Please help me with my screaming baby (Long, sorry!)

[Needtogetbetteratthis]

My DS is 16 weeks old, he is my first child. When he was born (very easy birth) I was discharged a lot quicker than I would have liked from hospital (8 hours after birth) so hadn't really had a chance to establish breast feeding. Over the next two days he wouldn't feed and we ended up back in hospital with mild jaundice where I expressed milk and mixed fed him under instruction from the hospital. We then came home and I continued to mix feed. So for the first 8 weeks this worked quite well and about 2/5 of his food was breast milk with the rest being Aptamil.

Then my milk started drying up and he became exclusively formula fed (at about 10 weeks).

Since then it has been hell.

He gets so much wind he is rigid and screaming most of the day. On the advice of the health visitor I swapped formula (to Cow & Gate) which worked for a couple of days and then the same issues started again x 10. He wouldn't take more than 80ml at a time (about 500ml over a day), screaming with horrendous wind, terrible constipation (at one point 8 days without a dirty nappy) and then diarrhoea.

A different health visitor suggested comfort formula which did improve things slightly and he can now take 140ml at a feed but the constipation and wind continue. I feel caught between the doctor, nurse and health visitor who all suggets variations of orange juice (either neat or diluted) or sugar and water (old school nurse suggested - HV was not impressed), these solitions don't work and he seems to be getting worse again. Their latest suggestion is colief which has made no difference at all. Only gripe water is the vaguest help with the wind but he is not having anywhere near enough food and has dropped from 50th centile to 25th centile since 1 January.

I have no idea what to do, the HV is sympathetic but just says oh the baby will drink if hungry, the nurse refers me to the health visitor and the doctor prodded his stomach through a snowsuit and just said orange juice worked for his kids so keep trying it.

I don't have any family support and don't have many friends with children but from my limited experience it doesn't seem right that a nearly four month old is screaming for over 6 hours a day and will take such a little amount of food.

I know this is long and thanks so much if you have got this far, please tell me if this is normal, or if I am being over anxious or should I be pushing this further and if so with who??

I had similar with DS1. I found that I had to dilute the milk very slightly because formula can cause constipation as can not enough fluids. The gripe water worked brilliantly but I had to add it to the formula for it to work. I also used the sugar/water solution which seemed to work better than diluted orange juice.

Finally I found the positition when I fed him made some difference and if he was virtually sat up and not so much in a lying position that helped with the wind.

Another thing to consider is the teats on the bottles, if the teat is too soft more air is taken in, too larger hole is not good but equally so if he has to suck too hard he might be taking in air.

Finally if he really is not improving then you need to go back to GP or speak again to HV, a friend of mine had this and her baby never settled for over 6 months due to reflux, poor thing must have been in agony.

Thanks minimathsmouse it's good to know I am not the only one - although sorry you had these problems as well. I use Avent 3+ teats at the moment - if you don't mind me asking which did you find the best?

Oh poor you! This sounds really awful for both of you.

I don't really have any suggestions other than try each formula on the market (SMA was no good for us - C&G was fine) and log ins and outs. If he continues losing weight, ask if he can be prescribed something lacto-free? It's my understanding it is very rare for small babies to be lactose-intolerant, but I met a woman the other day whose baby was 8 months old and lactose-intolerant - it took a long time for her to get the diagnosis and she continued to lose weight the whole time.

I don't mean to scare you, I'm sure a switch to a different formula would help. My baby is the same age as yours and although he is fine, my older boys at 4 months had a similar issue (hence the switch in brand!) but it was awful until we sorted it.

Has anyone suggested reflux,from your brief description its hard to tell but my dd cried constantly until she got her reflux meds sorted,its horrible,i couldnt even push her in the pram i had to carry her everywhere.I know it can be made worse/better by changing formulas too. Check online for a symptom guide.

We had very similar issues. Moved to Comfort C&G no improvement but it was reflux. We solved it with a pescription for Infant Gaviscon and the Comfort formula!

Hope you get it sorted soon it's so hard when they are in pain and you can't help

Thank you all for taking the time to read and respond. I have looked up reflux symptoms and it is a definite possibility. I will try and pursue this with the GP tomorrow.

Oh, twas a long time ago, he's now 11 years old and fine now :)
I think we used the 4, I know they were avent, someone else here might know what size is best.

We had exactly the same issues you've described with our daughter Bella. It turned out that she had a cows milk protein allergy alongside silent reflux. The allergy caused allergic colitis which was ulcers in her bowel. After a night in hospital with blood in her nappy we were prescribed ranitidine to heal the ulcers and neutralise the stomach acid and hydrolysed milk alongside infant gaviscon. Since then she's been a different baby, very smiley, happy, contented. She naps well in the day and only wakes once in the night for a feed. Good luck, I know how tough it is!

Yes yes yes to cow's milk protein allergy. It sounds quite possible. Don't be fobbed off by GP - often they know nothing about this issue and get confused between lactose intolerance and protein intolerance. Former is so rare, latter really more common than you'd think.

It can cause feed reefusal too.

I had a similar situation with both my DDs. With my first I didnt know what to do and the HV said the same as yours have. When my daughter turned 1 i eventually saw an ENT as she used to get ear infections all the time. Turned out she had a slight intolerance to milk.

With DD2, after a similar start, I went straight to the doc and said I wanted her on hypoallergenic milk. He tried her on gaviscon first for reflux but it didnt help.She was also extremely constipated. She was then on nutramigen until she was about 14 months which made a HUGE difference. We slowly introduced milk back into her diet, and shes been fine since.