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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

newborn grunting/straining/gen uncomfortable-what's the norm?

40 replies

feekerry · 10/03/2014 19:59

dc2 is 4.5 weeks old. since birth he has been a very grunty/wriggly baby. it seems to be getting worse now tho. he spends 90% of his awake time grunting/writhing etc. typical colicky type stuff but it just seems constant.
at night its awful. keeps the whole house awake. he doesn't scream or cry inconsolably but cries out/grunts/ moans so loudly. he does appear to be in pain, goes red etc.
he is ebf and seems to only poo every 2 days and when he does he poos several times. poo all looks fine and he isn't often sick.
what is normal? he just seems so uncomfortable/unhappy little thing.

OP posts:

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BuntyCollocks · 10/03/2014 20:03

At 4.5 weeks he should be pooing far more frequently than once every two days. Maybe repost this in the breast and bottle feeding thread? He does sound uncomfortable, poor mite. How are his wet nappies?

BuntyCollocks · 10/03/2014 20:04

At 4.5 weeks he should be pooing far more frequently than once every two days. Maybe repost this in the breast and bottle feeding thread? He does sound uncomfortable, poor mite. How are his wet nappies?

FreelanceMama · 10/03/2014 20:05

Our little one made such a noise at night that I recorded it because I didn't think people would believe me. If he's not crying, he might just be a grunter. Hope someone else replies too.

FreelanceMama · 10/03/2014 20:08

You might want to watch what you eat too. I'm intolerant to cow's milk protein (not the same as lactose intolerant as I can have goats milk) and I was v strict with my diet when breastfeeding as the cow's milk proteins can transfer across and I suspected they may have been a problem for DS.

PartyConfused · 10/03/2014 20:10

Sorry, don't agree with Bunty. My dd2 was pooing once a week at one point! Also at the time ebf. She was under paed at the time for unrelated issues and we were told this was fine. She was slightly older (weeks), but was prem.

If you are worried about the grunting it won't hurt to see a GP or hv. I think it can be an issue with newborns, but was under the impression this was much younger.
I too have heard that some babies are just noisy in their sleep.

Madratlady · 10/03/2014 20:13

My ds was a very very noisy sleeper, he's got better over the last few weeks (he's 12 weeks now) but we thought it was due to trapped wind, it was almost impossible to get him to burp after a feed. we tried Colief after infacol didn't help and it worked like magic, he burps after a feed and sleeps more peacefully. He's much more restless and grunty if we don't use the Colief. Only trouble is you have to give it in milk which would be difficult with a ebf baby. Ds has expressed milk as bf failed.

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:22

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:23

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:24

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:24

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:24

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

Trooperslane · 10/03/2014 20:25

At that age we thought we had actually brought a grumpy badger home from the hospital.

Jesus - the noise!

feekerry · 10/03/2014 20:33

he has been on anti b since birth until he is 6 weeks old as a preventative measure for another issue so not sure whether the anti b's are making him like this?
tried infacol with no difference. will try colief but unsure how i would give it to him as no bottles or expressed milk here.
i thought pooing every 2 days was not enough but hv said it was fine. when he goes there is LOADS of it tho.
plenty of wet nappies.
poor baby always has his legs drawn up too. his grunting/writhing etc is so loud its waking dc1 up in another part of the house...

OP posts:

BuntyCollocks · 10/03/2014 20:47

With respect, it is unusual for a baby under six weeks (although link does say from four) to not stool every day, several times a day.

It's not necessarily a red flag, but something to keep an eye on. Is weight gain ok?

feekerry · 10/03/2014 21:08

no i agree it doesn't seem alot esp compared to prev dc. he has now not pooed in close to 36 hours now.
he was weighed day 5 and had lost 5% then weighed day 10 and over birth weight so was discharged from care and he hasn't been weighed since.
to me he looks like he is def gaining well. quite a chunk now!!
maybe he is constipated? tho when he does go it doesn't tend to relieve him

OP posts:

Doodle1983 · 11/03/2014 04:53

My DS is 5 weeks and from about 3 weeks onward has gone anywhere from 2-4 days for a poo. HV says it's perfectly normal and as long as it's soft there's no issue.

Also he is wriggly and grunting at night only. He's sick too. I took him the dr thinking reflux and he said not. Had a good feel of his tummy and said if he was in pain at night he'd be crying. I've learnt to sleep through it now but was getting very little sleep in the beginning.

Doodle1983 · 11/03/2014 04:54

I should add he's FF..

Doodle1983 · 11/03/2014 04:55

We have Infacol, special wind relief bottles and comfort milk and he still wriggles!

Stubbed · 11/03/2014 05:03

These symptoms could also be signs of reflux. You should get that checked out also.

toomuchtooold · 11/03/2014 06:34

Yep Stubbed one of mine had reflux and sounded like that (it also got worse till about week 12 and then went away). We tried colief, gaviscon, infacol and even gripe water added to the formula (honestly when I think about the stupid advice I followed...) but the only thing that helped was keeping her upright for about 20 minutes after she'd had her feed. (It was really funny because we got more and more lax as the weeks went on till the point I was just popping her in the boopy cushion and going to the toilet and then putting her back in the cot and then we realised she'd outgrown it. My but could that wean yell. It started the first couple of nights after she was born and it was this weak little moan, and by 10 weeks it sounded like someone was murdering a budgie...)

QuestQueCest · 11/03/2014 06:39

Antibiotics can affect the gut though can't they? They kill the friendly bacteria as well as the bad. I always take prebiotics after a course of anti-bs.

No idea whether you can give probiotics to such a small baby though. I would see your GP.

AnythingNotEverything · 11/03/2014 06:47

I think grunting and writhing at 4.5 weeks is pretty normal. It's another one of tho settings they don't tell you about babies!

I'd get him weighed and ask the HV though. Without confirmation that he's gaining weight it's hard to say all is well.

Also, do repost in the feeding topic. Lots of lovely people there who are experts in this sort of thing, who can add to the good advice you've had above.

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HaveYouTriedARewardChart · 11/03/2014 06:48

Neither of mine were ever more frequent than once a day, usually less.

Both were very noisy grunty sleepers too but not to the extent you describe. Hopefully it will settle down of its own accord fairly quickly - their digestive systems are so tiny and still maturing to deal with milk properly.

feekerry · 11/03/2014 07:17

thank you everyone for your responses.
i am off to gp this morning as he is getting worse. he cried alot last night. the writhing and grunting was unbearable. poor little thing

OP posts:

Doodle1983 · 11/03/2014 07:59

Ah hope he gets it sorted. My cousins baby takes gaviscon but my dr wouldn't prescribe it x

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