Defeated - 10w old help

[JaneB33]

My 10 week old only has two moods- smiles or screams. Unfortunately the latter is the one we find ourselves mostly in. I have tried everything and nothing is working. He is just so miserable and so are we.

Additionally, he only sleeps on me and hates sleeping in his bed or even our bed. When he sleeps he sounds like he has a lot of mucus in his nose and throat. We clean the nose but usually nothing comes out and it seems that the mucus is mainly in his throat. Doctor thinks it’s silent reflux, so we are on omeprazole which made zero difference. He is formula fed and we just went on rice formula to see if it will make a difference- so far no improvement.

Nothing is working. It’s our first baby and we live in a different country to family and friends. I am with the baby all day trying to guess why he is screaming and it has been slowly destroying me. I am so defeated and feel guilty that I can’t figure out how help my baby.

Has anyone had a baby sound very congested in the throat? Anyone has a very grumpy and miserable baby?

That sounds so difficult. Not sure which country you're in but rice milk isn't advised in the UK for under 5s, might be different where you are though.

Has the GP said what might be causing the reflux? Has he been thoroughly checked for Tongue Tie?

It might be worth reading up on Cow's Milk Protein Allergy as well

Forgot to add, it's also pretty normal for them to only want to sleep on you at this age. Some things that might help are using a T-shirt DH has worn as the sheet in her crib. White noise and swaddling might help as well.

My son was a cranky screamer for a while until I figured out he was either tired or overstimulated and needed quite a bit of help from me to help him wind down/sleep. He also used to contact nap through the day, it's very normal. Don't worry about that.

For the first 10 weeks I would have really struggled without a good swaddle and a dummy. He wasn't and isn't a fan of the dummy at all, but when he was really cranky I had to persist with it and eventually he gave in, and it soothed him to sleep. You could always try and use your God given pacifiers too? 🤷‍♀️ Boobs are a solution to many things for a baby and it doesn't matter if there's no milk if he isn't screaming from hunger... Always worth a try.

Are you letting him figure out his own schedule, or keeping to age appropriate wake windows/nap times?