Over-Medicalisation of Infants: Is There a Tendency to Pathologise Normal Infant Behaviours?

"Your baby cannot fall asleep on his own because you breastfeed him to sleep — that is not normal"

"He is 5 months old and should be sleeping through the night."

"I will explain how establishing routines and autonomous settling will help regulate his sleep."

"Feeding him to sleep is a bad habit. He associates sleep with feeding and this disrupts his nights."

In Western society, we observe a growing tendency to label normal infant behaviours as "pathological" or "abnormal". This inevitably generates parental anxiety, and an enormous industry has developed around specific topics such as infant sleep, infant crying, colic, reflux, tongue-tie, and so on.

Having a baby who cries a lot, or who only sleeps in your arms… this is particularly difficult. It comes as an enormous relief for parents to meet empathetic, supportive professionals who explain that these crying episodes actually have a cause: reflux, tongue-tie, and so forth.

It is a relief for parents, because it means it is not their fault — they are not incompetent. Their baby has a problem, and it can be fixed.

After meeting these professionals, parents generally notice an improvement. But is this a placebo effect? Natural developmental progress? A parent who feels heard, reassured, and calmer will also have a calmer baby — this is the emotional co-regulation observed between parent and child. This effect is generally short-lived.

The problem is that:

• it can also generate anxiety (my baby has a problem that needs to be fixed) which can impact parents' mental health — rumination, worry — in a postpartum context where mothers are often already in a state of hypervigilance.

• It can sometimes lead to costly care (multiple appointments with "experts") that takes a toll on both the family budget and energy levels, with repeated outings and travel.

• Parents are sometimes asked to implement specific interventions (e.g. sleep routines, intraoral massages) to which the baby will not consent, leading to crying and tension.

• It disempowers parents: someone else will "fix" their baby, or teach them how to fix their baby — when in reality, the parents are not incompetent and the baby is not "broken".

  
  

There are undoubtedly many good intentions among the professionals who offer alternative, non-evidence-based methods to support parents. It provides a rationale for the consultation and allows them to take an active role.

But as with childbirth, this over-medicalisation raises a genuine question: does a baby really need to see a therapist to cry less? Or would the same effect be achieved if the mother carried her baby in a sling and went for coffee with a friend?

Educating parents about normal infant behaviour is a public health priority.

On the topic of Over-Medicalisation and crying:

There is a normal, temporary developmental phase (between 2 weeks and 5 months, peaking at 6–8 weeks) during which crying is intense. Rocking, carrying, and going outside can reduce crying. Crying naturally diminishes over time. In France, this is often attributed to "colic" or "silent reflux" (implying a digestive cause). The effectiveness of anti-reflux medications is contested, and the French National Health Authority (HAS) has issued recommendations to limit their use. See also the website on infant crying: www.comprendrebebe.com

On the topic of infant sleep

Babies wake frequently at night. These awakenings are protective against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and are physiologically normal (more information on this topic in our NDC module 2 training). This is extremely demanding, and the reality of an entirely inadequate maternity leave makes the experience even harder.

How many parents have had the discouraging experience of spending hundreds of euros on the promise that their baby will sleep — only to be told they must let the baby cry to learn to fall asleep independently? Some do summon the courage to go through this ordeal, sometimes acting against their own instincts. They then often discover that the miraculous effect is in fact temporary and must be repeated.

In conclusion, current trends lean towards over-medicalisation of normal infant behaviours, rather than towards listening, supporting, and reassuring parents.

In practice, professionals naturally want to help resolve "the problem", even if this means offering therapies not validated by evidence. Yet often, mothers feel relieved simply when they are listened to, and when it is validated that what they are experiencing is hard — but also… normal and transient.

On the blog you will find other articles on this topic, on the evidence-based approach to breastfeeding and perinatal support, and on over-medicalisation in the age of social media.

This article echoes our previous articles on these topics:

• on intraoral techniques in osteopathy

• On manual therapies in the management of tongue-tie

• On over-medicalisation in the age of social media

• On evidence-based breastfeeding support

This specific topic will be covered in the NDC Possums approach training.