Formula Fed baby suffering terribly with wind, any advice?

[Rarfy]

Hi

I have posted before about my formula fed dd who suffers terribly with wind. I got some great advice and tried a couple of things but she is now 10 wks old and the problem is ongoing.

She has been awake from 2.30am last night where she had a 5 ounce bottle then has not gone back over as she has been writhing around since then pumping.

Every day she wakes us up straining to pump then letting out ginormous manly farts. There's not just one, it goes on for hours.

Anyone that holds her comments on her pumping all the time. My dm has had 5 dc and numerous dgc and has never come across it before.

So far we have tried:
Baby massage - hasn't done anything but she does enjoy it
Cycling her legs - helps release the farts occasionally
Infacol - this has definitely helped with the colic as i have tried to cut her down the last few days and she has gotten worse.
Colactase - this seemed to make the biggest difference in that she now enjoys a bottle and seemed to reduce the farting episodes slightly but nothing significant
Gaviscon - did nothing for dd
Cows milk allergy formula - did nothing for dd (although admittedly i didn't try it for long).

So now i want to change formula. She is on cow and gate first stage. I don't know which to move to though and admittedly dont want to keep chopping and changing.

I have heard good things about Hipp Organic and also comfort milk. Which one do i choose?

Fwiw the health visitors suggested baby massage and gp cows milk allergy both of which haven't helped. I also tried to BF dd but she wouldn't latch.

It's so sad seeing her uncomfortable.

[Kidssendingmenuts]

I used cow and gate comfort milk and it was great. Is she in pain when she has trapped wind? If not I'd just leave to her to it and carry on as normal. If she is in pain switch to comfort milk but also stop everything else as your using quite a lot of stuff to get rid of the wind. Just use one or the other x

[Babdoc]

Have you ruled out simple things like keeping her bottle well tipped up to stop her sucking in air with the milk? And/or trying a non dairy product such as a soya based formula milk? How about going back to the GP and asking for a paediatric referral?

[Soph88]

What bottles are you using? I found the dr brown ones amazing when my daughter was having bad wind.

[MaderiaCycle]

We used comfort milk for similar reasons and it really changed things for our LO

[Bigonesmallone3]

Gripe water?

[Caspiana]

Another vote here for the dr browns bottles, such an improvement when we switched to them from tommee tippee

[Rarfy]

The GP put dd straight on aptamil pepti 1 which is a prescription formula for cows milk allergy. It didnt make any difference in the four days we tried it and i really didnt feel comfortable treating her as if she has a cows milk allergy if she didn't.

We use mam anti colic bottles. I keep the teet covered with milk and wind every ounce or two. She is on six ounce bottles as of this week.

She does seem in a fair bit of pain she writhes around and makes straining noises and occasionally cries. Not always but definitely during the night.

She does struggle to get her wind up the other way too.

I really dont want her to be overly medicated which is why i have cut down on the infacol but then we get two hours of crying and writhing around at 6.00pm.

It's good to hear people have had success with comfort milk that helps me. One thing that has made me reluctant to try it is it says its for constipation. Dd isnt constipated. She poos at least once a day and if anything it is overly wet. In fact she gas just recently started sharting now and again.

[Rarfy]

Oh sorry -have tried gripe water occasionally but really didnt want to add that into the mix when already using infacol and colactase.

[HappyInL0nd0n]

Sympathy to you & your little one, OP. Very hard to watch them in pain.

I second Dr Brown bottles. Also, have a look on YouTube for all the best winding techniques. Sorry, I know it's an obvious one, but if it's not constipation, the discomfort is coming from trapped wind so it's less likely to be the formula brand at play. Remember that it often takes longer to get wind up than you think - one burp doesn't mean it's all up. Sometimes, it would take 15/20 mins of walking/patting/rocking to get all our little boy's wind up.

Cow & Gate 1 worked for us. The 'milk for hungrier babies' we accidentally bought once had him screaming in agony. Gripe water definitely helped get burps up. Alternating cycling legs, gentle tummy massage and walking up and down seemed to bring the best relief.

I'd also say the digestive system changes/grows into itself (insert appropriate medical terminology) at around the 12-14 week mark. It's just much easier for them to get their own wind up/digest etc so fingers crossed, you won't have much longer of this discomfort to deal with.

[Ploppymoodypants]

I used Hipp organic and no problems.
But I would look at bottles and your feeding technique. Are you all making sure that the whole rest is full of milk the whole time she is feeding and no air going in?
Hope that doesn’t sound patronising, I am sure you have checked. Just making sure xx

[mommybear1]

Hi OP I'd also recommend the Dr Browns bottles they are fantastic- a friend of ours had similar problems to you and tried these bottles and it did resolve it for them. We also used HiPP Organic and I can't rate it highly enough. I agree with pp and suggest you also look at feeding technique etc - good luck!

[MindatWork]

Hi Op, our dd was horrendously windy and constipated on aptamil, we moved her to Hipp organic and the improvement was instant. However it was also around the 12 week mark so likely that she started growing out of all her digestive niggles round about then. She’s now 19 weeks and I can’t remember the last time we had to use gripe water or infacol, and her wind comes up really easily.

I remember how stressful it was though, she used to fart like a trucker and really writhe around in her crib.

Good luck x

[barbiegrl]

If it is cmpa then four days wouldn't necessarily show a difference-it takes up to two weeks for the milk proteins to clear from the body. (My son is cmpa)

[AnOwlCalledPlop]

It’ll improve at 12 weeks. That’s the magic point. I counted down the days to 12 weeks with both of my FF babies and I was not disappointed.

We used SMA. Never had any issues with it. I’d also second the Dr Brown bottles too

[Rarfy]

I know i spoke to aptamil and the gp and both said around six weeks for cmpa but her symptoms just didnt seem to fit it. The trapped wind is the worst thing she has.

Its only dp and i that feed her really and dp only once a day if that so even if he wasnt doing the same as i am it probably wouldnt have a huge effect.

I would try the Dr Browns bottles but it's an expense i would rather not shell out if they dont make any difference. We had Tommee Tippee bottles and never even used them - the community midwife told us they were no good so we went out and bought he mam starter set for £35. To start again is a big expense if no good and then we have a load of bottles sat going to waste.

[EmmaJR1]

I know you don't want to over "medicate" but with my son I had to use comfort milk with gripe water in and Infacol.

I did this until he was 16 weeks or so then started reducing it slowly until he was just on comfort milk. I kept him on this until he went to cows milk just because I didn't want to keep changing formulas.

[Rarfy]

Thanks @EmmaJR1 why did you move to comfort milk and which brand?

In all fairness from what i can gather infacol isnt absorbed by the body just literally collects the gas bubbles together to be expelled and colactase breaks down the lactose in the milk which i think is already done in comfort milk so i could probably stop that if i moved over.

The pharmacist said it is perfectly fine to use all three but commented that if you needed all three should see the GP as there is probably a problem.

Didn't mention earlier but dd was born at 37wks. I have been holding off for the 12 wk magic time but will that be more like 15wks for her? It just seems a long time however on the other hand i think if we have managed this far should we just put up with it.

[EmmaJR1]

@Rarfy He was on SMA Pro then we moved to SMA comfort.
All 3 things definitely helped and the HV said it was ok for the short term. I saw gp on another matter and mentioned the wind and they basically said wait and see... 🙄

Like I said it was 16 weeks or so for us and ds was 8 days late. Babies like to do things in their own time...

[Rarfy]

Oh so it was wind? I think its probably the next logical thing to try i just get nervous about changing things too much.

[EmmaJR1]

Yes,trapped I used to have to burp him rocking too and fro on my lap with his back to my chest.

The tiger hold used to ease the tummy pain.

It's horrible listening to them Moan and cry isn't it.

[EmmaJR1]

This is what I mean...

[sar302]

The dr browns bottles were worth every penny for us. Absolute game changer. And I got so cross with the GP when I was told to
wait til 12 weeks and it would get better - but she was absolutely right. It might be 15 weeks or so corrected for your LO.
I hope it sorts it self out soon x

[GlossyTaco]

It's so horrible to see your baby in pain op.

You've tried so much , but for us it just naturally got better in time. Particularly when our son started eating solids and was able to sit. We used infacol until he was about six months old and took the vents out of his dr browns bottles at around 8 months.

[Rarfy]

Thank you.

We have tried the tiger in the tree hold, bear hugs, gentle bouncing,the usual rub and pat, figure of 8s,circling, laying over lap. I don't think there is any winding technique we've not tried.

It probably is worth perservering. I am now swayed to trying doctor browns. Altho id rather not shell out again would be worth every penny to settle dd and me get a bit more sleep at the same time.

Do dr browns bottles fit the tommee tippee steam steriliser does anyone know? Those who moved onto Dr Browns -what were you using before?
I only have mam to compare to but these do get highly rated - i guess i am just wondering if they would make that much of a difference.

I can only think that the milk doesnt completely agree with her tho as if it was trapped wind surely a couple of pumps and it would be cleared? That's not the case with DD. She pumps all the time.

[GlossyTaco]

Dr browns bottles are tall and come with so
parts so it's a but of a squeeze to get them in a TT steriliser , they will fit though.

We came from TT bottles , I've never used Mam.

I know spending £60 on another set of bottles is a pain but when you're making changes it feels productive which helps.