what to do with a baby who is always screaming the house down!!!

[em222]

HELP! what is you do to keep your baby happy during the day, i literally can not do anything without my 5 month old screaming. The only time he shuts up is when he is being walked in his pram or being walked around the house. i have been trying to leave him to cry it out but after so long he starts choking and gagging he gets himself so worked up. I am starting to get a bit angry i have to leave the room. Health visitor sais stay calm! ok i have tried to for the past 5 months but not anymore its really getting to me but what can i do?? i tried teething gel incase thats bothering him now, but nothings changed, i have a 2 year old aswell but he was never like this! so what to do???

Not sure about this 'not weaning' thing - mine used to tuck away the petite filous at that age!! (nothing wrong with their guts ten years down the line I can assure you). My initial reaction would be hunger, especially if sleeping through the night like that. Hungry baby milk? Having had a baby with reflux I would hazard a guess that if there is no night time waking and settles after the last bottle this isn't the problem. Cranial osteopathy is very good and well worth a try - give it at least 4/5 sessions though. Once these have all been exhausted, like many other postings here you may have to accept the needy baby theory. Had one of those too!! From memory I spent a good portion of the first year with him glued to my hip! Good luck, it is incredibly frustrating and wearing, but they do grow out of it, and I am sure, in time, when he is able to interact with the baby a bond will form and you will get your space. My H was useless too when they were small - used any excuse to stay out or do something else, but as soon as they started to play football and computer games they became so much more interesting (!!) - now, they are all best buddies. It just took time and a TRUCK load of patience. It'll all be worth it .

My ds had very bad reflux during the day but slept 12 hours a night from about 3 months . If I stopped his ranitidine he would scream more and pull his legs up . I could never work out why his pain is only in the daytime .. It's weird .

it may be if the child has reflux that earlier weaning is the thing to do, but that has to be on the advice of a paediatrician rather than some stranger off the internet.

It really does sound like reflux, my son had it also, he was 7 weeks premature. I had to go to my GP 7 times as they kept tellingly it was colic. I don't know if this is any help but babies with reflux get worse when they are laid flat, we found keeping our DS propped up with a cushion all the time really helped

Totally agree with Aitch, early weaning should only be on the advise of a Paed. Best to get him checked out before you start changing things.

Have you thought about going to the GP em or ringing Cry-sis?

How are things today?

Please excuse my ignorance (!) when I had my kids we were told/advised to wean at 4 months. Is that no longer the case?? Have they changed their minds again!? I didn't think that was unusual -

conorsrockers like you I started to wean at 4 m, on the advice of experts, but now apparently 6 m is advised. My dc are grown up now but I do worry if I did some terrible damage to them - seem to have cast iron guts at the moment and always have had.

Weaning guidelines changed in 1994 to 4-6 months, and then again in 2003 to 6 months. Basically the nearer to 6 months the better - and never before 4 months. Weaning after 4 months is unlikely to have done any damage, but 6 months is just safer (and before 4 months there is proof of harm).

Thanks Guys - tbh I never took a huge amount of notice - never had a midwife or HV visit - I just fed them when they looked hungry - and that was pretty much spot on 4 months for all of them from what I can remember, so I think they'll be fine!! DS1 refused to drink any milk after about 4 1/2 months, so I had to pump him full of cheese and yoghurts! Ho hum - we do our best

Sorry conors, didn't mean to sound like I was having a go.

Think advice on early weaning is such a sore point with me as DS was a high needs baby and after a huge amount of pressure we decided to wean him at 16 weeks. It was in 2003 and I hadn't realised that the guidelines had changed to 6 months.

Weaning made the situation a lot worse and DS has had problems with his bowels on and off ever since although he is fine in every other way.

Hope this goes some way to explaining why I think early weaning is a bad idea and suggested that em222 gets her LO checked out by a GP and only weans early on the advice of a Paed .

I have spoke to my HV and she is refering him to a doctor she said, after i mentioned the craniel massage thing she looked quite interested lol so thankyou everyone x