Editor's note: Doctors from the Department of Complementary and Alternative Medicine clinic at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine have joined the Prescriptions rotation and will appear every five weeks.

Sometimes babies will cry for hours at a time and nothing we do seems to quiet them. This kind of crying, usually called colic, is most common between 2 weeks and 4 months. Even the most competent parents may feel upset, irritated or even scared when they cannot get their babies to stop crying.

Frustration over crying can lead to stress, postpartum depression and even thoughts of harming the baby. Half of all infanticides are colic-related. Infants who have colic usually eat well and are healthy otherwise.

Infants with colic can cry from three hours a day to 12 to 15 hours in severe cases and may continue crying even while held or soothed. Crying may happen around the same time daily or may seem to occur with no particular reason.

Doctors are not sure what causes colic, although recently a bacterium normally found in the mouth, skin and intestines was reported to play a role in the still-mysterious cause of colic in babies. Researchers studying babies who had colic found the bacterium klebsiella along with gut inflammation in the intestines of all babies in their study.

"We believe that the bacterium may be sparking an inflammatory reaction, causing the gut inflammation," Dr. J. Marc Rhoads, a pediatrics professor at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the study's lead investigator, said in a news release. "Inflammation in the gut of colicky infants closely compared to levels in patients with inflammatory bowel disease."

He said colic could possibly lead to other gastrointestinal conditions in later life, such as irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease.

There is no medically grounded treatment or known cause, although bottle-fed babies seem to get it more often than breast-fed infants, according to background information in the news release on the study.

Another article suggests half of colic cases may be due to cow's-milk-based formulas. The condition often disappears as suddenly as it presents itself. Probiotics, a dietary supplement of so-called good bacteria, could control the gut inflammation in colicky babies. This will be studied in a new investigation.

Babies with colic may have abdominal pains due to trapped gas. They contract their body into a ball or arch their back, tighten the muscles in the arms and legs, and their face may become red. Colic may also cause sleeping problems, such as making it hard to fall asleep or only allowing babies to sleep for short periods.

Holistic pediatrics can help you soothe your baby and manage your response to the crying.

Colic is not your fault or your baby's fault. It doesn't mean that you are a bad parent or that anything is wrong with your baby. Most babies who experience colic will still eat properly, but if you notice major changes in the baby's eating and/or sleeping habits, contact your pediatrician. If you think your baby is crying because he or she is hurt or sick, call your doctor. Vomiting, diarrhea, fever, or blood or mucus in the stool is not a symptom of colic. If your baby has any of these symptoms, he or she needs to be checked by a doctor.