crying till blue in the face

[tikkatikka]

Hello

I am new to mumsnet but seeking advice on some serious crying episodes from my 9 week old DS.

He is a largely predictable and easy baby, exclusively breastfed basically every 3 hours and sleeping from 7pm till about 1am, then up again at 5am (groan.) He tends to cry when hungry, tired, wet, cold etc, all the basics. Occasionally though he can throw a tantrum which has started to really alarm me. He gets angrier and angrier, seemingly no matter what I do, and it peaks with him holding his breath until blue in the face before letting out his biggest bellow of them all.

Yesterday his tantrum started in the car. I put him down in his carseat whilst he was screaming just to take off my coat and put down my bag and suddenly realised he hadn't made a sound. I rushed over and he was flailing his arms furiously and blue in the face, with his mouth wide open ready to scream. Finally he did, and then it took me almost an hour to calm him down just to eat. I have no idea why or what made him so cross.

I write this detail as just wondering if anyone has had similar experiences, and if I should be concerned something is particularly wrong with him, or this is generally normal. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, failing to spot something, or its simply par for the course.

Any advice appreciated and many thanks..

That sounds really distressing for you. No, it's not normal in my experience. Get him to the GP asap so they can check out there's nothing seriously wrong.

They're so little at 9 weeks old, that it could be so many things.

By the way, I have found it helpful not to attribute emotions such as "angry" or "tantrum" to my young DS. Your DS just needs something and is letting you know in the only way he can. Unfortunately it can be difficult to figure out what they need (I still struggle with that at 18mo), so hence, the GP.

Hope it's nothing serious for you.

DS did this once when he was a few weeks old. I mentioned it to my brother who is a paramedic and he has been called out to babies like this a fair bit. In his experience it's usually just a very hungry baby who has more anger in them than lungpower and it takes a moment for their bodies to kick the breathing back in (if that makes sense). Definitely worth getting him checked over if you are worried through, trust your instincts.

My DS (now 4 months) has done this on occasion. Often when in his carseat or when put down into bed. It was either caused by hunger, being over tired, or just not happy having to sit in his carseat. His latest episodes started when he started teething. I don't think there is anything 'wrong' with him. And he's now doing it less and less.

my daughter this this and the answer if they are crying out is to blow hard in their face it makes them catch their breath and breath. yes they do usually cry like that for a reason best get him checked out. good luck

hi sorry to hear - baby is sooo small i really think it needs something and would say that the baby is probably hungry.

After 4 weeks of no sleep and constant screaming we discovered our DD was starving -

I had been breastfeeding exclusively and she wasn't settling at all - even when I was sometimes feeding for an hour at a time! We found a solution. I expressed milk put it in a bottle to see how much she drank (baby will let you know when finished) and discovered she was drinking double the amount (oo greedy!) than the recommended amount of milk for her age. Infact she was drinking 7 0z straight at 4 weeks every feed!

Now I breastfeed and top up with express milk post each feed and she's happy as larry. I also now (she's 3 months old) give her a formula bottle at bedtime and she sleeps through the night most nights from 7 until 7.

As well as keeping her full we defo have a lot of day naps one morning one lunch one afternoon so she's not too tired. hope this helps!

Every baby is different but usually when they're so small it's a basic need they want to quell :)

Good luck!