Newborn wind in the early hours

[ByDreamyMintNewt]

Hi there,

My little boy will be 4 weeks on Sunday and is my third child. Generally during the day he is content, so long as he has milk and isn't overtired. A few little grumbles but nothing massive. He is currently breastfed and I try to wind thoroughly as I know I have a heavy let down. However, between the hours of 3-6am he is really struggling with his wind. Thrashing about, crying out, drawing knees up, moaning - beyond the normal noisy newborn night time sounds. Occasionally he gets a couple of tiny farts out but nothing big. He also doesn't really poo overnight, maybe a little tiny one, then come morning when we're up and about he tends to do a few big ones in a row.

So, just generally has anyone got any tips how to help him? I've started giving him a dummy to try and help, which I'd wanted to avoid as both mine needed constant plugging in at night after the 4 month regression. But not sure what else I can do

Ask HV or pediatrician about his bowel movement? Maybe he's constipated.

I unfortunately had to cut out dairy, which massively reduced the wind.

I also gave him a belly massage as part of the bedtime routine (you can look up the routine on YT).

Lastly, it's partly because they're immobile through the night, so by the early hours there's a lot of build up. If you can incorporate some gentle leg movements into earlier wakes and feeds, that might ease things for him.

You could try changing position you feed in. I found when I changed from a cradle/cross-craddle where the baby is more upright it helped with wind.