Miserable newborn

[hyub]

I'm just feeling completely broken by my 5 week old. For the last 3 weeks he has become gradually more fussy to the stage where he is basically always whinging or screaming if awake.

I feel like I can't keep going on like this, I am physically tired but emotionally wrecked from his crying/trauma.

(He is formula fed. Has symptoms of reflux and an eczema type rash on his face which makes me suspicious of CMPA. GP only given gaviscon so far which is doing sweet FA).

I just need to hear stories about it getting better, please?

Thank you

That sounds promising! Fingers crossed he's a much happier baby in a few days, keeping my fingers crossed for you.

I really don't want to get ahead of myself but today has been slightly easier. There has been a lot less angry crying.
Reason to be hopeful, if nothing more.

That's positive. Really got my fingers crossed for you.

Great news , hope you have a good night.

I could have wrote this post a few months ago. My little one was so miserable and clearly struggling. He had got to the point of refusing bottles and some days he was only taking around 12oz in 24 hours.
The first Dr we saw completely dismissed cmpa and blamed colic/reflux. I went back a few days later to see a different Dr armed with a print out of the NHS pathway guidelines but she was actually really helpful and suggested cmpa before I did. We had a trial of Aptamil Pepti 1 and he was like a different baby 3 days later. He is now 6 months old and doing really well on this milk. We still haven't seen a dietician to help with weaning but that's a different story.
There is a brilliant group on Facebook if you need any advice etc.
I'm glad you've had a better day, fingers crossed he carries on improving!

ahhh I remember these times with my second child. Well done all of you as the sleep deprivation and crying (babies and ours) is exhausting, I remember not understanding how I was even still alive with so little sleep.

all my advice has already been mentioned except I don’t think anyone has mentioned an osteopath. I have no idea what they do but both my babies slept and settled like a dream after so highly recommend

Thank you!
He's having a chunk less formula than normal so is feeding more often and therefore sleeping less... but all in all still much less distraught than he has been.
Not sure if it's the taste or texture that he's not a fan of. The formula is thinner so going to try the teat size down (zero), and failing that I'll try the vanilla extract trick tomorrow. Then I have my 6 week appt with (a different!) GP on Monday so can see if their happy with the amount he's eating from there.

My DD (now 7) had a big change around 8 weeks old, crying a lot, seemed miserable etc. It was awful, for both of us. I had the gripe water, colic drops, everything. The Doctors were trying to fob me off of course, over and over. Eventually they decided to test her wee as I'd mentioned her cramping up as if she had tummy pains. The Dr was adamant it was 'colic' (the mystical meaningless condition they put everything down to). Turned out she had a water infection!! This was her first of many antibiotics in the first 3 years of her life.

It gets sooo much better it really does. But it's not easy when you're there I know. I even had a doctor at one point tell me, "you don't have to bring her in every time she has a temperature". I was back 2 weeks later as she was still miserable and on that occasion it turned out she had ear and chest infections.

Basically, try not to let them fob you off as an over anxious new mum. Some times things will pass. Sometimes, a test can't hurt to see if there's something underlying. It will get easier though. It's so much harder even now than 7 years ago, with all the thriving happy insta babies etc. But you're doing great and you know what, some babies are just a bit grumpy too. My DD was, even when she wasn't poorly. She still bloody can be too 😄

Reading your updates is amazing and you've had some awesome advice on here. I will stick with the 48 hour challenge though 😅 the teats and milk flow you will get to grips with and, honestly I think you're doing great without help from so called professionals.

I found my son fed more and cluster fed because he was getting food that did not hurt his belly anymore, he did get a little constipation due to a change in diet.

My son is 4 months old on Monday,he is amazing now but he went through this from newborn and sorted about 6-7 weeks. My daughter had the same issues but we were treated like shit and by 1 year old she was fully lactose intolerant. I knew no better at the time. (15 years ago) so it can run in families too. Better catching CMPA early beforenit reaches lactose intolerant stage.

At least now you can go to GP on Monday and by then you will have a massive difference in baby and confidence to tell them what's happening.

Look forward to your updates 💜

Baby still generally brighter but really not taking nutramigen well.
Will try the vanilla extract trick today incase it's taste.
Think it might be texture though so maybe carobel?
He's having 1/2-2/3 of normal formula amount and crying a lot on the bottle but still having wet and dirty nappies so I'm assuming I have a bit of time to try and work this out before I need to assume this isn't working ..?

It does taste horrible- as your DS is still tiny hopefully he will get used to the taste soon.
Give it time and hopefully he will become accustomed to it.
Really pleased to hear that he is brighter though.

Yes we had carobel because the milk is so thin.
My DD was given it because she was vomiting so much and to try and keep it down.
If your DS is struggling it may be the texture, the taste or a combination. All you can do is go by trial and error.
Good to hear that he is having wet and dirty nappies though so he must be getting something even if it isn't the normal amount he would usually take.

I just wanted to contribute my experience and say you and your boy and your DH are not alone. I had similar issues with eczema, milk allergy and tongue tie with my DS1. It about broke up. We went dairy free and he started to sleep.

After three years we did the milk introduction programme and now he's a strapping 11 year old who has no recollection of the milk allergy and finds it incredible he once couldn't eat ice cream!

Keep us updated and push for the right creams for his eczema.

You got this.

Your boy is beautiful!

Hmm, not sure if this is any use, but I was that baby 77 years back, and not the choice of products then. Not that I recall, of course and I can't check the details, but Mum could not breast feed, and I did not thrive on formula. Not sure about screaming and allergies. Lime water was prescribed, but did not help, but a HV suggested, though was not supposed to, Sister Laura's Food. This I now find from Wikipedia, and a photo of a very rusty tin, did something with the milk casein, so the protein. It did the trick and I thrived. Mum had no trouble with my sisters. I'd been the first. Sister Laura has stopped production.
And as the Saxon poet said "That passed, this too will pass."
My sister had screaming trouble with her twins, breast fed. She iusw3ed t ring up the paediatric consultants at odd times for help. That passed, this too wii pass.

Skin is so much better already!
Pic 1 now
Pic 2 just before starting nutramigen

Big difference ! 🙂

Great!

How is it going @hyub ?

My baby was also fussy, especially between 6-11pm. Every day crying for no reason.

The only thing that worked was carrying them around, exhausting as they didn't sleep at night too.

Improved at 4 months old

Hey :) thanks for checking in.

He's now taking the nutramigen really well with a drop of vanilla extract which I now need to start weaning off 😂
His skin is not 100% clear but still markedly better than before the nutramigen. Still dry areas but none of the inflammation or angery looking areas.
In terms of temperament, there hasn't been a complete 'night and day' change that people talk about, he's still a crier and high needs... but I would say we've gone from 4ish hours of screaming a day to 2ish hours a day. So a big improvement.
I think now that some discomfort is from reflux so I have started adding a spoon of carobel and will see how that goes.

But yes still need to give him some more time to see if further changes once old milk entirely out the system. He will be seeing paeds (for a completely unrelated reason) in the next few weeks I will continue like this for now and will ask their opinion on whether we should try an AA formula and/or omeprazole, or continue as planned.

Part of me wonders if it's a coincidence or a placebo effect... but not enough to trial the old milk again to find out!

This week has definitely been a changing point for me in general though, have done lots with him which before this week I wouldn't have even contemplated because it would have felt too hard and daunting.

So yes, right direction I think ☺️

I'm please for you and little one it seems to be going in the right direction.

Ah excellent! Thanks for updating. Glad he's doing better x