Skip to main content
PMC home page
Archives of Disease in Childhood logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood
. 1999 Jan;80(1):56–62. doi: 10.1136/adc.80.1.56

What is distinct about infants' "colic" cries?

I S James-Roberts, J HARPER
PMCID: PMC1717780  PMID: 10325760

Abstract

AIMS—To investigate (1) whether colic cries are acoustically distinct from pre-feed "hunger" cries; (2) the role of the acoustic properties of these cries versus their other properties in accounting for parents' concerns about colic.
DESIGN—From a community sample, infants were selected who met Wessel colic criteria for amounts of crying and whose mothers identified colic bouts. Using acoustic analyses, the most intense segments of nine colic bouts were compared with matched segments from pre-feed cries presumed to reflect hunger.
RESULTS—The colic cries did not have a higher pitch or proportion of dysphonation than the pre-feed cries. They did contain more frequent shorter utterances, but these resembled normal cries investigated in other studies. There is no evidence that colic cries have distinct acoustic features that are reproducible across samples and studies, which identify a discrete clinical condition, and which are identified accurately by parents.
CONCLUSIONS—The most reliable finding is that colic cries convey diffuse acoustic and audible information that a baby is highly aroused or distressed. Non-acoustic features, including the prolonged, hard to soothe, and unexplained nature of the cries may be specific to colic cries and more important for parents. These properties might reflect temperament-like dispositions.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (114.4 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alvarez M., St James-Roberts I. Infant fussing and crying patterns in the first year in an urban community in Denmark. Acta Paediatr. 1996 Apr;85(4):463–466. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1996.tb14062.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baildam E. M., Hillier V. F., Ward B. S., Bannister R. P., Bamford F. N., Moore W. M. Duration and pattern of crying in the first year of life. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1995 Apr;37(4):345–353. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1995.tb12012.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barr R. G. Reflections on measuring pain in infants: dissociation in responsive systems and "honest signalling". Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 1998 Sep;79(2):F152–F156. doi: 10.1136/fn.79.2.f152. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Barr R. G., Rotman A., Yaremko J., Leduc D., Francoeur T. E. The crying of infants with colic: a controlled empirical description. Pediatrics. 1992 Jul;90(1 Pt 1):14–21. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Barr R. G. The normal crying curve: what do we really know? Dev Med Child Neurol. 1990 Apr;32(4):356–362. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1990.tb16949.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Canivet C., Hagander B., Jakobsson I., Lanke J. Infantile colic--less common than previously estimated? Acta Paediatr. 1996 Apr;85(4):454–458. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1996.tb14060.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Carey W. B. "Colic"--primary excessive crying as an infant-environment interaction. Pediatr Clin North Am. 1984 Oct;31(5):993–1005. doi: 10.1016/s0031-3955(16)34681-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Donovan W. L., Leavitt L. A. Simulating conditions of learned helplessness: the effects of interventions and attributions. Child Dev. 1985 Jun;56(3):594–603. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Forsyth B. W., Leventhal J. M., McCarthy P. L. Mothers' perceptions of problems of feeding and crying behaviors. A prospective study. Am J Dis Child. 1985 Mar;139(3):269–272. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1985.02140050063023. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Green J. A., Gustafson G. E. Individual recognition of human infants on the basis of cries alone. Dev Psychobiol. 1983 Nov;16(6):485–493. doi: 10.1002/dev.420160604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Green J. A., Gustafson G. E., McGhie A. C. Changes in infants' cries as a function of time in a cry bout. Child Dev. 1998 Apr;69(2):271–279. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Gustafson G. E., Green J. A. On the importance of fundamental frequency and other acoustic features in cry perception and infant development. Child Dev. 1989 Aug;60(4):772–780. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hunziker U. A., Barr R. G. Increased carrying reduces infant crying: a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 1986 May;77(5):641–648. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. ILLINGWORTH R. S. Three-months' colic. Arch Dis Child. 1954 Jun;29(145):165–174. doi: 10.1136/adc.29.145.165. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Illingworth R. S. Infantile colic revisited. Arch Dis Child. 1985 Oct;60(10):981–985. doi: 10.1136/adc.60.10.981. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. James-Roberts I. S., Conroy S., Wilsher K. Bases for maternal perceptions of infant crying and colic behaviour. Arch Dis Child. 1996 Nov;75(5):375–384. doi: 10.1136/adc.75.5.375. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Kagan J. Temperament and the reactions to unfamiliarity. Child Dev. 1997 Feb;68(1):139–143. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Michelsson K. Cry analyses of symptomless low birth weight neonates and of asphyxiated newborn infants. Acta Paediatr Scand Suppl. 1971;216:1–45. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Michelsson K., Rinne A., Paajanen S. Crying, feeding and sleeping patterns in 1 to 12-month-old infants. Child Care Health Dev. 1990 Mar-Apr;16(2):99–111. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.1990.tb00642.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Miller A. R., Barr R. G., Eaton W. O. Crying and motor behavior of six-week-old infants and postpartum maternal mood. Pediatrics. 1993 Oct;92(4):551–558. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Murray A. D. Infant crying as an elicitor of parental behavior: an examination of two models. Psychol Bull. 1979 Jan;86(1):191–215. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Pedersen F. A., Huffman L. C., del Carmen R., Bryan Y. E. Prenatal maternal reactivity to infant cries predicts postnatal perceptions of infant temperament and marriage appraisal. Child Dev. 1996 Oct;67(5):2541–2552. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Porter F. L., Miller R. H., Marshall R. E. Neonatal pain cries: effect of circumcision on acoustic features and perceived urgency. Child Dev. 1986 Jun;57(3):790–802. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Rautava P., Helenius H., Lehtonen L. Psychosocial predisposing factors for infantile colic. BMJ. 1993 Sep 4;307(6904):600–604. doi: 10.1136/bmj.307.6904.600. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. St James-Roberts I., Conroy S., Wilsher K. Links between maternal care and persistent infant crying in the early months. Child Care Health Dev. 1998 Sep;24(5):353–376. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00089.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. St James-Roberts I., Halil T. Infant crying patterns in the first year: normal community and clinical findings. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1991 Sep;32(6):951–968. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1991.tb01922.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. St James-Roberts I., Hurry J., Bowyer J., Barr R. G. Supplementary carrying compared with advice to increase responsive parenting as interventions to prevent persistent infant crying. Pediatrics. 1995 Mar;95(3):381–388. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. St James-Roberts I., Hurry J., Bowyer J. Objective confirmation of crying durations in infants referred for excessive crying. Arch Dis Child. 1993 Jan;68(1):82–84. doi: 10.1136/adc.68.1.82. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. WESSEL M. A., COBB J. C., JACKSON E. B., HARRIS G. S., Jr, DETWILER A. C. Paroxysmal fussing in infancy, sometimes called colic. Pediatrics. 1954 Nov;14(5):421–435. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wolff P. H. The role of biological rhythms in early psychological development. Bull Menninger Clin. 1967 Jul;31(4):197–218. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Zeskind P. S., Barr R. G. Acoustic characteristics of naturally occurring cries of infants with "colic". Child Dev. 1997 Jun;68(3):394–403. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Zeskind P. S., Sale J., Maio M. L., Huntington L., Weiseman J. R. Adult perceptions of pain and hunger cries: a synchrony of arousal. Child Dev. 1985 Jun;56(3):549–554. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Archives of Disease in Childhood are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES