4 week old baby crying and fussing at boob all evening and half the night

[HillyMillylunchmunch]

Posting for a friend, I'm out of advice!

Friend's 4 week old has been fussing, latching on and off and crying lots and lots at the boob all evening for the last few days. He won't settle anywhere but on her, and even on her he's not very settled.
Feeds well and sleeps fairly well in the day, this is just an evening thing. Only the last few nights too I think.

I suggested maybe over or under supply, or fast or slow flow. Or gums, wind or reflux. Then I ran out of ideas!

She thinks probably not oversupply but how do you tell which of the others it is? Or if its something else?

If 'just' a growth spurt, cluster feeding etc then how long will it last until he calms down and gives her an evening off?

It's just a thing that newborns do some evenings. It's hellish but it is normal, probably doesn't need a solution other than patience!

Sounds like a totally normal 4 week old baby thing to do tbh.

We called it “the witching hour”. Unfortunately it wasn’t an hour. Started around 4pm and finished at 7pm.

It didn’t last for long.

Normal but no reason is good news but also so frustrating if there is nothing to be done to solve it. Boo

All of mine did this - from 5m until around 11pm. Was like this through to 8 weeks.... with the odd calmer evening.

Normal.
Its also hell
Your poor friend.
For us it reached its worst point around 6 weeks. Full on screaming from 4pm until 1am. I had to tramp the snow at 10pm as the pram was the only thing she would vaguely settle in.
At 10 weeks I started a bedtime routine and that gave us about 2 hours of together telly time.
I appreciate at four weeks pp the prospect of having to wait over another month for the incessant screaming to stop, and the chance to grab an hours sleep occasionally is soul destroying. But it does stop. And it will get better.

Definitely sounds like cluster feeding to me, no one told me about it either and initially I thought my baby was seriously ill. We survived by getting box sets on the go, accepting that evenings were going to be like this for a while and it would pass, slings also help. I think by about 3 months it had settled down, but before that evenings were a bit of a wash out and best spent on the couch with the barnacle attached, tell your friend not to make the same mistake I did and think a wedding was a good idea, baby started cluster feeding/screeching just as the speeches got going and she didn’t settle down until about 10pm... so I didn’t get to relax and enjoy dinner etc!

Fairly normal newborn behaviour. DS used to be ok until about 9pm, then he'd be up, down and all over till about 1am, crying, fussing, feeding, angry about everything. It did stop eventually. Hellish while you're living it though.

Yep, it's a horrible time but it's a thing that lots of newborns do. Cluster feeding is a bugger and I agree with a few box sets! Most importantly keep the remote control, snacks and a bottle of water within reach.

Totally normal baby behaviour, just what they do when they’re growing. Plus baby is becoming more aware so will start getting distracted, I suggest she takes baby to bed of an evening for some skin to skin and quiet time to help baby focus on the task in hand.

however has she visited any breast feeding support groups in her area yet?
If not really recommend she does, they’re lovely groups to meet other new mums at and share experiences / tips.

Also has baby been assessed for tongue tie? It may be causing him difficulty feeding, some babies can cope well at first but at 4-6wks when they increase demand, the TT can be one an issue.
Breastfeeding support groups and her HV should be able to help with this, there are also private midwives who run clinics for assessment and will snip that day if required. Worth a google for your area.

Finally, not everyone on mumsnet loves this app (recently saw a thread slating it) but The Wonder Weeks App, helped me enormously in the early days, helped me understand the development milestones a baby goes through and the likely resulting ‘behaviour’ and most importantly, when it would end.

Thanks everyone. I've sent her a link to this thread. I think just seeing it's normal for lots of people is reassuring in itself

Yes, totally normal unfortunately! It does pass, really! Snacks and box sets were my saviours during that time. You get really hungry when you've been awake for hours at 2am!

She could always try a nice bath with the baby, might relax them both?

My son did this. By about 4pm he was really struggling and cried for hours on and off. I can only offer practical advice as I'm convinced that there was nothing wrong with him and he did grow out of it.

I got dinner prep done early and tried to take him out for a stroll around that time.

Transient lactose intolerance until babies manage to digest the lactose in milk can cause this behaviour. We found colief lactase drops to make a huge difference.

Normal. If feeding well at other times then it's unlikely to be an intolerance or feeding specific issue.

Ds1 did this (we called it the witching hour too). Hellish when you're going through it. He also wouldn't settle anywhere but on me all night through.

Stripping him down and doing baby massage seemed to work a bit during the 5-7pm he'll, but it could have partly been a distraction for me.

He grew out if it by 8-10 weeks I think. Ds2 didn't do it at all.

I'm currently going through this with my 11 day old DD. She is wide awake, constantly feeding and crying from 11pm - 6am. I've been told by midwives it is just cluster feeding but it's so frustrating.