Comparison of the effect of fennel essence and gripe water syrup in infantile colic

Excessive crying in healthy infants due to abdominal colic is a common problem during the first month of life and usually occurs in infants of less than 4 months of age. Various plants have been used to relieve infantile colic including chamomile, dill, fennel, catmint and others, among them fennel is most frequently recommended by herbologists. Since the cause of infantile colic is unknown and chemical drugs have different side effects we designed this study to compared the effect of fennel essence with that of grip water syrup in infantile colic. This was a randomized clinical trial and encompassed 81 infants up to 4 months of age in Arak. The patients were divided into 2 groups. Before intervention, diagnosis of colic was made by a pediatrician and mean duration of crying was assessed for all infants and was classified into 3 groups; less than 60 minutes, 60-120 minutes and more than 120 minutes. In the experimental group fennel essence with doses of one teaspoonful TDS and one dessertspoonful TDS were prescribed for patients of less than one month of age and patients of 1-4 months of age respectively. The control group received grip water syrup with the same doses for similar age groups for one week. On the 3rd and 7th days of treatment the mean duration of crying in 24 hours was determined again and compared with the previous values. Data were registered in questionnaire, introduced into SPSS soft ware and analyzed by means of X2, Mann-Wittny, Leven and K.S. tests. Before intervention the mean values for duration of crying in fennel group were: in 56.1% less than 60, in 36.6% 60-120 and in 7.3% of cases more than 120 minutes; and in gripe water group: in 63.4% less than 60, in 29.3%. 60-120 and in 7.3% of cases more than 120 minutes which revealed no statically significant difference. But after treatment on the 3rd and 7th days comparison of the pre and post treatment values for duration of crying in fennel group showed a significant difference (p=0.004, 0.05). On the 3rd and 7th days of treatment in grip water group we also noticed a significant difference between pre and post treatment values for duration of crying (p=0.037. 0.002). None of the infants cried more than 2 hours in the 2 groups. No statically significant difference was noticed between the two groups after treatment. The essence of fennel is effective as much as grip water syrup in relief of infantile colic, so it can be used as a safe, effective and inexpensive herbal drug for infantile colic.