Baby Squirming/Grunting/Uncomfortable - any advice needed

[ZSP1985]

Hello,

I've seen a thread on here before which exactly matched what my son is doing however there wasn't a follow up and it was back in 2011 so I just wanted to open up the conversation again.

My 8 week old baby has been grunting, squirming, wriggling around at night like clock work from 1/2am through to the morning. He will go on his back in his cot for the first part of the night but after that he seems in discomfort and will not lie there. He will only sleep if on my chest and I'm sat up.

I've tried everything - feeding up right, burping for a longer period post feeds, seen the Dr who prescribed baby Gaviscon (no luck) and then anti acid for reflux (no luck either and he's not really that sick post feeds, just a tiny bit might come up), seeing a cranial osteopath (who said he's very tense and tight and one of the worst cases he's seen - although still no change from 2 sessions and the osteopath said we should have noticed some change by now). I don't think it's a milk allergy and neither did the Dr however that is the next step, but he shows no other signs of having one.

I am worried as he seems uncomfortable and I don't know how long this is going to go on for - no one seems to have an answer. Has anyone else experienced it? I feel like it is probably something he will grow out of and it's just his digestive system maturing but it seems odd that Drs and Midwives have never come across it.

Can anyone help!?

Thank you,
Zoe

Hi Zoe

We have a 3 week old DD (named Zoe BTW) she can have bouts very much the same as what you have described so I will be keen to see what others may suggest. DD can be rather windy at both ends at times which causes a bit of discomfort, I've done knees up and roll clockwise to help with this and we have also given her legs a very gentle massage last night which calmed her down but that may have been a fluke. Hope you get some answers

Sorry to hear your daughter is suffering too (nice name though!) Hopefully will get some response, I’ve heard that gripe water, tilting the cot and seeing a chiropractor will help but would be good to hear from anyone else who has been through something similar.

How often does your baby poo? Is your baby still on gaviscon? The reason I ask is that a side effect is constipation. My daughter squirmed a lot, she was colicky and we also went to see an osteopath which did nothing. She has reflux and on medication, the squirming for us got better just after 12 weeks as you said when things start to mature. Our son was the same too (both prem babies)

He’s 9 weeks now and about every 2/3 days. I took him off the gaviscon after a week and no change. I’ve been recommend probiotics and last night swaddling helped a bit. But like you say.. looks like a 12 mark thing!

I have heard probiotics are good but can’t comment as I’ve never tried them, do you think he maybe trying to poo, my daughter had terrible constipation and I was recommended give a little cooled boiled water.

Even when he’s been a few hours earlier he’ll do it, and he’s pretty regular for his age so didn’t think it was that. It seems more like he’s trying to digest milk from the day and it’s uncomfortable but he’s fine in the day and no signs of any discomfort with bowels or after feeds. Mystery!

This sounds the same as our DD (4weeks) we have just started doing some baby massage and working the legs after following some videos which seem to be helping with wind and digestion, she still moves around a lot at night but not as much and we'll see how the next few nights go.

Hi there, just wondering how your baby made out after? Did you find an answer or did it go away with age as they say around 12 weeks? I have an 11 week old who is exactly the same ever since he was about 6 weeks and so far no improvement with age. If anything it feels like it’s getting worse but that could just be because we’ve been dealing with it for so long that I’m very strung out.

@MommaDani have you tried infacol?

No but I’ve tried gripe water, 2 different probiotics, prescription reflux medication and ovol drops, none have worked so far.

My now 5 month old baby girl was the same the first 8 weeks.. She did the same every night from 5 am till 8 am. She was also uncomfortable during the day too though. She was on Aptamil and pooped every 3 to 4 days sometimes.. It was terrible :( she was straining constantly. We used infacol and gripe water but they never really helped much. After about 7 and a half weeks of this I was fed up and stopped breastfeeding completely and changed from aptamil to hipp organic. Within 2 days she was much better. And within a week she was a new baby. She fed much better, reflux got slightly better too and she started pooping everyday which made a huge difference!

I would recommend trying different formulas if he's on formula. Swaddling does help too. Holding the baby upright for atleast half an hour after a feed helps with reflux too.