6 week old baby cries and grizzles all day. HELP PLEASE!

[rowanrowow]

Please help me. My beautiful ds2 is 6 weeks old and is never ever awake and content. I don't know if he is just grumpy or in some kind of discomfort. He litterally wakes up crying and no amount of hugging, shushing, rocking, carrying, feeding or bouncing seemms to stop it until he falls asleep again. He seems constantly irritable either tired or in pain maybe I can't work him out. He doesn't feed very much but can't without becomming restless and pushing/ straining, crying etc. He really struggles to get to sleep, takes up to 2 hours at night time while he cries on me in between feeding, dummy etc inorder to get to sleep. What am I doing wrong? My first ds wasn't an easy baby at all but ds2 is just impossible! Also I don't know if this is relevant but his poo is fairly green. He seems to be so miserable and ds1 is being neglected! Help!

Green poo in a BF baby usually means that he's getting too much fore milk and not enough hind milk and therefore he could well be hungry as the hind milk is the rich, creamy milk that fills them up. The fore milk is more watery and quenches their thirst. Are you BF? If it's formula I'm afraid I don't know. If you are BF you need to keep him on one side until he's drained that side (in a 6-weeker that might take 20 mins or so). Then, when he naturally comes off that side you can burp him and offer him the other breast. If he seems full and hasn't been one that breast long, start with that breast at the next feeding.

If that really doesn't sound right and you're sure he's getting plenty of hind milk (or he's formula fed), then could he have reflux? It's worth calling your HV and/or GP with your concerns anyway as a baby shouldn't be constantly grizzling. It sounds like he's either hungry or in pain - neither is good. How is his weight gain?

sounds like reflux - they don't have to be throwing up to be in quite a bit of pain from dreadful indisgestion pain - get him to a doctor and don't take any nonsense about this is all normal et etc

you could also try a bottle - it has to be worth a go

Definitely speak to your HV/GP for advice and also agree with what juneua says. I feel for you OP as its a vicious circle where you getting anxious/upset is picked up by baby and that in turn can then make them upset.

So sorry you're struggling. I'm not usually into alternative stuff, but I took my DS (now 4) and DD (now 3 months) to a chiropracter around this age and it worked wonders with both of them

We were in a similar position at week 6, now at week 7 I have had moments when child has been neither sleeping, feeding or crying but apparently happy.
Mine is also wanting to feed every 2 hours ( I think I have oversupply and fast let down so we are doing the block feeding too.)

I have absolutely no idea how to settle mine without feeding and I'm so fed up of her feeding so often. I was very baby-led with no 1 but feeling the need to do something this time to retain sanity.

Posting to say you're not alone and to see what suggestions you get!

Thank you for the responses. He is formula fed now due to bad advice from health visitor telling me my millk wasn't filling him up and that's why he was unsettled. I now realise he is still unsettled and 3 weeks later I regret giving up but that's a whole other issue! I have made an appointment to see a paediatrician to see what he makes of it. My gut feeling is that he sufferd with a lot of wind and could be intolerant to milk or have reflux... of course he could just be a big grumpy sour-pus!

Sounds IDENTICAL to my now 4 month old dd. She has been diagnosed with a milk allergy and is on Nutramigen formula (hypoallergenic stuff on prescription) Docs were useless and it took a specialist to diagnose her. She was like a different baby after she was put on the new formula. My friend's ds was lactose intolerant and had same symptoms and same treatment. I think you can buy nutramigen over the counter but v expensive - if it worked, docs could prescribe it free. It could take up to a week to work but dd wad noticeably better after two days on it.

Btw dd was initially put on reflux meds as the docs thought it was that. It wasn't. She has got mild reflux but the discomfort from that is no way as bad as the pain she was in from allergy.

Sounds like it could be cow's milk intolerance - it's very common in babies and they can by affected by cow's milk protein that gets into breastmilk too.

Ps: you may have to be persistent with the health professionals. It took nearly two months of stress and heartache with dd to get a diagnosis. We went private in the end. My doc's response was "oh, that's very rare". It clearly isn't as I've heard of loads of friend's friends etc, with dcs like it.

Cynically, the formula is v expensive so to have it prescribed for what could be 18 months, the docs may drag heels so this is a last resort. Hmmmn.

Thank you very much. This is all very very helpful. I just can't help but think it's not normal for a baby to be so miserable and unsettled. He seems to be constantly irritable, even while going to sleep he is kicking his legs and grunting, going red and crying. Very stressful and difficult to have baby I can not soothe :-( He has started being quite sick after feeds now. Just this past couple of days but last night he took 4 ounces, the threw up at least 3 of that and then cried and struggled for an hour to get back to sleep while me aqnd dh cuddled him and cried ourselves. I can't help but think this is not how it was meant to be .

I really feel for you. It's supposed to be such a special time, I know.

If it is a CMP allergy then it may also be causing a type of reflux, thus explaining the sickness. Apparently, the gastric lining gets damaged and the stomach, unable to cope as well, regurgitates the milk.

Please treat this post as purely anecdotal - I'm not a doctor, just a mum who has been through something similar. Don't quote me on this, I'm just trying to remember what the specialist told me.

You don't need to go private to get this info. Providing the doc has done proper tests to discount other illnesses, you could ask them to prescribe a milk protein/lactose free formula (there are quite a few brands, Nutramigen is just one) and see how you get on. You're not bf any longer so it can't do any harm? BTW the formula milks are pretty disgusting tasting compared to the normal ones and dd only likes her warm.

I don't mean to speak out of turn, so please ignore post if you think I am, but it's just that my GP didn't have much of an idea about dd's problem, yet it appears to much more common than originally thought.

Good luck and keep us posted :)

Thank you, really I mean that. I have been in tears today and ended up leaving a screaming overtired baby crying in the living room for 15 minutes while I sobbed in the kitchen . Now I feel terrible for leaving him when he is so little but nothing I do comforts him the poor little boy. I am so so sad to see him cry no matter what efforts we go to. It must be awful for him. I am determined to get answers on Monday at the paediatricians appointment. My GP was pretty uselss and used the whole 'babies cry, could be colic' excuse. I am so sick of having to fight to help my baby. In the end I had to demand a referral to the hospital to the paediatrics department. Now part of me is worrying that it's just his tempremant and there is no 'magic answer'. I am too scared to pin my hopes on there being something to fix.

My ds was / is like this but at your ds age ish he was exactly the same . Every waking moment crying / inconsolable . He has reflux . Ranitidine helps but he is still grumpy ish .. Reflux doesn't have to involve sick .. Good luck

You need milk free formula rather than lactose free - lactose intolerance is very rare in babies and is very serious.

Oh my goodness, reminds me of our little DS (now 18 months and perfectly content little chap). It felt like he was never awake and happy at once! He was premmie so may have had an immature digestive system, but he always threw up loads (was combination fed for 6 months), so seemed to have some kind of reflux. He always had loads of wind, so we made sure we burped him regularly during feeds, otherwise he just threw it all up, especially when having a bottle. Try slow flow teats? May help if milk went down slower - less wind.

At 10 months we got sick of the sick! And changed formula to SMA Staydown, which was amazing and wish we had done so earlier!! No looking back and no more reflux after that, even when going on to cow's milk at 12 months.

Sounds like reflux/CMPI. Hopefully your Paed should sort this out. Both my twins have it and the early days were the darkest of my life. Ended up on Neocate for one and Enfamil for the other plus a raft of drugs. Sorted it out though!

Well today has been an all time low. He's spent the day grimicing and crying while I desperately carried and bounced him. He really struggles to nap at all and wakes up screaming. Night times take him so long to settle to sleep while I hold him and shhh him with dummy. Nothing works.

My ds was exactly the same as yours, 15 years ago! We took him to a cranial osteopath and never looked back. Even my husband couldn't believe the change in him. Was his birth quick or an assisted delivery? my ds nearly fell asleep on the osteopaths table while he was rubbing his head - unheard of at the time. I used to be at the end of my tether and just drive around for ages as that was the only thing that settled him. Give it a try - you have nothing to lose! We only needed one appointment.

No birth was fairly standard really. Natural, lasted a few hours. Bloody painful for me lol but he seemed to come out fine. Although he was big at 9lbs 12.

Though I am so desperate I am willing to try!

You can buy gaviscon infant powder over the counter, and can mix it into a paste and syringe it in or add it to expressed or formula. I'd try this just to get you through the next day or so, as it's undoubtedly the first thing that will be prescribed. Get thee to a late chemist now. I feel for you.

He has fallen asleep, rather reluctantly but thank God he's asleep. Don't know how long it will last for! I am pleased we have a paed appointment on monday but I am terrified there isn't anything wrong and he's just grumpy. I don't know how we'll manage. Poor DS1 wants to enjoy being a big brother and so far it's been hell on earth for the whole family. Poor DS2 seems so upset all the time and he's so beautiful and lovely when he's alsleep it's so sad he doesn't seem to be enjoying life very much so far.

You poor love. I could have written your post this time last year, but both twins had it, and I nearly lost my mind. It's excellent you're seeing someone on Monday. Take a list of his symptoms with you, it's so easy to forget something which might be really significant. And say that a friend said to ask about Ketotifen. From what I've seen not everyone gets this but it helps them sleep and calms down allergies.
My boys slept nearly upright in the first few months and that helped a lot too.

Hang in there. X

Let us know what the paed suggests , I know all about losing the plot and my poor dd trying to bond . All I can say is if it is reflux it will get better .