My baby is cranky all the time! Why?!

[Peridotty]

I have a 3.5 month old baby girl and she is cranky 90% of the time she is awake. She is cranky even after feeding and also cranky after naps. She is EBF. She sleeps 14-15 hours a day (10 hours at night and about 4-5 hours worth of naps. She is really hard to put to sleep. She wakes up 4 times during the night and the longest she sleeps for is 4 hours. She makes complaining sounds or cries ALL the time. Its really exhausting and my nerves are getting frayed. The things that stop her from crying are: jogging around the room with her in our arms, making her ‘stand’ with our support, going outside and sometimes by singing to her, talking to her, playing with her legs and arms. Are other babies like this? She has been hard work since day 1!

Yep, my son was like this from about 4 months to well over one year old. (Sorry!) Got cranky within minutes of waking and whinged if not screamed all the time. We couldn't hear ourselves think! Got so bad I even ended up taking him to Gt Ormand St for a consultation. "Nothing wrong with him, it's just behavioural." "Will he grow out of it?" "Probably." "WTF?!?!?"

He is now, at 6, the most gorgeous, chilled, sociable, good sleeping, charmer of a boy and the absolute apple of my eye that I've forgiven him for about 1.5 years of hell.

Sounds hungry. Can you supplement?

she’s a baby. Is this your first?

Hungry? Tongue tie? Silent reflux? Reflux? Overtired? Wind? Over sensitive? Wet nappy?

Mine is 10 weeks and is sometimes inconsolable. I go through the above list. Mine is normally wind. He's ebf but just can't get it up. I can be rubbing his back for half an hour sometimes and he'll suddenly belch or fart and everything is good again. I think my son has silent reflux too.

I'm seeing a cranial osteopath and I think it helps a little bit.......

One of mines was just miserable, with a horrible stubborn streak Until they were 3

Reflux or allergy to something in your milk like dairy?

@Brandyb I am afraid that my baby will also become a cranky toddler who will fight sleep! Glad your son is now much calmer.
@PerveenMistry yes sometimes she IS hungry but she is often grumpy even right after a feed. Occasionally she prefers a bottle of pumped milk after she has breastfed which is weird to me because why wouldn’t she just take the milk from my boob?
@strappedup yes she is my first. My friends baby who is the same age doesn’t seem to fuss as much.
@willitbetonight she has been able to burp herself since she was 2 months old so it can’t be gas. She used to have reflux but has grown out of it. She Screams when she is overtired definitely, but it happens several times a day despite me keeping an eye on the clock. She will really fight sleep. She hates being swaddled and hates being in the carrier.
@chickenortheegg I thought very few babies have dairy allergy? I do eat a lot of dairy. The doctor did say if there is no blood in her stool she should be fine.

She is so demanding and high needs. I am unable to eat my dinner because she will whine. I then carry her and eat a forkful at a time whilst jogging her up and down the room. She won’t just sit in her bouncer for more than 5 mins before complaining. She wants my attention all the time otherwise she whines but she still whines even when I’m interacting with her.

Could it possibly be a dairy allergy or some form of intolerance?

We had to change my babies milk to lactose free after her being really grumpy and crying etc, and she was like a different baby overnight. X

@WeEE she only takes breastmilk but I don’t know if she could be allergic to that? I could switch out the milk in my diet and see what happens. Did your baby have any other symptoms?

My experience with my own babies has been that up until about 4-5 months they whine and squirm and complain a lot. My ds was a dream from 6-8 months and is now throwing tantrums a few months on.

You could be describing my DD.

She has just turned 4 and im still waiting for it to stop , sorry no advice just sympathy.

My ds 1 was like this, needed rocking or bf to sleep, often on my knee, cranky when awake. Tbh 10 hours sleep at night and 4-5 in the day sounds ok ? He improved comsiderably when I started weaning him on to solids tbh.

My youngest was like this, it was sooooo draining!! I stopped breastfeeding at 10 months due to an operation, and by the time he was walking at 14 months he was a different child.
I don't really know if it was hunger (he loves his food and slept much longer once on formula) or whether he was frustrated and wanted to be on the go (he's a very active child too) but something changed and honestly now, he is an absolute delight! He is the sweetest funniest little boy, rarely upset or angry. It won't last forever, hold tight!

My DD now 12yo was the same, and same things stopped her crying. Fairly rough movement, so swinging not gentle swaying, long walks, white noise and yes the standing thing. It got a lot better when she could stand and move about herself- so about 1yo. She was still a bit miserable to about 4, big tantrums, but lessened as we could talk about how she felt more.