6 week fussiness or colic?

[Zoe1983]

Hi, just after some reassurance so I can try to prepare myself for if this is likely to last a week or months...

My baby is 6 weeks old. She has been pretty unsettled since birth - not happy being held by anyone except me, cries with trapped wind despite every effort to clear it (massage, sling, block feeding, tiger in tree, infacol, colief etc) and is pretty pukey (projectile about twice a day but doesn't seem to hugely bother her as long as she's held upright for a bit after a feed, plus she's gaining weight etc). I haven't been too worried about these things so far...they're exhausting and my mental health has suffered, but I've been able to rationalise that there is a spectrum of babies' behaviour and hers is maybe just on the slightly more fussy end of normal.

However the past 3 days it's all ramped up enormously. She fusses on/off breast, arches her back, goes red in her face and if you attempt to put her down for a moment she literally screams. It's like clockwork from 3 till 5.30 (just in time for DH to return home from work to a sleepy baby "happy" because she's exhausted herself).

Is this normal 6 week fussing or does it sound like colic...and I need to mentally prepare myself for months of this?

The other worry is my breasts are feeling soft in the afternoons - having previously had an oversupply, I now genuinely wonder if I don't have enough milk for her?

Any advice appreciated, thank you!

Your breasts are adjusting to your supply and they will have milk. They kellymom website is excellent for info on breast feeding.

It sounds like reflux and colic. You can get rantadine from GP for reflux as you are breast feeding ask for rantadine not gaviscon.

Do you have a sling?

It's so hard to tell over the Internet. Colic, reflux, food allergies and tongue tie can all present with similar symptoms. And really the only thing you can do is to try and rule out one at a time.

If it's at a regular time like this though, part of the problem could very well be colic.

One thing that might help is getting baby fed and changed before it starts at 3pm. Then get in the car, or stick her in the pram, and go out. If you are in the car put something very gentle and relaxing on the stereo and just pray she falls asleep before she starts screaming

Having said all of that, it could just be the 6 week growth spurt and hopefully, it may calm down in a couple of days anyway.

My DS was very unsettled like this and had colic, his problem turned out to be tongue tie so it might be worth ruling that out