Objective: We aimed to determine the effect of the different numbers of therapeutic touch sessions, based on Watson’s Human Care Theory, on colic symptoms (crying time, sleep time, Infant Colic Scale ICS) in infants with infantile colic. Methods: This randomized controlled trial included 96 infants aged 4 to 8 weeks who met Rome IV criteria for infantile colic in a hospital outpatient pediatric unit. Infants were randomly assigned into 3 groups: intervention 1 (therapeutic touch for 1 week, n = 32), intervention 2 (therapeutic touch for 2 weeks, n = 32), and control (usual care only, n = 32). In both intervention groups, therapeutic touch was administered in addition to usual care, 3 times per week. Data were collected at baseline and at the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 8th weeks. The primary outcome was crying time; secondary outcomes were sleep time and ICS Score. Results: There were statistically significant differences among the groups’ crying times ( F = 222.612; P < .001; η p 2 = 0.827), sleep times ( F = 47.244; P < .001; η p 2 = 0.504), and ICS total scores ( F = 219.247; P < .001; η p 2 = 0.825). When infants in intervention groups were compared with the control group infants, the effect size (group × time interaction) was large. Infants receiving therapeutic touch showed reductions in crying and improvements in sleep compared with those receiving usual care. Infants in the 2-week therapeutic touch group demonstrated greater and longer-lasting benefits than those receiving therapeutic touch for 1 week. Conclusions: Therapeutic touch based on Watson’s Human Care Theory effectively reduced colic symptoms in infants, with greater benefits observed as the number of sessions increased. Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov, NCT05244291.
Beşirik et al. (Tue,) studied this question.