[The patterns of anxiety and crying among normal Danish infants with and without colic].

On the basis of a descriptive, prospective investigation, the patterns of fussing and crying in normal Danish infants aged from 2-3 to 14 weeks are described. A total of 102 infants were included in the investigation and 85% completed the investigation. The parents carried out daily registration of the periods of fussing and crying. The great majority of the infants were very placid. The mean duration of fussing for the entire group was half an hour per week during the third week of life. This increased to 2 1/2 hours per week at the sixth week of life and then decreased gradually to 0 hours per week from the 12th week of life. The material was subdivided into quartiles. Infants in the first and second quartiles showed practically no fussing. Infants in the third quartile were fussy at the commencement of the period and became gradually more placid from the fifth week of life. Infants in the fourth quartile were fussy during the first 9-10 weeks of life, after which the fussing gradually diminished. In infants in the third and fourth quartiles, fussing was most marked in the evenings. Two pairs of parents considered that their infants had colic. Ten infants were defined as having infantile colic. In these infants, the patterns of fussing and crying showed a common pattern and this was significantly different from the remainder of the group. The basic variables for the 25% most placid infants and the ten infants presumed to have colic are compared.