHRA what the basis is for the approval was via freedom of information.

Oh and as an aside the NHS website often has nonsense written on it!!

[porcamiseria]

ERR IT WORKED FOR ME, AND i KNOW THAT AS FELT SAME AS YOU and stopped using it, and wow, the colic was worse

[wheredidiputit]

Don't care much about statistics, but do know that it worked/helped for my DC when they needed it.

[Groovee]

Well it worked for my son who brought up his wind much better when he had some before a feed.

It's probably like cough medicine no? Licenced but doesn't really work for many

[biddysmama]

ive never used infacol or even gripe water, i use massage, always worked for us and better for them than medication :)

[hiddenhome]

Try Colief instead.

[BattyDevineIntervention]

I think there are 2 separate issues.

One is "colic" - and the question of really, what is that exactly? Because there is colic, and there is wind. Most babies suffer a degree of wind in those early days and benefit from a bit of help to get it up. Some more than others. This doesn't necessarily make them "collicy" - other babies will scream from 2pm till 10pm, curl their legs up towards their chests and just be inconsolable. That's true colic and is possibly less common that we realise as a bit of wind, or even lots of wind, is sometimes put under that "colic" umbrella.

It might be that Infacol are using that broad umbrella of colic but really are talking about babies who have a bit of wind. Whereas the NHS are likely to view colic as the sort that sees parents seeking help from their GP's and possibly even their hospitals in an attempt to understand what is wrong with their baby.

"associated" with colic, they say, not "caused by colic". That might be exactly why they are allowed to say this.

[HamstersDontSwim]

It worked on my 3.

Maybe they (infocol) refered to a different clinical trial?

[SewWhat]

I didn't care if it was the placebo effect or not, it seemed to work. At that point I would have danced naked chanting around a spoonful of apple juice and given that to the baby if it would have cured the colic!

[MotherPanda]

Batty - i think you're right. Infacol is great at relieving wind, and so avoiding the screaming at night due to trapped wind.

If you have no idea why your baby is screaming, and are able to bring up wind anyway, it's probably not going to do a lot.

[Bramshott]

Ah but it says it has been proven to "reduce the frequency and severity of crying attacks associated with colic" which is not the same as saying it cures or helps with colic.

[hiddenhome]

transient infant lactose intolerance

The sugars (lactose) in milk can cause severe discomfort (colic) until the baby's digestive system has adjusted to the lactose in the milk.

This is how Colief works.

This is why Infacol doesn't work in some infants.

A bit of wind isn't going to cause that amount of pain.

Within a day of giving lactase enzyme (not lactose) to my ds2 his pain went away completely and he was fine after that - regardless of whether or not he was 'winded' after a feed.

[ncjust4this]

I think infacol is great for trapped wind but colic covers all sorts of ills. It is esentially a baby crying for long periods for an unknown reason. I found infacol worse than useless but colief worked a dream - try explaining to my local nurse practitioner that they dont work the same way, that was fun.....

[ncjust4this]

X posts hiddenhome.

[entropygirl]

Well as we have descended (inevitably) into anecdote, here is mine.

Baby screams for large chunks of time, back arched, scrunched up, the lot. We tell the HV. She says oh its colic try infacol. I think horray horray thats great and set off for the shops. DH says whoa I checked it up and there is no evidence it works. I decide that on balance Im not putting random orange flavoured stuff into my baby without a good reason. Two days later the colic is 'cured'.

[entropygirl]

Bramshott I would have some sympathy with that view of things except for the fact that as colic doesnt have any obvious measurables other than crying, that is what the studies tend to measure.

So the claim that it reduces crying is provably wrong regardless of what colic is or how it leads to crying....

[InvaderZim]

I don't know if simeticone helps colic, I DO know that it helps me when I'm windy and is basically inert to the body. We still use it sometimes when DD is gripe and windy and she's almost 1!

[entropygirl]

Also while I accept that bringing up wind is something that simeticone actually does do, infacol define colic as:
'Colic is usually recognised by bouts of inconsolable crying, often for hours at a time, for no specific reason - i.e. your baby is not hungry, overtired, needs a nappy change or has a raised temperature.'

So by claiming to treat it they are not talking about making your baby burp.

[entropygirl]

worraliberty dont make me put you on the naughty step!

[SewWhat]

Entropy I would guess then that your baby didn't have colic then perhaps if it cleared up so quickly after it had begun. My doctor told us that colic was when the crying lasts for more than 3 hours a day and happens at least 3 days per week for more than 3 weeks. Colic went on for months for us.