At wits end... Wont stop screaming

[Mother Goose]

We had a similar thing at a similar age and took her to a GP who told us she had a distended bowel and needed emergency surgery so went straight to the hospital who told us there was nothing wrong . Turned out a combination of colic and being over tired. I was missing her tired cues (always at the end of the day BTW) and she'd cry which just pushed more air into her belly. I started putting her to bed 2 hours after she woke - even if she wasn't displaying tired signs to me. I also did the tummy massage in a clockwise direction and the gentle pumping of the legs (alternate between "riding a bike" and knees to chest). This worked most of the time and the odd times it didn't I would resort to a ride in the car once DH got home (had a c-sect so couldn't drive) and if he wasn't going to be home and I was at the end of my tether - we'd go for a walk.

HTH and keep up the good work.

MG

[Mel09]

Thanks guys... A friend told me about infacol, is it ok this young???

[Snacks]

Sorry, Mel, I wouldn't be using infacol until about 6 weeks, but that's just me (and I'm not the one having to look after a screaming baby). Could you try gripe water first?
Also, I hear it can be really helpful to see an osteopath if you have an unsettled baby. We never went, but I wish we had've.
Maybe another trip to the dr might be helpful, as others have suggested?
Natalie used to cry a lot too. But she'd always settle down by 10pm. I really feel for you - I know how much pressure it can put on your family. Hope you find a solution soon.

[ShootingStar]

Sounds like colic to me, especially if shes bringing her legs up.
Jesse suffered this a few times and were told my Tresillian to lay him down and gently move his legs like he's riding a bike. Either that or try rubbing her belly in a clockwise motion.
After this i started stopping and burping him several times during his bottle which seemed to stop him from getting so much wind caught up.

[LuluHB]

A little bit of warm water can sometimes work quite well for colic too, especially when your bubby is too young for infacol etc. Don't know if you're bottle or breastfeeding but whatever you're doing, try feeding "uphill". If you're breastfeeding you need to sort of lean back a bit so that Tahli is almost looking down at your breast so she is having to suck upwards, which makes it a little harder for her and less likely that she will take in air. It was something that helped a little for me with my DD. Agree with the others about keeping her upright after feeds, although I would be saying more like 30 minutes than 10, and elevating the head end of her cot.

I struggled getting burps out of my DD and was eventually told by 2 paeds that if you don't get a burp in the first 5 minutes you're unlikely to get one! The tummy massage and cycling legs definitely seem to help with moving trapped air, as do nice warm baths.

[Schmickers]

Hi there Mel,

I can sympathise as the father of a baby that was a bit like that for her first 9 months, and still isn't a very settled sleeper eight months after that!

As someone has suggested, look to the length of time she is up in the day. A 2 week old baby should still be sleeping most of the day and night. A common mistake that new parents make is to miss tired signs during the day - they can be so subtle and easy to miss. The problem is that babies will not self-settled well at this age - there is so much going on in the world they don't want to miss a thing - and some babies will happily stay awake until they are VERY tired. This isn't so much of a problem during the day - they eventually exhaust themselves and fall asleep - but it becomes a problem at night because, when the lights go out, they are over-tired, feel crappy, but all of a sudden there is no interesting world around them to keep them distracted - so they get really unsettled.

At 2 weeks, bub should only really be having 30 minutes to an hour awake at a time - some babies will have less than that.

Something that will complicate things is that, at 2 weeks, they have a growth spurt. That means that they become really, really hungry. It's natures way of stimulating your body to produce more milk - it makes the baby unsettled, and want feeding constantly, which signals your body to produce much more milk than it had previously. Then, 72 hours later, when the increased milk production kicks in, they become contented again. Don't worry - this is a normal process, it's part of your baby's normal growth, and it's not an indicator that you don't have enough milk. Rather, it's a signal to produce some more.

So, my advice would be to try and get more day sleeping in, and the night sleeps might fix themselves - but be aware this is prime time for a growth spurt, so try not to despair if it doesn't work right away.

I could be wrong, but I believe that babies don't settle into a reliable day/night cycle for four to five more months anyway - until then, they should be sleeping as much in the day as they are at night, because they can't really tell the difference.

And I second osteopathy. That is good advice, and many babies - including those with reflux disease - can benefit from it.

[mrscricket]

Mel - I had a look on the infacol website and it says to be used from 1 month to 2 years. Prehaps you can check with your pharmacist. I am pretty sure we used it on DS from about 3 weeks because we were desperate!