Long term cognitive development in children with prolonged crying
Open Access
- 1 November 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by BMJ in Archives of Disease in Childhood
- Vol. 89 (11), 989-992
- https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2003.039198
Abstract
Background: Long term studies of cognitive development and colic have not differentiated between typical colic and prolonged crying. Objective: To evaluate whether colic and excessive crying that persists beyond 3 months is associated with adverse cognitive development. Design: Prospective cohort study. A sample of 561 women was enrolled in the second trimester of pregnancy. Colic and prolonged crying were based on crying behaviour assessed at 6 and 13 weeks. Children’s intelligence, motor abilities, and behaviour were measured at 5 years (n = 327). Known risk factors for cognitive impairment were ascertained prenatally, after birth, at 6 and 13 weeks, at 6, 9, and 13 months, and at 5 years of age. Results: Children with prolonged crying (but not those with colic only) had an adjusted mean IQ that was 9 points lower than the control group. Their performance and verbal IQ scores were 9.2 and 6.7 points lower than the control group, respectively. The prolonged crying group also had significantly poorer fine motor abilities compared with the control group. Colic had no effect on cognitive development. Conclusions: Excessive, uncontrolled crying that persists beyond 3 months of age in infants without other signs of neurological damage may be a marker for cognitive deficits during childhood. Such infants need to be examined and followed up more intensively.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Breast feeding and cognitive development at age 1 and 5 yearsArchives of Disease in Childhood, 2001
- Systematic review of the occurrence of infantile colic in the communityArchives of Disease in Childhood, 2001
- Infantile colic: maternal smoking as potential risk factorArchives of Disease in Childhood, 2000
- Cognitive development of term small for gestational age children at five years of ageArchives of Disease in Childhood, 2000
- Fetal growth and infantile colicArchives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal & Neonatal, 2000
- Maternal Intake of Cruciferous Vegetables and Other Foods and Colic Symptoms in Exclusively Breast-Fed InfantsJournal of the American Dietetic Association, 1996
- Pre‐pregnancy risk factors of small‐for‐gestational age births among parous women in ScandinaviaActa Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 1993
- Infantile colic and parental smoking.BMJ, 1984
- Prevalence of infant colicArchives of Disease in Childhood, 1982
- Broad-band dimensions of psychopathology: Factor scales for the Personality Inventory for Children.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1982