To ask why my baby groans and strains ALL night?

[HenrysHome]

FTM to a 5 week old little boy. We’ve got off to a rocky start and I’m starting to crack! Bit of background - we have tried infacol, Dentinox and gripe water. We are on gaviscon having stopped omeprazole due to side effects. He has recently been given a laxitice due to the constipation from the gaviscon He also has similac alimentum for suspected cmpa. Every night without fail he will start groaning And straining SO loudly from 1am- 7am. He’s happy enough to fall asleep on me but the instant I put him down the groaning starts up again. It’s really difficult to get any burps up from him but he trumps like a trooper! Any advice to stop the groaning and straining I’m at my wits end and really not enjoying being a mum

Thank you for all your lovely messages! I feel much better about leaving him now. I spoke to the health visitor and she said as long as his eyes are closed then leave him be. Will try to snooze over his noise tonight!

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.

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!

How long did you find it took the protein to leave their system @NameChange30? We’ve been on similac for a week now, is it too soon to see results? The cot is tilted but I don’t know if it’s tilted enough? What sort of angle are we talking? We’ve just bought a next to me so hoping that will make things a bit easier although now he is grunting right next to my head ha.

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.

*completely

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?

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.