4wo crying and crying - colic / reflux ?

[ColicCrazy]

Hi all, new here, our DS is 4 weeks old, and from about the 2nd week we noticed he seemed to have digestive issues, sometimes lifting his knees and visibly grimacing during feeds, shaking his head and not quite grasping the teat when giving him the bottle and then eventually settling.
The formula we have been using since day 1 is Aldi's own 'Mamia' stage 1 formula.

It got quite bad, to the point whereby he seemed ok in the day, but around early evening, would cry and be pretty much inconsolable, this went on for a while the crying etc
I decided to change the formula, thinking he may have reflux, so bought SMA 'Anti Reflux' lets just say that did not go down well, the 2nd feed he was screaming and would not settle at all.

So the next day I bought Infacol, Colief & Carobel Powder (not to use all at once!)

We used the colief, and had pretty much immediate results, I thought it was 1 drop, so used that, but my OH said it was 4 drops per bottle so we began to do that for each bottle, and generally this worked well. Baby wasn't without issues but they were rare and not long-crying etc.

Anyhow, we ran out of colief yesterday, only got about 4 days use from it! And it is mega-expensive (£12 for a 7ml bottle!) And we tried Infacol, but so far it hasn't done anything compared to Colief.

Today I decided to buy Cow & Gate 'comfort milk' thinking we could bypass the colief and use comfort milk, along with a stage 2 teat for the Dr Brown bottle due to the comfort milk being slightly thicker.

Baby is on 4 scoops (4fl oz) and he took the first 2fl oz then did not seem keen on more, then about 10 minutes later just started uncontrollably crying, this is so concerning for us, we don't know what to do.

There are so many things it could be / we could try, but I am spending so much money on formula only to use it once etc it's an expensive way to find out what works / doesn't work.

We do have a tin of Aptamil , this was as we got it as a gift when baby was born, we have used that on our other son when he was born (he's now 9!) but decided to go for Aldi's Mamia milk this time round as apparently it is the same as Aptamil basically(?)

Would appreciate any advice, as you all know it is heartbreaking seeing your baby so upset and we want to do anything to make him happy again!

We are using a perfect prep 'day and night' machine, I can't see how it that could affect anything but again, trying to give as much info as we can.
(Genuine filter).

[WillWinterEverEnd]

No advice really but didn't want to read and run. You have my sympathy, it is awful when they are crying and you can't help them.

My newborn has been a little colicky and I have found the Dentinox drops to be good for her. They don't taste great but they do seem to help get all the air out and settle the baby.

Have also found keeping baby upright after feeding for as long as possible has helped a lot too.

[firsttimemum30]

Dentinox worked for us but for some reason stopped working after a few weeks. We used gripe water since and it's really helped. He kind of grew out of it after 3 or 4 months anyway as his digestive system matured. Try gentle bicycle exercises as well, pulling knees up is classic trapped wind and cycling/holding his legs up for a few seconds and rubbing his tummy should help, we learned it at baby massage classes x

[MaMaD1990]

I know this post was a few days ago but hopefully I can help! We had the exact same issues when our lo (now 10 months) was born. We actually ended up in A&E with her because we had no idea why she was screaming in pain! Turns out she had silent reflux (where sick comes up but she swallows it back down as opposed to actually being sick). We ended up using infant gaviscon which you can get on prescription from the nurse as well as buying it from supermarkets. It worked wonders when nothing else did. Be warned, it makes them very constipated so we would give a little cooled boiled water to help move things through as well as a little massage and cycle movements. Try feeding as upright as you can and elevating where they sleep slightly (a book under the legs on the cot/moses basket). Also try feeding smaller amounts more regularly and get a burp after every bottle (we had to keep going for a good 30 mins sometimes). Its such an awful time but it does end and get better! O hope this helps xxx

[ColicCrazy]

Hi all thank you so much for the replies - it appears the Tommee Tippee perfect prep was a main cause of the issue, we have gone back to kettle boiled water filled bottles and they seem to have dramatically reduced the issue... Not happy about the perfect prep, having read reviews it seems we are not alone!

[bookish83]

Why was the prep machine causing it?

We keep baby upright for 30mins and pace feed- burp a few times during the bottle. Infacol worked for us too.

We also switched to HIPPorganic gentle milk from aptimel as he was griping on aptimel.
However we have a gulpy baby who possets rather than reflux. Must be really hard for you x

[ECPCR2]

If the colief helped so much would that not suggest a lactose intolerance? Maybe try a lactose free formula (can't suggest any as I breastfeed but I know they're out there). Seems strange the prep machine would cause the issue unless it's a dodgy filter or something

[Bol87]

No way the perfect prep machine is causing these issues. It’s just hot water.. are you using the proper tommee tippee filters? I’ve used ours for a full year with DD1 & 3 weeks so far with DD2 and I’d never have blamed the machine for their terrible feeding and crying. Both my DD’s have/had reflux. My DD1 was a silent refluxer, flapped & screamed on her bottles, cried constantly, never slept, spent half her life with her back arched in pain and would bring up a clear acidic fluid. DD2 is early days but is doing the exact same thing and also vomiting up loadsa feeds! It’s hard blooming work, lots of crying. But with the benefit of hindsight second time round, it does get better and I’m much quicker to get onto our doctor to try sort it out!

One bit of advice would be to stop changing formula so often. Any formula changes should be done gradually or it will upset their tummies. You certainly shouldn’t be flipping between multiple ones cold turkey. Your babies little tummy must be really confused! Now you’ve changed so often, pick one & stick to it for 7-10 days and see if your baby settles on it. If colief did the job, I’d suggest your baby is probably just struggling with a minor lactose intolerance. You can colief prescribed by your GP, so possibly worth a shout?

If baby doesn’t settle, then call your doctor & explain all the symptoms. They’ll give you some advice etc!