Gripe water

Gripe water is a herbal home remedy for babies with colic, gas, teething pain or other stomach ailments. Its chief active ingredients are ginger, dill and fennel and sometimes chamomile. It is typically dispensed directly to the infant with a dropper in liquid form. Adults have also been known to take gripe water for soothing intestinal pains, gas, or other stomach ailments, but in larger doses.

Gripe water is a product which may help to relieve the painful symptoms associated with infant colic. Gripe water may be recommended by pediatricians, nurses, lactation consultants, midwives and doulas in the medical community. Despite it being an accepted part of recommendations even from Pediatricians, no formal evaluation of gripe water has ever been undertaken.

Although many various forms of concoctions to fix minor upset stomachs in babies have been around for centuries in different cultures, the first officially known Gripe Water was reportedly formulated in England in 1851. It became popular almost instantly, and it soon became common for English nannies to use the product liberally.

The original Woodward's Gripe Water contained 3.6% alcohol, dill oil, sodium bicarbonate, sugar and water. Since then, many companies have come up with their own recipes for gripe water. A typical single dose is 2.5 to 10 ml, depending on the age of the baby, and it is repeated several times daily.

In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in USA ordered an automatic detention of all shipments of gripe water into the state as it fit the definition of a new drug without having FDA approval. However, companies started to market and sell gripe water in the US as a dietary supplement, being that it is NOT a medicine, there is no need for FDA approval. The product, from the United Kingdom, India and other countries, can be found in many ethnic grocery stores throughout US. Many of the bottles imported from other countries still contain significant amounts of alcohol and bicarbonate which depending on the dosages may be harmful to children.

As a result, American-made brands such as Baby's Bliss, Colic-Ease and ColicCalm gripe water were developed. All three products are manufactured in American FDA-approved labs by professionals who specialize in the proper handling of liquid formulations, including a testing protocol that helps ensure product safety and effectiveness. The FDA considers Baby's Bliss and Colic-Ease to be herbal dietary supplements whereas ColicCalm is regulated as an over-the-counter homeopathic medicine and thus conforms to stricter quality testing protocols.