Night Grunting Hell...desperately sleep deprived Mum! Help!

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HELP PLEASE! How do you help ease GRUNTING BABY SYNDROME??
My 8wk old grunts and strains from 2am till 5am when we give in and get up and as he's awake the grunting ends!

He's asleep while he's doing this and settles down for a moment if I give him the dummy or bicycle his legs/massage his tummy to help him trump, but I just make it back to bed before he's off again. If we leave him to it he ends up crying, it sounds like his pain cry to me.

He's not hungry, wet, tired, bored or ill. Doc said to try Baby Gaviscon,(I guess they thought it was reflux) which we did, no change, we've tried Infacol and Gripe Water and raising his matress, he also has a womb sound machine thing which is great (but not from 2-5am). He doesn't seem to be constipated, (2 big soft korma poos a day, far fewer than when he was breastfed, but they're mid morning and afternoon and I'm not sure they're connected to night grunting).

Nothing helps and we're at our wits end! We have him in a lovely EASY routine and he naps and sleeps beautifully at all other times, he did it when he was breastfed only, he did it when we introduced formula and he's still doing it now he's solely formula fed; nothing seems to have an effect. We go to bed with him at 8pm so we can get a little sleep before he starts. PLEASE help as I'm in tears from the lack of sleep and worry!

DS did this - he did have silent reflux and ranitidine was what stopped the grunts. Gaviscon stops them being sick whereas ranitidine neutralises the acid that comes up (I think DS grunted from pain).

You could alternate nights where one of you sleeps in another room so you can both get more sleep?

Both of mine grunted and I had to wear earplugs to be able to sleep though it.

We had this too with both mine. I wore earplugs too, you can still hear the crying when you need to! We also took turns to sleep in the spare bedroom from that sort of time in the morning.

I don't think that you need to worry, it should be something that he just grows out of, you'll suddenly notice that it has stopped. Unfortunately in my experience it is just something that they go through when they are little.

My DD did this - I think it started to ease at about 12 weeks and had stopped by about 4 months. I don't think it is anything to worry about, just more of a case of putting up with it until it stops unfortunately :-(

Thanks all, very glad to know this is a common thing. Will definitely try getting the doc to give us ranitidine (I take it it's a prescription?) I can survive if I kknow it's a short-lived 3month thing, it was the idea of it going on for a year that had me panicked and not knowing how to help him. Kinda sucks that the doctor didn't mention any of this! If the meds don't work, then earplugs it is! Thanks again. x

Yes it's prescription only. Easier to give than gaviscon. It's worth seeing if there are other symptoms too.

DS did this too. The only way we got some sleep was to co-sleep with him on mine or DH's chest until he grew out of it around 12 weeks. He was more comfortable on his tummy, but i wasn't prepared to put him in his moses basket face down, hence co-sleeping chest to chest. Not everybody's cup of tea i admit, but it helped me keep my sanity in those early weeks. I was getting desperate and would have done anything!

Mine went through a honking goose phase, a growly bear phase and goodness knows what else.

Didn't do it for long though, maybe a couple of months and grew out of it (to snuffling and babbling in his sleep.. oh.. and huge, loud grandad farts.)

Did you get the ranitidine? And did it provide any relief for your little one?
I’m experiencing the exact same with my twin girls and unsure of what to do?!

My daughter did the same, 5am - 8am... It stopped as soon as we changed her formula. She was previously on Aptamil and we switched to Hipp Organic.

Can we change the formula by ourselves or we have to check with paedrtrician first

Change it yourselves.

The manufacturers will always say consult a paediatrician to cover their backs.

It's not a requirement.

My son did this. It DOES pass in time. But I had to put him in a room on his own from 4 weeks because I was pretty much hallucinating from lack of sleep in the early days. Went 3 weeks where I was lucky to get 30 mins a night. As my GP said, 'if you are not sleeping, you can't take care of your baby.'

My daughter did this and it was awful but please DON’T wear ear plugs. When she was 10 weeks old she was emitting a low moan in her sleep (which I would never have heard had I worn ear plugs) and the following day she was rushed to hospital with meningitis. Thankfully she made a good recovery.

As other posters have suggested I also saw a big reduction in the grunting when we switched from Aptamil to Hipp Organic. I was also combi feeding for the first six weeks which I don’t think helped with digestion - I saw a significant improvement when I decided to stop breastfeeding and only use formula (and would likely be the same vice versa, breastfeeding only).

ya can be a reason that am combo feeding him. I really want to help when I see him so disturbed in his sleep.

My son is 2.5 weeks old , and am planning to change his formula if it helps him with grunting. which Hip Organic are you using ?