Background: Evidence for the effect of minimal acupuncture in infants with colic is limited.

Aim: To compare the effect of standardized minimal acupuncture, individualized acupuncture (where traditional acupuncture points were chosen according to the infant's symptoms) and no acupuncture on objective measures of stooling, feeding and sleeping in infants with colic (based on diaries) and perceived changes in these parameters (based on parental questionnaires).

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of a multicentre randomized controlled three-armed trial conducted in four counties in Sweden between January 2013 and May 2015 (ACU-COL). The effect on crying has already been published and showed a decrease in crying time for the acupuncture groups. Infants, 2-8 weeks old, who cried and fussed for more than 3 h/day for more than 3 days/week, and thereby fulfilled the criteria for infantile colic, received four extra visits to their ordinary child health centre. The infants (n = 147) were randomly allocated via a computer-generated list to standardized minimal acupuncture at LI4 for 5 s (group A, n = 48), semi-standardized individual acupuncture with a maximum of five insertions for up to 30 s (group B, n = 49), or no acupuncture (group C, n = 48). The parents and the ordinary staff were blinded. Data were collected using: (1) diaries at baseline, during the two intervention weeks and 1-week follow-up; and (2) questionnaires with quantitative and qualitative components used at the second and fourth visits and during a follow-up telephone call. Outcomes were the changes in frequency of stooling and in hours of sleep per day.

Results: There were no differences between groups for stooling, feeding, or sleeping at any time point according to data from the diaries. At the follow-up phone call, more parents in groups A and B (compared to group C) perceived that feeding and sleep had changed and that the symptoms of colic had improved.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01761331.

Keywords: acupuncture; feeding; infantile colic; randomized controlled trial; sleep; stooling.