The Relation Between Colic and Eczema in Early Infancy

Abstract

My object in this paper is to discuss a fact largely ignored in recent pediatric literature, namely, that the "true colic," 1 or vagogenic gastro-enterospasm of early infancy, is rather commonly complicated or followed by eczema of varying severity.My observations are based on forty-seven patients from private practice. Patients with these conditions are not, and should not, be admitted to a children's hospital.2 Even with regard to the newly born infants, hospital records, though accurate as to diarrhea and vomiting, rarely contain any note of the patient's fretfulness or of his painful reaction to feeding.For the purposes of this study, the patients are classified as follows : those with the gastro-enterospastic syndrome alone (table 1), those with eczema alone (table 2), and those with both conditions (table 3). Of the forty-seven, twenty-nine were boys and eighteen were girls.Of the ten patients with "colic only," one was exclusively breast fed for six months or longer ; five were breast fed, with complementary modifications of cow's milk; and four were artificially fed exclusively. In the seven patients in whom atropine was used successfully, its administration was required for an average period of five months. The two patients responding poorly to atropine did well on thick cereal feeding, one requiring it for eight months, the other for ten. This type of food apparently has much more than the mere mechanical effect of checking the vomiting of infants with gastrospasm.