To ask a question about formula feeding DS?

[MaximusTheHorse]

I had my baby boy on Thursday. I'm formula feeding.

He has been very unsettled today. Finding he will have a decent sized feed (say 50-60 ml), fall asleep immediately after (so winding him is very difficult), then when he wakes up a couple of hours later he is upset and squeaking/crying/hiccuping, always frantically rooting for more food.

He'll take more milk (amounts vary) and settle back to sleep. I think he's having tummy pains though, the kind of mewling wee cry reminds me of that. But winding him etc is fruitless, feeding will settle him. He's never brought any food back up again (so far) but I'm concerned I'm over feeding him. It just seems to be the only thing that settles him.

Any thoughts?

Apologies if this is a bit disjointed. Writing under a fug of sleep,deprivation,,,,

It sounds like trapped wind/colic. None of mine were easy to wind, it took a lot of trial and error to find the right way of doing it. You can wind a sleeping baby though, I found on my shoulder easiest.

You need to wind after every feed and ideally give him a break mid feed and wind. Put over your shoulder or sitting on your knee rub in circular motion for ages. In the mean time get on the infacol now before every feed, it works miracles!! Also try gripe water for now to get those burps out but then use the infacol before each feed ongoing and you won't have any problems. They tend to go asleep whilst feeding as they're sort of milk drunk, its not true sleep so don't be afraid to wind. If they're full of feed and tired after they'll still snooze with a big satisfied belly but no painful wind to wake them up.

Thanks. So he's not truly hungry then?

infacol is wonderful and they make the funniest faces when they taste it. Different winding techniques work for different babies. for my first two Dp's belly was the perfect roundness and he just used to lay them on it and the burps came out. Dc three was an over the shoulder jobby whereas dc4 liked to be sat up hand supporting their chin and rubbed firmly up and down the back.
Congratulations on your squishy bundle

No no no to gripe water, only after 4 weeks

If he falls asleep after 1-2oz you need to wake him up, blow on him, change his nappy, wind him and continue feeding

Check your teats are suitable and not too hard work for him
Agree start infavol, before every feed

Infacol is a life saver at that age.

Does he have a dummy?

Dont ask for advice in AIBU if you don't like the response. It made sense to me anyway!

What? I don't dislike the response. I just don't really know what I'm doing yet but this helps.

Dr Browns bottles. Give these a go. Was like a light switch going on with my LO. Less wind, easier burps and a happier baby. Only my experience, but these made all the difference where infacol, massage and the other hugely expensive drops didn't work.

I forgot about the winding halfway through, that can really help too. Don't worry OP, I've had 3 and was still asking advice about the 3rd

Feeding every couple of hours for a very small baby seems normal to me, although he might have problems with wind too.

Rub his back anti-clockwise - helped our f-fed twins to get the wind up, whilst gently jiggling on your knee. Worked every time :)

Yeah feeding two hourly was totally normal for our little one at that age. But he does sound like he's struggling with wind too. We used infacol which helped her bring up wind more easily.

I used infacol with DS for the first 3/4 months or so too, I definitely think it helped. Look up different winding positions on YouTube, the standard over the shoulder one never worked for me, the only one that did was to sit him up on my knee and prop his chin up with one hand, rubbing his back with the other.

For unsettled evening times we also found the tiger in the tree hold helpful, again YouTube it if you're not sure.