Unsettled 10 week old - could it improve by 3 months!?

[peggotty]

In the last 2-3 weeks my 10 wk old ds has become increasingly unsettled during the day, he spends a lot of his time awake either low-level grizzling or full blown crying. We occasionally have good days when he's reasonably settled. I think he suffers from wind a bit, he is bf and I have oversupply, consequently he has adopted a shallow latch and seems to take in a lot of air. I am starting to feel resentful towards him for needing so much constant attention, as my 3 year old dd is virtually being ignored. I am clinging to the potential light at the end of the tunnel that it's a touch of colic that will improve at 3 months or so - can colic start as late on as 7 or 8 weeks? The thought that he will be like this indefinately is horrendous - I don't think I could cope with it. Has anyone else had a grumpy younger baby that has improved with time? HELP!

Colic can start late - DD didn't get it till about seven weeks. The good news is that you are reaching the 'golden age of Calpol'.

He probably won't be like this much longer, remember they have a massive growth spurt at this point - probably needs more milk.

BTW have you tried the rugby hold - I had oversupply and it made sure DD latched properly and she did drain my boobs (boy did she drain them). Mind you she shot up the percentiles as soon as I did this!

Hang in there, it's not easy is it?

Thanks choc, I'm not even sure that there's actually anything 'wrong' with him, he might just be a demanding baby, but I'm not ready to accept that just yet!! Consequently I'm frantically searching for reasons for his whinginess!

Have tried the rugby hold but not recently, will try it again.

No it's not bloody easy - in fact, young babies are a complete nightmare imo!

Yeah I know, I'm 22 weeks pregnant with number 2 and number 1 is only 17 months. So I'm looking forward to this sort of nonsense myself!

I do think babies under four months are totally random a lot of the time and it's pointless trying to analyse them. They are still trying to figure out which way is up.

BTW if you have oversupply do you think it is because he isn't suckling properly so you are making lots of milk but it's not coming out and into him, but out and all over him (we were like that for a bit with DD - she would be soaked and my other boob would just spurt). We took her to a cranial osteopath, she had a problem opening her mouth properly and one treatment fixed it. Might be worth a thought if this might be the case for your son?

Hi Peggoty, my lo suffered from wind and colic from day 1, was initally breastfed then moved onto formula. We took him to a chiropractor on the recommendation of a friend and after posting on Mumsnet and have never looked back - he actually had a jammed neck from a ventouse delivery and was gulping his feeds down to ease the pain in his neck therefore causing the colic, once his neck was freed the colic got much better although he is still very windy , if yur lo's unsettledness coincides with his 5 in1 injections it could be worth seeing a chiropractor or cranial osetopath as our DS gets very unsettled after his injections and his colicky symptoms get much worse for about a week or so. HTH

Ds1 was like this from day 1. At 12 weeks it all changed (for the better, I hasten to add). I was totally depairing at the point where suddenly everything changed.

hi peggoty, my ds was very colicky.he had screaming fits whenever he fed,was very windy etc..it was made harder by the fact that he was a demanding personality also, but in the early days we were always trying to analyse everything to solve the problems.my absolute lifesaver was the discovery of something called colief that you drop into the babies milk. it is AMAZING stuff that breaks down the lactose in the milk.i tried using it whilst breastfeeding but was hard to administer like that, so i gave up at 3 months and put the drops into his formula and we never looked back!the crying really reduced and he improved again when he reached the stage where he could sit up. dont know if youve got a bumbo, but its a great little chair that babies can sit in frm about 4 months and that really helped too as he never really liked lying down-too nosey i guess!

12 weeks really has seemed like a 'golden age' for both my DDs. Colic started at 6 weeks for both of them but it stopped really suddenly at 12 weeks.

I found the hardest thing with No2 was getting used to not being able to give No1 as much attention. It does get better quite quickly and in sudden stages. My poor DD1 felt she had alsmost lost her mummy when incredibly demanding DD2 arrived (and they told me the 2nd one was always more laid back ) but now they are so close and it's really lovely to see them play together and walk along holding hands (when they aren't fighting over toys ).

This won't be indefinite I'm sure, but I can totally understand why you might feel like it is going to be.

If you want to try Colief might be worth trying to get in on prescription - it is about £10 a bottle . Works a really very well for some but it made my DD sick (not uncommon according to my MW) and I wasn't best pleased I had forked out £10 for a tiny bottle of stuff that made things worse!

so sorry it is crap for you atm. I have 3 and all of mine had colic, and with all of them it miraculously stopped at 14 weeks - NO idea why. Don't worry too much about dc1 - when you are over this stage you WILL bond again and have time again - I promise. Sending you a hug. babies are flipping hard.

in quite a similar position myself...however,i realised that after much research as well as bad wind(gripe water is amazing for that!although a syringe is needed to give it to him)and colic to a degree, ds had silent reflux(normal reflux means the baby is sick which he rarely is, but when he does it is projectile-esque!). After a feed he would(and still does)pull a face,draw his knees up,scream inconsolably especially if he lays down after a feed. The more tired he is, the more it seemed to hurt him.

Does any of that sound familiar to you? I maybe on completely the wrong track but it is an idea

Newmama, my dd had reflux, not silent, she was profusely sick after nearly every feed and failed to gain weight properly for weeks so I was very alert to the possibility of ds having reflux. I thought for a while he might have silent reflux, but he really doesn't fulfil many of the criteria for it and I also think that some of the symptoms of oversupply can seem like reflux. It seems more like just windy/general unsettledness! Funnily you should mention gripe water because I bought some on friday and have also been making more of an effort to wind him thoroughly after every feed. I think there's been a bit of improvement, but i'm still going to hold out for that golden age of 3 months. Hope your poor ds gets over the reflux quickly, is he on any medication for it?

Hows the gripe water working for you then? it settled the wind quite alot?!for ages my ds would hold on to the wind but now he actually has a few burps if i break him in the middle of his feed and feed him gripe water(stresses him out abit but it has to be done!)

For the reflux i had to go to the drs 3 times!!!!!!!!!was a very stressful time as he too was not putting on any weight and was crying 24/7!!!A coupla weeks ago I got prescribed infant gaviscon and never looked back!Bit touch and go still tho as i feed ds averagely 12times a day but u can only use it up to 6...so its used for emergency purposes!!

Anyways,here is to both of us holding out to the magic 3months grumpy babies are not easy!!good luck xxx