crying why?????

[sheila2]

my 5 week old girl is crying for most of the day and i dont think she is crying for no reason. health vistors asure me that she will settle through time. i am not happy with that. she cries v hard before her bowels open and when the do open every time they are v soft and loose(watery) i was thinking of changing to wysoy milk as i did with my first daughter is it safe to change milk at such an early age.

[Chandra]

I would not try soy formula unless it's the last option. Some babies (not all) can react badly to soy or develop allergies if they have some sensitivity. Soya is a good time allergen so, if you really don't have to use it, it's better to wait sometime before introducing it.

Are you breastfeeding? if not, what formula are you using?

[sheila2]

I am not breast feeding using formula milk cow & gate premium. Also find that she is more satisfied lying on her belly but we are told not to let them sleep on their bellies but to me this is relieving some strain from her stomach.

[Nickyfen]

Maybe she has colic? my DS was the same at this age I was desparate. My MW said he enjoyed crying! Then some one told me about infacol, I gave him this before every feed (he was breast and bottle fed) It seemed to help, he is now a very contented 8 month old.

[Nickyfen]

also if she cries before opening her bowels - she may be constipated. I believe HV's usually advise giving cooled boiled water for this, but I would speak to yours first.

[sheila2]

was treating her for colic using infacol then advised by hv to try colief but this didnt stop the cryin so didnt think there was any point in using it anymore after 3 weeks. when she was born she was feed on sma gold but this constipated her so hv told me to try cow&gate premium this cured the constipation but the cring is still there. have heard about aptimil do you think its wise to change milk until you find one suitable. i find hv just make you feel stupid when you ask them any thing and im a great believer in a mother knows best.

[sheila2]

has no problem opening her bowels now they are vv loose and she explodes it out when passing wind.

[sheila2]

has no problem opening her bowels now they are vv loose and she explodes it out when passing wind.

[Nickyfen]

it sounds like something is upsetting her tummy.
I don't know about keeping changing milks, you may find if you change too frquently, it may upset her anyway.
With infacol you need to use it for a couple of weeks for it to really take effect.
I agree that mother knows best alot of it is your instinct. HV and MV's are not laways right.
Have you tried a wide neck bottle? I chenged to these and they do sem to help, also check the flow of the teat, in case she is taking in air.

[Chandra]

Every baby is diferent and react differently to each brand of formula but, while DS was on Cow&Gate he had terrible constipation problems (he cried in pain to poo), he was much better with Aptamil, the problem didn't disapear completely though, but at least he stoped crying.

[Chandra]

PS, Although I believe that the crying of your baby may be due to colic as she has soft bowel movements.

[jykya]

my baby girl was almost exactly as you describe- always upset and everyone said "babies can be like that" but we were convinced she was in pain. difficulty staying asleep, even feeding interrupted sometimes and poor thing was miserable. i bf and discovered after eating dairy products, it gets worse. even after eliminating all dairy, i found blood in her diapers the ped said she cannot digest some proteins which cause her bowel to be inflamed and therefore the blood (may or may not be obvious if you look, but can easily be tested for). crying is due to tummy cramps. bicycles helped altho it was not wind. i tooke her to a specialist and ended up eliminating lots of things from my diet, milk and soy being the first because they are the most common i was told. point is if you are giving formula it will be milk or soy based, might be same problem? i was recommended nutramigen (enfamil) or alimentum(?) (similac), i also heard of another, neocate which i think is only available direct from the manufacturer. these types break down the protein completely so baby doesn't have to digest it.

i understand it is temporary, should grow out of it between 6-12 months of age when gi tract is more developed- around the time baby is old enough to eat some solid foods. once i eliminated those things from my diet dd changed completely (was around 2mo old)- sweetest most adorable thing ever! very dramatic and we were relieved.

i have a coworker who did not diagnose but experienced same thing, changed from dairy-based to soy-based formula and then to the "pre-digested" type and found same dramatic results. super-expensive tho, and i've heard it tastes awful too. but may be worth a try!

[starlover]

sheila, sounds like you're having a tough time!

your baby's poos sound NORMAL! completely. they do have runny poo, and it does explode out when they fart... ds always did this! they shouldn't be too solid
some babies cry when they pass a stool just because it feels really odd! when she was inside you she never had to do it... so she probably just thinks it's a bit weird

i don't think there is any reason just yet to change to soya milk.

try using an anti-colic bottle and also i will suggest, as i have to many, many people on here, that you try osteopathy (cranial or otherwise). Birth is a pretty traumatic process and babies can sustain minor injuries which leave them uncomfortable.
When I took DS they found that his neck was very tight (hence he would only turn his head one way) and that his chest and diaphragm were very tight as well.

I have a friend whose baby cried and cried and cried... it was heartbreaking. she took him to the osteopath and he had 3 treatments... it was like a different baby! he was so much happier and content.

what kind of birth did you have?
also... how do you settle her when she is crying?

[Aragon]

Hi sheila,

You sound as though you are having a dreadful time. Firstly, I'd say she sounds uncomfortable for some reason. I can't tell you if that is due to the milk but I do know that sometimes what suits one baby doesn't suit another.

If you are going to change milks again it would be worth trying either Farley's which seems to be lower in lactose than some of the other milks or Omneo Comfort which is a pre-digested milk. (but expensive). Although it's not ideal to change milks too much it might be worth it if you find a milk that seems to make her more comfy. For example my DS was dreadful on C+G Prem but was a different child once I changed to Farley's. However, when you do change milks you may find that initially she is a bit more unsettled until her body's adjusted to it.

I think that some babies are just reacting to the presence of food in their immature gut in the early weeks (I can't prove that - just a theory) and that some of them have silent reflux with small amounts of milk being regurgitated from the stomach but not enough to sick up - they still get the resulting pain though.
Some babies do cry before opening their bowels simply because they don't like the sensation.

Your HV shouldn't be making you feel stupid when you ask her something - you're doing a hard job at the moment and all the crying is stressful and tiring.

[Aragon]

And as starlover says - cranial osteopathy is worth a try. I didn't use it with my son but have heard good reports about it from other parents.

[sheila2]

i went to my own gp and it turns out they think she has a milk intolerance so she was put on soya based milk and ohh my goodness i have a new baby the change is unbelieveable. i explained all the problems that i was having and to answer your ? starlover the only way i could get her anyway settled was to lie her on her belly on the floor or across my knee. but from the change over of milk she is doing great, every feed she is taking 5-6oz and maybe even has a top up of 2oz 2hrs later. thank you for all the great advise you gave me its great to know there is actually someone out there to listen, who is going through something simular to the problems you r having.

[starshaker]

dont know if any1 else has said this but i let dd lie on her tummy all the time apart from night when i cant keep an eye out although she roll onto her tummy so nothing i can do bout it.

out of curiosity was ur baby back to back with u at any point later on

[basl]

this thread is just what i needed. My dd is 7weeks old and crying all the time, tried infacal, gripe water, all different sleeping positions, gina ford. She seems to be so unsettled after every feed scratching my face and pulling my hair in soooo much obvious pain and yet i was told it will pass, this is very interesting listening to this thread.

[MummyPig]

sheila2 and basl, I really feel for you and I get so angry at health professionals who tell you your child is crying for no reason. Grr . My first child had colic and I was told exactly that by a midwife who was supposed to be helping me to breastfeed.

Anyway, it turned out that he had an intolerance to cow's milk - cutting it out from my diet for 10 days made him so much happier, and as soon as I ate anything with cow's milk in it he got worse again. So I'm not surprised that in sheila2's dd's case it's turned out to be an intolerance. But they really shouldn't have put her on to soya formula. I'm fairly sure that the Department of Health advises not to do this any more. I gave ds1 soya formula from about 5 months and he then developed an intolerance to soya which he still hasn't grown out of. Plus there are other problems with soya as I've already posted here (as SamN).

Basl, my ds2 has reflux and this is another reason why babies can cry a lot (often also connected to food intolerances). And it's another thing that needs to be sorted out - I've been told that a reflux baby will just 'grow out' of it, but from what I've read, in the meantime the acid can be causing great damage their oesophagus. To Take a look at this page from the PAGER website which might help you to decide if your dd has reflux. (My ds2 didn't 'spit up' very much but used to have real problems feeding, pulling off and arching his back and crying even though he was obviously hungry. At about 2 1/2 months his weight gain started to drop. It also appears that his frequent runny noses and coughs were probably due to the reflux, rather than catching infections off his older brother, as I thought at the time.

Also this long article about calming 'fussy' babies might give you some ideas about calming your dd when she is upset. I found baby massage helped a lot with my two, and I've also spent a lot of the past 13 months carrying ds2 around in a sling.

hope this helps a bit

[lilsmum]

sounds like lactose intolerance to me,

my dd had it from about 6 weeks old, she would get a bubbling belly, explosive nappies and crying after feeds.

hv and gp kept passing it off as colic, tried colief and infacol....neither helped.

only thing that helped was changing her milk to SMA LF (lactose free), kept her on the LF for 3 mths, and after that she was fine, able to eat all dairy and have normal milk.

hth xx

[lilsmum]

if you want any more info, or to chat about this...feel free to CAT me xx

[basl]

many thanks for all the help. Health visitor mentioned omneo comfort which i have tried. Seems to be helping and i suggested she may be lactose intolerent but she advised oh she will grow out of this. Can she have a test done to confirm this.

[basl]

sorry lilsmum i am new to mums net and this sort of thing what does cat me mean? (I feel stupid now}