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Possible Connection Found Between Infantile Colic and Pediatric Migraine

babies with colic may be at heightened risk for developing migraines later in childhood, according to a new study that helps provide some clues about the inconsolable crying — usually more than three hours a day in infants up to six weeks old — that can leave new parents frustrated and sleepless. The European study of 208 children and teens who were diagnosed with migraine at emergency departments found that nearly 73 percent of them had a history of colic in infancy, compared with 26.5 percent of a control group of children. The findings, published April 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), raise the possibility that colic might be an early form of migraine — which probably will come as a surprise to many new moms and dads who often blame their newborn’s periods of excessive crying on painful gastrointestinal gas, perhaps due to a breastfeeding mother’s diet or an allergy to cow’s milk. “This study raises questions about basic assumptions regarding infantile colic,” noted an editorial that accompanied the study. “If colic is an early manifestation of migraine, this may explain the consistent lack of efficacy of treatments directed at a gastrointestinal etiology.” The editorial, written by Leon G. Epstein, MD, and Phyllis C. Zee, MD, PhD, of Northwestern University, noted that other periodic disorders of early childhood have been thought to be variants of migraine, including benign paroxysmal vertigo, benign paroxysmal torticollis, and cyclic vomiting syndrome. Many children with cyclic vomiting syndrome go on to develop migraine. “Migraine disorders may represent a continuum from colic in infancy to cyclic vomiting syndrome in young children to childhood and adult migraine,” they wrote.