Painful wind in breastfed newborn

[JuneWind]

Morning all, first time poster. Looking for some advice re my breastfed 2.5 week old DD.

For the first week or so, she fed amazingly. Latched on nicely, fed herself to sleep, gentle wind and wouldn’t wake up until her next feed.

However the last week or so she seems to be in so much discomfort with wind and this is affecting feeding times.

I wind after each feed but it really upsets her. It’s like there’s loads of wind stuck in her which I can’t get out, but it mostly seems to be farts that trouble her, not so much burps.

Sometimes she’ll be straining and groaning so hard and will suddenly let out a huge wet sounding fart, and you can see the instant relief!

We now have:

-Straining when at breast, as if she were constipated (which she isn’t)
-Squealing/crying at breast whilst feeding
-Can hear her stomach gurgling during feed
-Crying/straining when winding
-Strains for really loud/wet farts
-Wakes up straining tummy/agitated after sleeping on back
-Difficult to settle to sleep unless she’s on you

She’s putting on weight and has plenty of dirty nappies, but she just seems like she’s in so much pain/discomfort with the wind.

I try to feed her upright, have tried tummy massage which she hates! Also have been giving her colief for the last four days but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.

Any advice/ideas greatly appreciated! It’s so awful seeing her so upset and just feeling like I cannot get this wind out of her.

[SnuggyBuggy]

Not the most helpful thing but I found it gets better as they get older. Their digestive system is pretty crap for the first 6 months. You could try bicycling the legs or tiger in the tree hold.

[Spanneroo]

I reduced my dairy intake on advice of a GP for DD2 and it really helped her. She was a bit funny with dairy until about 18 months but is now fine (age 2)

[SuperSange]

I drank fennel or peppermint tea and that helped my lo enormously.

[Creas35]

Gripe water helps us, have to give it on a spoon and only use half of what they should have as only got tiny belly’s but it was an instant relief and now at 10 weeks not having to use it much at all. Also laying across legs to wind.

[emmaluggs]

I think this is something they tend to grow out of, I remember my LO being the same in the early days, in line when he started to cluster feed a lot. After a week or so it calmed down again

[Elliesmommy]

Is it possible she is tongue tied ?

[DoraNora]

My DD had those symptoms and it was silent reflux. Greatly improved by medication (ranitidine) but cutting out dairy from my diet made the biggest difference (on instruction from the paediatrician). If you follow this route it is important to note it takes a long time to get out of your systems and therefore to see a difference in the baby. It took us almost 6 weeks to the day, but then it was like I had a new, happy child.

@Spanneroo I am very heartened to see your DD grew out of her dairy-aversion! We are just starting to wean and I am worried she will never get to experience the joy of real butter

[Spanneroo]

Dora fingers crossed for your DD. Mine was likely to be sick following anything more than a small grating of cheese for the first few months, though we still offered her some every few weeks. By about a year, she could also have a few spoons of yoghurt, though would still be sick if she had too much. We kept at it, a little at a time, and now have no issues at all. Hope you have the same experience!

[bottomflannel]

June My 3.5-week old is the same. It’s so hard. I have a very fast milk flow/oversupply so am experimenting with taking him off the breast during the letdown, and feeding him in a more upright position, but it’s hit and miss as to whether it helps. It’s infinitely worse at night. From memory my first, who is almost 8 now, did grow out of it/got big enough to manage my milk flow, so am hoping it will be the same for baby.