To ask why my baby groans and strains ALL night?

Hi OP, I know this was years ago but did you find your son grew out of it and can you remember when?? Currently 9 weeks and still going through the same thing every night.

My Ds was a bit like this and he was tongue tied. He used to get air bubbles in his tummy as a result, and it was really hard to get him to burp them out. Much better when he had it snipped. He would want to sleep on me but would struggle to settle in the cot, especially on his back.

Just something worth looking into?

*completely

The advice I've had is that when breastfeeding it can take up to 6 weeks in total, which include 3 weeks for it to leave the mum's system complete and another 3 weeks for it to leave baby's system. So if baby is formula fed, I guess in theory in would take up to 3 weeks? There is another factor to consider which is that not all hypoallergenic formulas are equal - most babies will be fine on the first formula that's prescribed but some very sensitive babies will need super hypoallergenic formula (Neocate, not sure if there are others).

I don't know what angle is best, the wedgehog (which we have) is 18 degrees. DD does slide down the mattress a bit, but not too much.

PS After a night feed, I hold DD upright for a bit, then put her in the bedside crib, when she grunts and wriggles for a bit, but if I rest my hand on her tummy she settles, goes quiet and still and goes to sleep. The bedside crib makes it easy for me to do this while lying next to her and falling asleep myself!

You're not alone! My DD is 2 months old and she was a terrible grunter to begin with - she still does grunt sometimes but not as much. She has CMPA and reflux and she's been better since I cut out dairy (I'm breastfeeding). It does take a while for the cow's milk protein to get out of their system though, so hang on in there! You might find that symptoms improve enough to stop or even reduce the medication.

Sorry if this is obvious but keep baby upright for half an hour after a feed. And as PPs said, tilting the crib can help. If your crib doesn't have a tilt function, you could raise the legs at one end or get a wedgehog to put under the mattress.

There is a good book about reflux called "Colic Solved" by Bryan Vartabedian.

Yep, I'd say leave to grunt! If they're in true pain or discomfort they'll cry for you. And actually he may be asleep some of the time regardless of grunting, so you might disturb him.

I found this age the HARDEST. After they're about three weeks old and become more alert (stop the constant, easy sleeping bit), but before they're engaging, they're really quite unreasonable creatures. When you get to nearer 10-12 weeks it gets SO much easier and more rewarding. Honestly.

Yes to leaving baby to grunt. I realised DD gets more irritated if I start to intervene with dummy / patting etc. If she needs me, she will cry. Otherwise I put earplugs in and try to sleep!

I used to lie next to her and rub her tum very gently. I've spent entire nights doing that just to make the noise stop. Luckily her twin didn't do it, just woke up 2 hourly to guzzle a feed then went back down. Bloody exhausting this new born lark, and don't worry, I didn't enjoy it at all either, it doesn't make you a bad mum.

One of my twins did this. It's very stressful, grunted and strained from about midnight to 5am every night. I was told it was possibly due to her being 3 weeks early and her trachea or something being underdeveloped ( I can't remember, it was all a tearful sleep deprived hideous blur) she thank god suddenly stopped at about 10/11 weeks, and then slept really well. I remember it being emotional torture for me at the time x you may have had a rocky start but this will pass

Tilt his cot, it will help

My baby girl did this, she was 2 months prem and it's apparently very normal for prems and full term babies too. Basically as others have said they haven't learnt to coordinate their digestive system yet so are just trying to learn to wee/poo/fart. My HV told me there has been studies done and they believe it doesn't cause baby pain as I was really worried about this. I used to let my baby get on with it.... Hard as it is as but I think it sounds worse than it is. No doubt its maddening!

As others have said having her crib on a slight incline and dummy helped.

My LO grew out of it at about 4 months but as I say she was prem so maybe took her a bit longer to get everything going!

We have this exact problem with our 3 week old. To start with I thought she was hungry so would go to feed her every time she grunted. Now I’ve realised she just wants to fart I just leave her to it.

I also feel terrible not doing anything to help. But the midwife explained that it’s just their immature digestive systems and it will pass.

I've had some luck with tummy rubbing and leg bicycling and sometimes a small feed settles them. Sometimes you just get a bad night

Both my son's did this in their first year. It was reflux, the reason they slept fine on me was because they were more upright and not lying flat. We bought a wedgehog for their cots that helped. We put carobel in their milk with a tiny drop of infacol (it takes all the air bubbles out the milk). We also put them on omeprazol and ranitadine together (they had severe reflux), all that sorted them out. They grew out of it at about 15 months (mine were 3 months prem). Also try not to wind him for too long if it's reflux as that can make it worse. Good luck, it's hard work but you'll get on top of it xxx

Ear plugs
You will still hear crying but most of the grunting will lessen

I fully believe in the 4th trimester , in that they are so all over the place for the first 3 months and to have very low expectations

I found that when I went to DS it would disturb him and he would wake up properly, but when I left him he would be more settled and we would both get a better nights sleep.

Put the cot at an angle so they're not laid flat and if they don't have a dummy, I'd recommend one.

My eldest did it. He had very bad reflux and we think now looking back CMPA that never got picked up on. My youngest never did. He had reflux, but not as bad.

Try baby massage. There are proper techniques so Google it. Xx

My youngest is almost 6 weeks. He sleeps in a co sleeper crib until his first night feed, after that he’s in beside me.

What I’ve noticed is that he groans if I’m too far away (you know, further than an inch away 😂). Once I’m closer, groaning stops. So in our case it’s nothing to do with digestion, all to do with wanting mummy closer!

Dd2 is 11 weeks old and does this too. DD1 (now 3.5) was noisy and strainy too but nothing like this.

She was also doing it when awake too and seemed so uncomfortable, although rarely cried. Also diagnosed with likely CMPA and is now on Nutramigen formula. We have certainly seen an improvement although it took a couple of weeks. She is still noisy from around 1am and when put down after her feed overnight.

It has definitely improved from where we were at 5 weeks, and just hoping it goes away soon!

I wear earplugs at night- can still hear her cry but it helps to slightly muffle the constant noise.