Baby won't settle - advice please

[Hangonintherebaby]

Our 2 week old son won't settle after feeding.
For the last 36 hours he's ben refusing to sleep after feeding unless he's in one of our arms and he won't go down in his moses basket. The problem seems to be wind - he's making all the classic signs like grimacing and tensing up - but burping him seems to give little results. I'm exhausted and so is my partner - no sleep except the occassional 20-40 mins. We've tried every winding position available but they don't seem to help. Any advice?

Is he bringing milk back up as he may have some reflux. If just pain then maybe colic, is he crying other than after milk?

if its wind or griping pain i would try a bit of gripe water in with some sterilised or if the problem persists i would try infacol, it was my life saver.

It sounds like reflux... Try holding him upright during a feed and for 30 mins afterwards, whilst winding (when winding, rub don't pat) Prop up the moses basket at one end so he sleeps on a gentle slope.

Good luck!

You can't use gripe water till 4 weeks. Infacol is fine though

If you feel that it is wind try Infacol - we used it with both of ours to great effect. Have no idea what it is or how it works but it just seems to make it easier for baby to expel air from one end or the other after feeding.

Also, during the day we didn't try to put them straight down to sleep after a feed - we used the Baby Whisperer EASY "technique" Eat, Activity, Sleep, You ie after feeding, play for a little while before going down to sleep, the You bit is for you to have some time to yourself while they sleep. Worked for us.

Bluebumedfly - he is bringing up milk but just a mouthful or a dribble, not massive amounts.

We saw the midwife today who said it was just wind....but we can't get it out of him! I'm so desperate for sleep.

Igglybuff / jelliebelly - we'll try your suggestions, thanks.

Hang if a baby has silent reflux it may vomit very little as the acid only comes so far up. I'd keep a note of symptoms and google silent reflux to compare. My DS has it but we didn't realise until 12 wks when he had a choking incident. We thought it just wind. Not to scare you - DS was fine - but just so you're aware as many GPs/HVs aren't.

I've found this site really useful.

Hello lovely, I've only read your OP but this is the advice my health visitor gave me for my little man who cried for 2 to 3 hours a night until aged 10 weeks and also cried after every feed. When I spoke to my health visitor about it, her tips to try were:

Warm bath covering tummy.
Lying him on his tummy with a warm (not hot) hot water bottle under him to soothe tummy.
Cycling his legs whilst he's on his back. Holding feet palm to palm and rocking legs sideways, whilst lying on floor or lap.
Or scooping with right hand down his right side whilst holding feet palm to palm.
Or rocking him face down well supported on legs.

She also said don't eat anything that gives you wind such as brocolli, cabbage, caffeine, cauliflower, garlic or other stimulants. She said if none of the above did work I could try buying Colief drops from a chemist and mixing in with feed by expressing it first, as she said sometimes colic is caused by a lactose intolerance.

I found that out of all of those the cycling the legs was particularly good. I also found that as he had trouble burping, the infacol made him cry harder as it coalesced the bubbles into one big one that still went downwards but hurt more. But giving him gripe water after every feed straight away really soothed his tummy. I had to do it every feed though without fail.

The warm bath in quiet room was also a real help. Every night at the time he started to get agitated I would put in the bath, in a bath cradle and keep putting warm water on his tummy and every now and then top the bath up with warm water, so it wouldn't get too cold for him. Once or twice he was in the bath for 2 hours in the early days as it was really calming for him. Once he started doing big yawns and it was bedtime, I'd take him out into a dark bedroom and change him and BF him quietly and then often he'd go to sleep straight away.

I found putting him in his bouncy chair after a feed made it worse and he needed to be upright for quite a while, so often he was in a baby bjorn on me, so I could look after my DD who was a toddler after feeds.

But let's face it all babies are different and these may not work for you but it's always worth a try!

Goodluck

It'll be bum wind not upper wind if it is just wind. They scream and wail and howl and it is horrible. My first baby was a nightmare with it, an absolute nightmare. My subsequent children have not suffered but I've had maternity jobs with babies who have and they have been killers.

There's no rhyme or reason as to why some get it and others not. All the above suggestions are great and sadly there's not much else you can do.

Take it in turns with as many people as possible to do the rocking, driving in the carseat, swinging, cradling, etc. etc. just to get through the hours of screaming.

My top of the top tips is allowing them to suck on your upturned little finger - also holding them at same time with their legs kind of bunched up and when they bear down and squirm with the wind pain, and break their suck you keep your finger there and hold their legs firmly, resisting the squirm and then they will sometime let the wind out.

Sounds like torture but it isn't when you do it!

Are you breastfeeding? Both my DSs had terrible bottom wind. No amount of winding made the slightest difference - never a burp.

A bf counsellor once told me that sometimes if there's too much foremilk it can result in wind lower down the digestive tract. I was so sleep deprived at the time I've probably got that wrong but something like that.

My DS2 didn't sleep unless on us until about 14 weeks - just wanted to be close. Some babies are just like that but they do grow out of it.

I hope you get some rest soon - can you lie down with him so you are resting too? Would you be comfortable with co-sleeping?

To suggest something entirely different ...

Very many little babies hate being put down. It makes them feel unsafe and they react in just the way you describe. Many of us (me included, at first) don't understand why they feel the need to be held all the time and think this is a sign of something wrong (or that it must be wind!!), but that's not true. It's natural, normal behaviour for a newborn and they do grow out of it as they get older.

It took me ages to realise this but when I did, it made things so much easier. Basically I just held her all day and brought her into bed with me at night (was BF, which made it easier). At first I didn't want to do this at all, it felt all wrong - but when I saw how happy and settled it made her, it was obviously the right thing to do.

For a scientific explanation of all this, I suggest "The science of parenting" by Margot Sunderland ....

thanks for all the advice. Tried him sleeping on my chest last night so I could doze while holding him. Sort of worked - probably against every bit of professional information I've been given but may save my sanity. He seems to be getting the idea of burping - a few more results than previouly but still no rest longer than an hour or so. Still, that's a tiny improvement. What's so mystifying is that he was still in a good routine of feeding then sleeping for a couple of hours or more that we'd established in the hospital. (we had an extended stay of 10 days due to severe pre-eclampsia, emergency c-section and a week in special baby care unit.) It was about 2 days after we finally came home that this problem started.

Hi hang. DS still sleeps on my chest and he's 3 months although I'm now putting in his cot more at night. So try not to worry too much. As he gets older he's getting too big and doesn't mind being put down much.
As your DS takes in more milk eg after a growth spurt, the wind/reflux will get worse which might be why you've noticed it after two weeks?

As for routine, they change so much in the first few weeks, especially when it comes to sleeping, so it might have changed anyway.

I hope you're both fully recovered now from the hospital stay!

classic 'colic' and wind starts around now! it has you fooled into a couple of weeks of thinking you have avoided it.

and remember it's the bum wind they are trying to shift, but burping helps too of course

It's only natural when in pain from wind that they'd be comforted being close to you. As your nickname says, hang on in there, things will get better as they get bigger.

Big hug and virtual cup of tea coming your way x

Absolutely, their patterns and routines change very very quickly at this age. No sooner have you got used to one thing than it changes. It's normal!

There is lots of helpful info out there about safe co-sleeping - this page has some simple and quick guidelines and this one has loads more research and information if you're inclined to worry about it.

My friend had this, wind that would bot come out, her dds stomach was rock hard as she literally could not fart. She went to a cranial osteopath and it worked a fair bit. However, she was then diagnosed with a milk allergy, which at 2 she has just grown out of.