Breastfed 6 week old in pain with lots of farts at night - am I doing something wrong?

[fanjolina]

Hi, hoping someone can either help or reassure me. My DD is 6 weeks old and the first of my children I have breastfed. She is feeding well (seems to be attached all day) and putting on about 6oz per week.

My only concern is how affected by wind she is. Not so much burps (which I try to get up after every feed), but farts. It is a particular issue at night. She writhes around and makes sound like she is in a lot of pain, then she farts and relaxes again. Only for the same thing to happen about 15 mins later. This goes on for most of the night. She sleeps through it, but I don't as the noise of her writhing in pain is so loud and distressing. It has even woken my DH up, and he wears ear plugs in bed!

Is this normal and to be expected of a BF baby? Or am I doing something wrong, such as not latching her properly? Would giving her gripe water help?

Sorry for all the questions - just want to stop my DD being in pain (and be able for me to get some sleep at night)

[coppola]

this sounds like both of mine tbh - I went dairy free and it made a really big difference.

And obsessive winding. Winding half way through the feed and afterwards for about as long as the feed lasted.

[tiktok]

fanjolina (great name!!!) : your baby is not in pain if she stays asleep through this.

Lots of babies do this.

It's on the normal spectrum.

One option would be to live with it - and to cease worrying about winding and burping.

What does HV say?

[fanjolina]

I was wondering if it might be something I am eating coppola. I don't consume much dairy (just milk in tea) so can easily give it up.
DD also has foul nappies - explosive poo constantly through the day which really stinks. Does anyone know if my diet could be causing that?

For ref, I normally eat:
Breakfast - fruit & cup of tea with milk
Lunch - bowl of soup with bread
Dinner - hot meal like shepherd's pie
Drinks throughout day - water & coke zero

[EffiePerine]

Both mine were v windy with explosive poos, it didn;t seem to distress them so I did nowt about it. Caffeine def affected DS1 (as did red wine, boo) so maybe try cutting out the coke if you can (if nothing else it has all sorts of artifical sweeteners which are No Good for You )

[fanjolina]

I haven't spoken to my HV TikTok. She only came twice to weigh her. Now if I want to see her I need to make an apointment and travel on two buses to get to the clinic, so I wasn't sure if ths was an issue worth seeing her about.

(And tbh, would prefer not to see her after the response I got when I told her I let DD sleep in bed with us now after I almost dropped her when I fell asleep feeding her sitting up one night).

It's good to know that DD is not in pain though - thanks.

[mumtoted]

I'd say it was the coke. Has the same effect on me!

[fanjolina]

I know it's bad Effie . But it's either that or chocolate for my daily "high". And as I only like milk chocolate, I thought the coke zero was the lesser of the two evils!

[LovelyTinOfSpam]

Both of mine have had explosive poos and terrible farts. DD1 was in pain with her farts - I know this as she cried with it so much. DD2 very windy as well but fingers crossed no crying with it just squirming and making noises, but like yours she stays asleep so I'm sure they don't hurt her.

Neither DD had smelly poos though - they usually say BF babies have less smelly poos than FF. Don't know if anyone else on the thread has any more info on that.

[fanjolina]

Mumtoted - I hadn't thought of it like that. I will def try cutting it out.

[EffiePerine]

Personally I'd go for the chocolate

DS2 is better since he started on solids, so like Tiktok said maybe some babies just do this. V embarassing when I was bfing in public and they'd let rip

[EffiePerine]

Oh and one thing that did seem to be linked was my forceful let-down - do you find your DD squirms about or clicks when feeding, esp at the beginning? There's some good stuff on managing it here:

www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

[fanjolina]

I'm not feeling my let down any more, so not sure if it is too forceful. But she does spend most of the evening squirming on and off my breast (she "feeds" almost constantly from about 5pm - 11pm, although most of this is spent "fussing").

[EffiePerine]

the cluster feeding sounds normal - do you feed alternate sides for that period or on one side for a while then the other? Block feeding (i.e. from one side only) can help sometimes - I used to feed on one side for a couple of hours then the other, which seemed to help a bit.

[fanjolina]

I tend to do one side for a while (maybe an hour or more) then the other side. Sometimes it is less if she is really fussing to latch, and seems to get a more comfortable latch (and more comfort) from the alternative side.

[greeneyed]

Fanjolina my baby is v.similar, 5 weeks. fusses and squirms on the breast feeds for a hour or so each time and groans and farts all night so I am very interested in this thread. by the way you are barely eating anything compared to me. I am starving all the time since breastfeeding my diet is something like this:

3 pieces of toast and fruit

mid morning a banana

Lunch a sandwich and some cake/chocolate

afternoon snack usually a slice of toast

dinner - i.e shepherds pie and pudding i.e muller rice

evening snack - several biscuits or some cheese.

I don't know how you are surviving at the moment!

[cyteen]

I thought that too greeneyed DS was a milk monster and I am was shovelling in the food like there was no tomorrow.

fanjolina, my DS was a farty little thing as well and I did have a very fast letdown. The kellymom page linked above was v helpful in managing it. The only other thing I wanted to mention was that DS had a bad time while I was on antibiotics - then his wind did become obviously painful, struggling to fart and crying etc. Bad nappies too He's had the same thing when he's been given anti-bs directly so I assume it was a reaction to them.

[aquavit]

Fanjolina - my dd was exactly the same but now, at the grand old age of 9 weeks, the nighttime roaring has eased off, and the evening cluster feeding has levelled out too and she's much less fussy. TBH I wasn't all that worried about the noise because she was fast asleep throughout, the only thing was that I had to learn to sleep through it too!

Hope it's reassuring to know it's not unusual (and that it might pass soon!). Good luck

[NotSoRampantRabbit]

Am also sympathising. DD is 4 weeks and very gassy, farty, especially through the night and does seem uncomfortable much of the time.

Think my let down is very fast so will try some of the tips on the kellymom site. Am on day 2 no dairy but finding it really hard. Am bloody ravenous - want cake. And cheese. And chocolate.

Is hard work!

[fanjolina]

Thanks for all your replies. It's reassuring to hear that other babies are like this and it's not just me doing something wrong.

I have had a look at the kellymom fast let down site and will start making changes to how I feed her, as per the useful tips (thanks for the link Effie).

And from tomorrow I will drop any dairy and the coke zeros.

I will hopefully also learn to sleep through the nighttime noise!

As for me not eating very much - surprisingly I have not found that breastfeeding makes me hungry, if anything it has made me want to eat less. But then I did put on about 4 stone when pregnant so my body has plenty of fat reserves to get through!

[tiktok]

fanjolina - if you drop dairy and the cokes, and the baby changes (I bet she doesn't.... ), you won't know if it was dairy or the cokes that was doing it. So you need to do one at a time.

[coppola]

Yes, good plan - although, my baby did change significantly when I cut dairy out. I'd go for the coke first though. Best of luck

[fanjolina]

good point Tik Tok. And I agree coppola, will drop the coke first.

[Kiwifruit]

Hi Fanjolina - agree it's likely the coke. My DD2 was like that and I cut out my daily latte at the suggestion of my midwife, which made a huge difference. Very annoying that you have to give up caffeine just when you need it the most... For some reason tea seemed to be ok though, just expresso that was an issue (so maybe dairy too, but didn't cut out cheese or yoghurt, which makes me think was probably the coffee). Thankfully, at 6 months she seems to be able to tolerate the odd full caffeine latte now and again...

[hellsbelles]

Hi Fanjolina

for me it was chocolate (horror!)...and it really helped DD when I stopped that. I also took her to a cranial osteopath which made a huge difference very quickly. After just one visit it was much much easier to wind her and she seemed more settled.

[fanjolina]

HellsBelles - I went off chocolate as soon as I fell pregnant with her! Was absolutely convinced I was carrying a boy as with my last 2 pregnancies (girls) I couldn't get enough chocolate!
I have taken her to a cranial osteopath for the past two weeks, and it has definitely made her more settled during the day. She used to scream the house down if she wasn't being held, but now will lie on her own...oh, for about 5 mins!

Kiwifruit - I agree that it is cruel that when you need caffeine you have to give it up. Grrr!