Mr Z is three weeks old today and fully breastfed.
Every single evening, from about 5pm until about 8pm he has been very unsettled.. Pulling up his legs, screaming, pulling off the breast while feeding.
I've been burping him but it seems very difficult to get him to burp. It takes alot of back patting to get a burp up and then he usually keeps on screaming for ages anyway. He is a bit of a chucker too.
The rest of the day/night he is very placid and seems happy. It is not after every feed that he acts this way, it just seems to be in the evenings.
What is this? Colic? Wind? Reflux?
What can i do for my poor little guy?
I've tried Brauer Colic Relief but it doesn't seem to do much.
I should also mention that he was put on antibiotics when he was five days old but i took him off them after 5 doses as they seemed to be upsetting his tummy. This was actually when the problem started but I don't know if it's a coincidence or not. I have had him on baby probiotics since.
My other babies never had this so I don't really know what to do!
If it's the same time every day then it's arsenic hours, yeah.
It may be related to the ABs, but not necessarily. They do often upset their tummies.
Sometimes it's best to just plan for this if you can and work around it. Get everything you need to do done beforehand so you can just deal with him for those hours. It will get better, generally sometime after 6 weeks Hang in there
Miss k was EXACTLY like this! Isn't it horrible?
For her, it was pains in her tummy/wind. Unfortunately.. Nothing worked for her. But there are a few things you can do to help, gripe water (or the like), gently massaging around their belly button in a circular motion, clockwise. Warm baths.
Also, when you burp him, try to just gently rub his back, as opposed to pat it. Patting their back often breaks up one big air bubble, into many little air bubbles. So although they burp, they will still have wind.
Also, a teaspoon of cooled boiled water - in their stomach the milk sits onto of the air bubble (the wind), water weighs more than milk, and is suppose to go to the bottom of the stomach, ultimately pushing the air bubble up over the milk, and they burp much better.
Infants Friend helped here! Also, baths where bub could kick her legs, taking her for walk in carrier, DH's jiggly knee, it was trial and error and some things worked some days but not the next. we got some relief using a dummy after about 6 weeks. it lasted til around 12 weeks here
It is really concerning when babies seem to be having so much difficulty. Nothing cuts through the new mum's psyche like their baby crying and not being able to soothe him/her. Most babies will have one time of the day or the night where they have a good sleep - at this age 3 hours is about as good as it gets - and another time of the day or the night when nothing you do seems to be right for them. Never be afraid to use breastfeeding as the first means (and the repeated means) of comforting your baby. Baby's are hungry for more than just food - they are hungry for you! They crave that connection to you! Slings are great. Many mothers find that changing their routine - having a bath at that time, or a massage helps change the dynamics. Or as the weather gets nicer and the days longer, go out for a walk in the pram or sling at this time.
The good news is - it gets better. It won't always be like this.
Wow, thankyou all so much. Will have to try your tricks and give gripe water a go (what exactly is gripe water anyway!?). A friend suggested infants friend today.. Anyone tried that?
MadB, I worked out in a hurry that dinner was best cooked during the day!
Ubba, I just wrote the exact same thing to you in our FB thread! Hahaha! We are so connected
Telly, yes it is horrible! I just feel so sad for him! He looks like he is in agony
I have noticed that rubbing his back seems to bring up a burp better than patting, so I'll stick with that xx
Things that helped us were: spacing feeds to three hourly if possible and using the sling to settle at other times...(dd had silent reflux because she fed non stop), having batches of meals in the freezer, sbs movies with subtitles, and remembering it's normal and will pass. Dd was totally over it by 12 ish weeks.
I feel for you. After dd I thought all babies screamed for hours on end...apparently not!
My first was a shocker for that - exactly the same. I worked out he was just overtired after a big day of being alive and was cranky. I get like that too some days. He settled down around 4 or 5 months.
I used infants friend and found it great. However in hindsight I'm not sure he had wind but was just yelling me he was cranky. But it did help to calm him.
As horrible as it is they are designed/programmed to do this as it releases hormones in you which in turn increases your milk supply for the next day. It's a very frustrating time for everyone involved though
Our DS2 was exactly like this and after DS1 who never did it, we were starting to go crazy! Two things ended up working for us (after trying Infant's Friend, Infacol, Brauers Colic Relief) was a trip to the Chiro, the best thing ever!! Next baby we have will be going in the first week! He stopped the screaming two days after the first visit to the Chiro.
And also getting him into bed in a dark room before he got cranky, so if I knew he would start around 6pm I would get him ready for bed and sit in the rocking chair while feeding in the dark at about 5:45pm.
So I think he was uncomfortable and very overtired by that time of day.
Hope that helps in some way and I hope it passes very quickly for you, its horrible.
What's wrong with my baby?
Reply With Quote
Hang in there
Bookmarks