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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Help!! Newborn

15 replies

Ra88 · 07/02/2014 03:05

DS is 5 days old and since the first night home he will sleep fine in the day then come 5-6pm he will cry all night till about 3:30-4:00 am with 5 minute bursts of sleep every now and again .

He absolutely wails ! He seems to have trouble with wind and explodes every now and again but only a small amount of poo.

What could this be ? I feel like I'm fling apart already even though I have great support

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Original poster

Ra88 · 07/02/2014 03:06

Falling * on phone one handed as trying to rock baby !

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Spannah01 · 07/02/2014 03:09

Sounds like colic. Try burping him for longer after feeds, making sure you get all the wind out. You can also try infacol or gripe water before feeds, this might help.

milktraylady · 07/02/2014 03:25

Try cycling his knees to get the wind out.
And a warm bath might help too.

Homebird8 · 07/02/2014 03:26

A couple of positions to try.

Lie him tummy down on your forearm with his legs either side of your elbow and his face cradled between your thumb and fingers. Then rock him forwards and backwards titling him up and down with the natural swing of your arm. The pressure on the tummy together with the rocking sometimes can dislodge wind and the position seems to be comfie for little ones too. You can use your other had to tap his back if it seems to help and you have either contortion and/or coordination skills.

Hold him under his arms with his head cradled in your fingers so that his body sort of hangs below. Then gently lift up and down a few inches to jiggle out the wind. Straightening little ones like this sometimes works.

Swap between the two regularly to save your muscles and keep that wind on the move.

We found with DS2 that a battery powered swing on it's highest setting was sometimes the only thing that would soothe him to sleep. It did get nicknamed the 'electric chair' which frightened visitors when we suggested it and the off switch for the 'Home on the range' music was found quickly to protect our sanity, but it did help.

This didn't work with DS1 however. He just turned green with motion sickness and threw up . In his case infacol was our friend and DH took an hour after each feed to wind him.

If you get the chance, take it in turns with someone to hold him and for you to sleep. Any sleep, any time.

Oh, and it does get easier.

milktraylady · 07/02/2014 03:27

How are you feeding him? If it's formula I would consider switching brands.
If bf try skin to skin on the sofa with blanket over you both & let him cluster feed to soothe himself.

altogetherwonderful · 07/02/2014 04:02

I would second the winding positions & cluster feeding on sofa idea

I also used to do this:

Lay yourself back sitting upright relaxed comfortable on bed, cosy up & lay him upright against your chest inside your tshirt kangaroo pouch style & cover him with a blanket gently rubbing his back with gentle upward strokes

After this see if he will root for your breast to suck then settle

it may take a few minutes for him to settle

Worth a try

altogetherwonderful · 07/02/2014 04:10

Skin on skin contact I mean & you remaining calm, secure for him (hard at 4am)

& yy to infacol drops from chemist tomorrow morning

Inapickle123 · 07/02/2014 21:03

Infacol is the nectar of the Gods.

DS is three weeks old and we had exactly the same problem in the first week; he would take a tiny bit of formula and go bananas for ages. He couldn't burp and was in such pain.

One dose of infacol before each feed (get it really far back in the mouth) and, after a week, it's slightly easier to wind him. It still takes ages but 20 min as opposed to an hour + at 5am is a blessing.

I've also found that lying him down for a few min, letting him wriggle, then trying again, seems to dislodge the wind. Bicycle legs and also burping him facing away from me seems to work.

Good luck. Stock up on infacol!

EeyoreIsh · 07/02/2014 21:10

infacol is great, it needs to be used before each feed as it has a cumulative effect. You can't use gripe water just yet.

My dd loves the legs cycling, it really gets the farts moving. I find that swopping positions help.

For some reasons she winds and poos better for DH than for me. He's often at the receiving end of explosive poos

Curlynoodles · 07/02/2014 21:12

I agree with the other posters, sounds like colic to me.

I was told by midwife, hv and breast start that I didn't need to wind dd as I was breastfeeding! Poor little darling was busting with wind after a couple of days. Thank god for infacol!!!

nibbysmum · 08/02/2014 09:39

I feel your pain. It sounds like colic and I know from experience that its awful. First of all...Your 5 days in and having just given birth your going to be knackered as it is. You've got support so really do use it to get some sleep in day if you can. Colic is hell but honestly it really gets better. For us it stopped at 11 weeks which sounds like a lifetime away I know. Having said that he stopped crying at night and it became evenings at about 6 weeks which was still crap but better than staying up all night. Definitely sign up to an infant massage class asap as it really helps. (I still go and lo is 18 weeks). The advice we are given is always to wind clockwise...anticlockwise causes tummy problems. Bicycling legs together and then separately helps as does stroking babies tummy in downward motions. Alot of mums only do this when gabby seems blocked up (myself included) but actually you should be doing these moves 3 times a day for 2 weeks to see an improvement. Look up colic baby massage online if you can't get on a course asap. We tried infacol, gripe water, dentinox and colief and they didn't work. I know they do for other babies but not ours and it can be awful when you pin your hopes on them and they don't work. My best advice is to assure you it will get better so in the meantime try and relieve baby's discomfort but accept he is colicky and work a plan out that means you can cope. So sleep as much as you can in day, try a warm Bath and some massage at night and if all else fails hold him and soothe him as much as you can...even if he has to sleep on you. Try as you might babies with Colic often do just cry and nothing you do soothes it. So if it really upsets you try popping some earphones in with music on and rock him. He's still getting contact that he needs from you but you have something to keep you calm. Most of all good luck and I'm so sorry your suffering this

ILikeToMoveItMoveIt · 08/02/2014 09:53

All of mine have been like this to varying degrees in the early days. It was a complete and utter shock with ds1 (I had visions of four hourly feeds and him sleeping contentedly between feeds!) and I was knackered and an emotional wreck.

Neither of mine had colic and the behaviour didn't last so I put it down to their digestive system being new and used for the first time. I have absolutely no scientific backup for my theory. But for me it kind of made sense. Their guts haven't been used before, they've never experienced pain (wind gripes etc) and they've not known the sensation to poo before. I should imagine all of that is quite upsetting until it becomes familiar.

If you're breast feeding spend the evening horizontal on your sofa or bed with your top off and give your ds free access to your breasts. He will find his own way there (google biological nurturing for more info). You get a chance to rest, watch tv and be waited on by your partner. Remember that it's not safe for you to fall asleep with your ds on the sofa.

Things will get better I promise. Just go with the flow in these early days, don't resist and push back, it's wasted energy. Do what it takes for both of you to be comfortable and rested (!) and don't worry about setting up bad habits - its all a load of tosh.

Original poster

Ra88 · 09/02/2014 09:41

Thanks all . Just to update , he is FF , was on c & g but have now changed to c & g comfort and in the last 24 hours I feel like we have a different baby!

He is so much more settled, no continuous crying, and actually sleeping after feeds in the evening !

Happy baby = happy parents !

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nibbysmum · 09/02/2014 09:43

Great news! We used the comfort milk (didn't work for us) so just to let you know (if you don't already) the comfort poos are explosive, green and stink but it us normal!

Jaclyneyre84 · 09/02/2014 16:08

my little boy was the same - really struggled with colic, we ended up using the anti colic bottles, colief and comfort milk!!!!!! but at 6 months we are weaning him off it all and after a week of all the new anti colic stuff he really settled down didn't have any discomfort and slept much happier. the key is really making sure you try all the burp positions also.
hope you both feel better and get sleep! x

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