Gripe water: what is it? Why is it given?

Large numbers of babies are given gripe water for no valid reason or for only trivial symptoms, write Cynthia Illingworth and John Timmins. When a health visitor survey of Sheffield mothers and babies showed how widespread was the practice of giving gripe water, they decided to seek information about the nature of gripe water, the conditions which it is supposed to treat and its use by a representative number of women.