I think I need to rule out once and for all whether our 4.5mo DS's sleep problems have a medical cause. I will go and see a GP but wanted to make sure I know what I am going to say. Have had recent bad experience going to GP about him so am a bit nervous!
He is breastfed but has been having a nightly bottle of formula since he was 8 weeks.
Not sure if this is relevant but We had weight issues (weight loss and then slow weight gain) when he was young. He has been gaining fine for a long while now and been checked out by a doc but is very small still (below 0.4th percentile). Opinion of GP is that he is genetically small like me! Have had latch and positioning checked by a million and one people. He hadsbeen checked for tongue tie.
He was unputdownable when he was young but is much better now and for the last month has been happy on a playmat on his back for example for short periods. He has always preferred being vertical or on his front.
When he was about 5 weeks I wondered if he might have silent reflux. Lots of backarching, feeding continuously, lots of wind, wet burps, hiccups. Was Christmas and couldn't get a doctor's appointment for ages. I tried cutting out caffiene and dairy in desperation and we tried colief very briefly. Symptoms subsided after sbout a week so never spoke to doctor about it in the end. When we introduced formula on recommendation of HVs symptoms didn't come back so started eating dairy again.
From about 5 weeks until a couple of weeks ago, he never finished a feed happy. I'd do breast compressions and alternate breasts (as recommended by nct and bfn) but used to give up eventually as :DS would be happy within a minute or two of taking him off and was then settled for while. He would often feed fine at night though or if he was sleepy. Nwdays it is only his bedtime feed which is a struggle.
Until recently, over the last couple of months he never slept more than two hours at night and more often one hour or less including afyer his evening bottle. Sometimes he would wake up wriggling 20 minutes after a feed. We have gradually got rid of his night feeds the last few weeks and he is now sleeping a blissful 5-6 hour stretch but can't resettle him by feeding after that.
During the day the only way I cam get him to sleep is in his sling. Doesn't sleep in ram, cat, swing etc. If I manage to feed him to sleep even feeding him lying down he wakes up after 10 minutes.
He sicks up 7-8 times a day - didn't used to when he was younger. Not sure what is normal. He also had peri-anal redness which I read can be a sign of food intolerance but was told by HV to put Vaseline on it?
So is reflux a possibility or is there something else going on or is this just all normal? Have been told so many times by different people that lots of this stuff is normal that am a bit nervous about going to see a GP. There's also the added complication of his weight and whether he is getting enough milk and whether that is e.g. the cause of his fussy feeding and night waking. HVs would like me to give more formula but am not convinced that being small by itself is a good reason for that and that is the only reason they can give me.