Wind!

[Jevels]

Hi everyone - new to here - so I'm hoping someone will have some advice. We started giving my son a bottle as his last feed of the day (around 7pm) just after Christmas as he wasn't gaining weight. Since then - he has gone from being a good sleeper (only waking once around 2.30am) to an absolute nightmare. It seems to me that he is struggling with wind - he burps and passes wind nearly all day and when he does wake at night (which is currently every hour!) he lets out a high pitched cry so I know he is in pain. We've tried different bottles, and use infacol/gripe water but nothing seems to be making any difference at all. I can't seem to get enough milk out when expressing to give him that instead of formula - and I'm just so tired I don't know what to do. He's breastfed the rest of the day and in the night - but as I am going back to work soon - I was hoping to make the switch over to bottles but I am worried I will cause him even more problems by doing this. He's 18 weeks now so I would have thought that his "gut" was mature enough to handle the formula (we're using Aptamil). Please if anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.....don't know what to do and hate seeing him in pain.

Some babies are very windy. I would suggest you try a warm bath and some gentle stomach massage (round in circles is your fingertips) before bedtime.

Good advice from whomoved. Have you tried giving him some Dentinox or Colief?

Don't know much about formula but have you tried swapping brands?

Thanks for the tips. I do give him a bath every night (which he loves). Will try some massage tonight too. Haven't tried colief but going to get some today to see if that helps. I spoke to the doctor about swapping brands and she did say that was an option - so I think if I get to the end of this week and nothing has changed, I'll swap to something else. My problem is that in the daytime he'll quite happily sleep for 2-3 hours if I let him, yet at night - he's up almost every hour - so I know it must be something to do with bottle/formula.

Not necessarily. Have you tried taking him out for a walk in the late afternoon. He may just be not getting enough daylight to set his melatonin levels correctly.

Also is he teething? Feel his gums for teeth nubs and apply Calpol where necessary.

Good advice from whomoved again .

Didn't know anything about melatonin levels - what does this mean?

Have had a feel around for teeth - but can't feel anything, but he is drooling constantly and trying to chew things - so could be teething I suppose. Seems to me it's getting worse. Last night it took me from 7.45pm til 10pm to settle him, then he woke at 1.45, 4, 5.15 and then 6.50. I'm just so tired and have a 3 year old to look after too. Just feel like I'm not being much use to anyone at the moment.

Formula is much harder to digest than breastmilk. A different brand might help. What about giving him formula in the morning so he has the day to ease the wind, and expressing then (often there's more milk in the morning). That might give you enough to change to breastmilk night feeds instead.

Okay melatonin is the hormone your body makes to tell you when you need to sleep. It's antigen (opposite) number is the hormone which wakes you up in the morning. Babies are born only making small amounts and it is exposure to sunlight which triggers the body to make more (ie if you walk about outside, your body says 'ah yes, this must be day therefore in six hours, time to sleep').

He sounds like he might be teething to me though - have you tried Calpol?

Jevels I would seriously think about giving one of the helplines a call. As doric says, formula is much harder to digest and they may be about to help you come up with a way of getting your DS weight up some other way. However, please don't think I'm judging you for giving a formula top up, its just that from what you've said so far it seems to be making you all unhappy.

As for sleeping more during the day and wanting to feed, have a read of this, does it sound like your DS?

I think that whomoved was saying that if you get him outside during the day the light lievels may just help to reset his brain to sleep at night and feed more during the day.

One other thing you could try is feeding him every 2 hours during the day, and when he wants if of course. This may help him sleep at night and should help with his weight gain too.

Keep posting and let us know how you are getting on

Jevels if you do think it could be the formula causing the wind this may help.

We used Dr Browns bottles and it helped, also re burping we used to lie her on her belly across our knee/ arm, and rubbed. Again, it worked for us. Mainly burp, burp and burp again.

How did you get on last night Jevels?

Have had a couple of better nights....thanks ladies! Gave Zach some teething powder and calpol and it seems to have worked. He's still woken up a couple of times in the first hour we put him down - but that's usually more wind. After that only woken once in the night to feed and slept til 7am so it's a vast improvement. Poor little thing - should have realised it was his teeth. Anyway - fingers crossed this continues - beginning to feel like a human being again! Thanks for all your tips x

Glad you are both feeling a little better.