Uncomfortable 3 wk old

[LittleMilla]

My ds2 was 3 weeks on Friday. Ebf bar a couple of formula feeds, last one on Friday night.

He hasn't pooed properly since sat am and is getting more and more uncomfortable. Struggling to sleep and generally straining and grunting loads.

Wants to be latched on permanently but seems to be fussing and getting windier. Will take a dummy for short intervals but prefers boob.

Help! We're not at home and I just want to ease his obvious discomfort. Also on day 3 of little sleep so DH and I are flaking with a toddler to entertain too!

Forgot to say, he's been having infacol since last tues as he's generally seemed quite windy. Thought it was working but now not and so I'm wondering whether to stop giving it?

Bump. We're pretty desperate and thinking of heading home to docs so any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thx

Hi, LittleMilla. Have you spoken to the health visitor about this? What makes you think your ds is windy? What happens if you just keep him close to you, with free access to the breast as and when he wants it? That is, no dummy, and not putting him down/picking him up/trying to settle him?

You're not at home - so he's somewhere new and strange with different people around?

Just looking for a more behavioural explanation than a physical one, to make sure all bases are covered :)

Thanks tiktok

Saw HV on wed and spoke about 'windiness' she said to give infacol 3 days to work. We then had a good day/night on Friday which made me think it was working.

We're at in-law's holiday home. I'm getting more stressed as ds2 seems unsettled - he's not sleeping very well and just seems so uncomfortable.

DH and I are fighting. He says I'm over feeding him. I'm trying to do just every two hours. Longest stretch last night was 3.5 hours, but that was after it took four hours to get him properly off to sleep after numerous wake ups.

Nappies are wet but it's now been almost 48 hours without a poo which is unlike him. Been consistent since day 1.

I have got a crampy tummy which may or may not matter!

LittleMilla, very few babies aged three weeks will be happy being made to wait for feeds. Many will want to do 'cluster feeds' where you have a number of short feeds close together over a period of hours....making a baby wait for 2 hours will make him upset, stressed and difficult to settle.

You cannot 'over feed' him - he needs to feed as often as he 'asks' and for a baby of this age, bf is a way of being comforted, soothed, made to feel secure (especially in a new place, especially if he feels stress and arguments around him). There is no good reason for not feeding him when he indicates this is what he needs :) Why does your dh think you are feeding him too much?

Just go with the flow for a few days, keep him close, and don't worry about the times between feeds. Less than a month ago he was inside you - he needs responsive reactions from you, to help him get used to the world on the outside.

Hope this helps.

If you are making him wait for feeds it could be that he is then guzzling when he latches on which is causing the windiness?

Babies should be fed on demand not to a timescale and you cannot overfeed a breastfed baby.

Also why are you giving bottles? Your milk supply needs to stabilise and bottles could mess with this. if you want to bottle feed sometimes could you express?

Thanks all for replies.

I've let everyone go off fishing and planning some snuggle time with ds2 - he's just waking up.

I have tons of milk and find/found that expressing always leaves me engorged. So he's had a couple of bottles merely to get him used to having one. My ds1 used to have one a day from about 10 weeks so I could have a break. My supply is always fairly stable and I'm conscious of not doing it regularly so early on.

Should I stop the infacol? Concerned that it could be doing more bad than good. Any tips on how to get him to poo? He's straining from the moment he wakes up .

We're going home tonight. DH is as broken as I am and we can send ds1 off to nursery tomorrow.

Mila - infacol does no harm, as it is not a systemic thing ie it does not get into the baby's system, so you could carry on with it (or stop it - there's no evidence at all that it does any good, either!).

The lack of poo could be related to the formula he had, but this effect will soon pass. It could also be related to the fact you have been trying to feed him less often - babies really, really need to be fed when they 'ask' as bf supplies fluids as well as food. On the other hand, some babies of around 3 weeks naturally move to less frequent poo'ing.

Enjoy the snuggle time :) It's likely that all will be well shortly and his unsettledness will pass once he breastfeeds when he wants to.

Thank you tiktok. Just given him another feed and he's asleep on me as I type.

I'll follow his lead a bit more. My DH was worried about over feeding as ds2 has seemed so full that he's been sick. I've been more relaxed in the evening and early morning about feeding on demand (he wakes almost hourly from about 5) as I've assumed it's clustering. Aside from those times he doesn't puke.

Being sick is the body's simple response to temporary over-fullness and babies don't care about laundry and don't even feel bothered or uncomfortable about it - so it's not a cause for concern.

Your DH really doesn't need to worry about that.