“Excuse me,” the burly repairman said gruffly. “I don’t mean to be nosy, but you keep bringing in your vacuum cleaner to be fixed. I’ve never seen so many burnt-out motors! What are you doing to it?”
The young man flushed. “My baby screams nonstop. Talk about white noise machines — none of them seem to be loud enough for my daughter! She only sleeps when she hears the noise of the vacuum. We duct-taped the vacuum cleaner to her crib and keep it on for 18 hours a day. Vacuum cleaners aren’t made to handle that kind of use, so it constantly needs to be fixed.”
This is a true story about one case of that five-letter word all parents fear: C-O-L-I-C, screaming attacks and inconsolable crying in otherwise healthy infants.
To the uninitiated, colic is merely a word in a baby-care book; to those who’ve been there, it’s a long, black tunnel of sleep-deprived despair. Despite the fact that up to 30 percent of babies have colic, what it is and isn’t remains one of those medical controversies that makes the ordinary parent want to throw in the (spit-up soaked) burp cloth.
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