HELP!! 1 week old baby, can this be colic??

[BWMum]

A very, very new mum here desperate for some experienced views!!
Our DD is one week old today. For past two days has been an angel all day, feeds regularly, sleeps well and seems really happy. From about 3/4pm onwards however, she seems to have the most awful wind and is in a lot of pain. She cries, pulls her legs up onto her stomach and waves her arms wildly. If we pat her bum or bicycle her legs, she passes wind so I'm pretty sure it's her stomach that's upsetting her. She also has not yet had a bowel movement - last one was last Sunday (i.e. when she was a day old) and was meconium.
She won't settle to sleep and cries and cries from now until about 3/4am. She will sleep if we hold her or let her rest on our chests but lying on her back seems to cause her pain. Obviously she's meant to be on her back in the crib. Last night I was so exhausted I landed up falling asleep with her on my chest but we can't allow that to happen again.

From what I've read it sounds a lot like colic except that she is so young.

Does anyone have any views or suggestions? DH has just gone to Boots to look at gripe water, but we're not sure whether such a tiny girl is allowed it.

Thanks for any help!!!

would add - she is breastfed and otherwise fine, normal weight etc
my poor girl

Could she still be hungry ? How is she fed and how often? It seems like a long time for her not to have had a dirty nappy tbh , they all vary but even so she might just be constipated and windy until she does. Is she producing wet nappies and having a satisfactory weight loss/gain? Did you mention it to the midwife.

It is n't unusual for such a lo to be unsettled. Everything is as new to her as to you, she won't distinguish day from night and a having a regular pattern is really not something associated with newborns. Good luck.

She cant have gripe water till 6-8 weeks. try infacol, that worked really well for us.

good luck!

Hi congratulations ,try infacol it works wonders

I'd definately ring the mw. It does seem a long time for a bf baby to go without a dirty nappy.

Yes ring the MW and just check. She may advise infacol. We used it for ds and it did help. Her crying sounds exactly the same timings, etc as my ds who like your dd was v contented during the day.

You may have a few weeks of this to come so def ask for advice.

I wouldn't worry at this stage if she wants to fall asleep on your chest! She's only a week old and getting used to being on the outside world, it will probably be a good thing if she falls asleep that way now and again. You are NOT making a rod for your own back. It's too early for that.

infacol is great.massage her tummy and if she is happy sleeping upright maybe put a pillow under moses basket etc-also if you drink some fennel tea it will pass through yourmilk and defo get her pooing!! workedwonders with my colicy boy x

You poor thing!

Congrats on the birth if your DD!

Sounds like colic to me. Try Infacol and use it BY THE BOOK (i just used to chuck some down DD when she was in pain but obviously that doesn't work!). Sounds exactly like my DD at the same age (she's almost six weeks now). You cant use gripe water until your DD is at least a month old so that will have to be ruled out for now i'm afraid!

Also, as far as dirty nappies goes, my DD had the same "problem", i.e she passed a couple of meconium nappies and then nothing for about 4 days. After that she did a massive pooey nappy but even now, only produces a pooey nappy about once every 4-5 days. As long as her nappies are wet it's apparently nothing to worry about in a breastfed baby.

I've been using Infacol on my own DD now for the past week or so and she's like a different baby - no more screaming abdabs all night!

Speak to your mw if you are concerned tho.

Good luck!

Thank you all so much for your responses.

I have mentioned the no poo problem to the midwives before. So far, they've been happy about the lack of it because she's otherwise happy, wees a lot and has had ok weight gain after the initial loss.

DH came back from Boots with Infacol so we have given her some of that. I've also just tried feeding her a whole lot more than usual. She falls asleep really quickly when feeding and I thought that meant she was finished, but this time I've tried changing her nappy to make her nice and cross and then putting her back again. She did have some more, so maybe that will help.

oh, and on the falling asleep on me, I was worried about the advice on SIDS - that she must be on her back - rather than anything else.

So far, she seems to be a bit better - put her down just before 7 for a nap and so far so good. Cross your fingers for me!!

Thanks again, I really do appreciate all the suggestions/advice.

Dont forget to use the infacol at EVERY feed or else it wont work!

Good luck and get some rest!

my ds suffered badly with a windy belly when he was a newbie. We used infacol and also found that holding him in a position called 'the tree' helped him pass wind.
You lay the baby along inside of your forearm with them facing away from you ,so baby has a foot either side of your elbow. Put the palm of you hand against baby's tummy
Then use your other arm so head is supported by your elbow and grip other forearm.

make gently bouncing movements.
Rather hard to explain sorry - but helped us

BWMum - how are you getting on?