Is it normal for a baby to cry after every breafeed? Should he be on neonate formula?

[Razzberry]

Hi,

I need your help ladies!! I feel like I don't know what "your typical baby is like" since my 2.5year daughter wasn't your typical baby (reflux, screaming, no sleep etc etc). So I don't know how much crying is normal.

My son is almost 6 weeks. He was put on losec at 2 weeks for reflux, he is a massive spewer and I can hear stuff coming up his throat and going down again even when he doesn't spew it out. He screams or cries or whimpers after this happens.
As he has been on the meds for 4 weeks now I would assume they should be working by now.
He doesn't sleep well as the refluxing wakes him up and then I have to try and settle him again.

My daughter was 100 times worse in the screaming and no sleeping department, but she wasn't put on meds till later so maybe this is why my DS seems better than her. She is having an endoscopy done soon as a specialist thinks she had breast milk colitis as a baby and now has allergic esophagitis. So If I had stopped breastfeeding and put her on a special formula such as neonate the pain may have stopped for her. I thought I was doing the best thing by breastfeeding for 6.5months (until she had total breast refusal and lost a lot of weight)

DS also sleeps better at night (easier to settle etc).

I guess this sounds very confusing. I am just feeling extremely guilty that my DD has been in pain for 2.5 years and I don't want this for me son.

If it is my breast milk that is causing his reflux, pain and unsettledness then I will stop and put him on neonate formula, but I don't want to stop breastfeeding unless this is the case.

I am not sure what to do, because I guess there is a big chance he is the same as my DD but maybe he does just have normal reflux that other babies have? Not the insane type my daughter had?

any ideas welcome!!

[Miss E]

Sorry hun, I don't have any advice, just wanted to give you a big

[Barb Glare]

No - he won't be any better on formula. You need to get to the cause of this. and in this day and age this is not as easy as it sounds I know.

If you can work out what is going on you can go onto successfully breastfeed.

Tell me, how often does your baby feed in 24 hours?
How are his weightgains?
What are his wet and dirty nappies like?
Tell me about his birth?
Full term? Early? Late?
Do you have a family history of allergies/
Does anyone in your family have eczema or asthama?
you are sure having a bad time, but it will get better and you don't have to give up breastfeeding

[Razzberry]

He feeds approx 3 hourly, sometimes 2 hourly, and very occasionally 4 hour in the night. At 3 weeks he had put on 500g since he was 1 weeks old, he hasn't been weighed since but is def growing as his clothes are getting tight on him and he is looking chubbier!
Lots of heavily wet nappies, he was pooing a couple times a day up until a week ago, but hasn't done a poo since, i thought he may be blocked up, as very gassy, but even when he was more regular he was exactly the same with screaming and crying!
It was a normal delivery though was induced at 39 weeks as had low fluid around him.
Yes to allergies, I had asthma and eczema, hay fever, hives, my niece (identical twins daughter has egg allergy)

and now my daughter 2.5 years has been told by gastro doc he suspects allergic esophigitis which would have began when i breastfed her.

[onthefly]

Raz, what a tough situation!
There's some sort of underlying problem, I think, and like Barb says, you need to get to the bottom of it, regardless of how you feed.

Given your daughter's condition - caused by allergies, as I understand? - and your family history, it sounds like maybe allergies are the issue here too. In many instances, reflux babies actually have allergies.

You seem distressed about your daughter's condition I suspect you have had many trips to the doctor before now - it must be frustrating that it's taken so long to get a diagnosis.
Although things passing through from your milk may have caused some problems for your daughter, continuing to breastfeed her for as long as you did was still good - there is so much in breast milk that she would not have gotten elsewhere, including factors that help protect against allergies.

[Razzberry]

Thanks,

I am just feeling so super guilty right now about my daughter and its making me feel very anxious about my son. I persisted and persisted with breastfeeding my DD even when she would be screaming and pulling off me and I would be in tears every time I fed her, and this went on for months and months. Everyone was telling me to stop feeding her, but they didn't understand the emotions behind feeding her! I ended up with PND and had lots of counselling to help me come to the decision to stop feeding her at 6.5 months.

I told myself I wasn't going to let myself get so emotionally tied to breastfeeding again - but I have!

I see the paediatrician again this week, so will talk to him, though I feel like most doctors aren't breastfeeding friendly, so don't know about him!