Ask the Expert Series

In TCM, we have a similar condition called night crying, 夜啼. Its characteristic is that the baby has no issues sleeping in the day, but will be restless and cry when trying to sleep at night, occasionally crying through the night till dawn. Furthermore, the crying doesn’t subside with feeding, replacing soiled diapers, some soothing, adjusting the thickness of clothing etc. It also typically occurs in younger infants, usually before the age of 6 months. While there is no clear known cause for colic, TCM understanding of this similar condition is that one of the main causes of such a condition is indigestion due to overfeeding. And the underlying factor behind this is that the digestive system or as TCM puts it, the Spleen and Stomach Organ are still developing and therefore weaker in function. Hence, when faced with too much food or food that are too complex, the digestive system would not be able to cope and result in a situation of food stagnation. Where the accumulation of stagnant