Crazily windy 6 week old EBF baby

[TriciaMcM]

DS is my second EBF baby so I thought I knew what to expect. Winding DD did sometimes take a while, but DS is something else. It takes 90mins to wind him, at which time it's almost feed time again.

Burping him immediately after a feed gets several large burps, but this is never enough. Keeping him upright afterwards, there will be several burps over a long period, & if we put him down, he'll grumble more & more loudly until we pick him up. Sure enough, he will burp almost immediately then.

I don't think its colic exactly as he's rarely screaming, more just grumbling as I said. It does turn to crying if we can't wind him though.

I did a bit of research & possibly have a fast let down, but I already feed lying down on my side at night & leaning back on sofa. I've also started winding mid feed.

Has anyone any suggestions on what it could be and or any tips on how to get the wind out more effectively! We do a combination of rubbing/patting back, walking up & down stairs (don't knock it, it helps!) & putting him on his tummy briefly.

Ds was really windy. I gave up dairy with him and it seemed to help a lot actually. I never ate dairy this time with dd and she has never been particularly windy. This is very unscientific but I got the idea because my mate has bf three babies and none of them had any wind or colic whatsoever and I asked her what she ate and she told me and coincidentally didn't include any dairy apart from milk in tea. I thought right I'm doing that!

He will grow out of it in a few weeks most likely but maybe worth having a look at your diet? Be careful you're getting the right nutrition though because I've had to start taking supplements.

It did occur to me about dairy oddly but in a Kellymom article it said 10days I think for the protein to leave your system so I gave up on that idea! With first DC I lost an unhealthy amount of weight while BFing (couldn't seem to get enough food into me at all) so I'm being extra cautious this time & didn't want to unnecessarily restrict my diet. The Kellymom article was for allergies though, if he's just intolerant it might be worth a try anyway. We're you very strict? As in no chocolate? Thanks ithoughtofitfirst!

Were not we're, auto correct gone mad.

You're welcome!

I see what you're saying. I found the results much quicker than that though personally but I know some ladies on here have found it takes a bit longer to take effect. I slipped up and ate my favourite cheese after dd and she was really windy that evening. Might be coincidence but I didn't eat it again and she went back to normal by the next day. I still have milk in tea and the occasional bit of chocolate

I am finding it hard though with weight too. My clothes are falling off me and I just feel sick if I force myself to eat more. Plus my hair and nails look horrendous and I posted a thread the other day because I was practically falling asleep at the wheel on Monday. So God knows!

It might be worth carrying on as normal riding it out if you can manage to. Because it will pass in a few weeks anyway. They just get stronger and better at getting wind up without much effort. (As I typed that my nearly 3 year old ds did a massive burp! Spooky)

Be careful with the weight thing. People keep telling me isn't it great that I was back to normal within a week etc but losing weight can be unhealthy. I lost so much I aged 5 years at least! My face, hands etc lost all fat and while the weight went back quite happily on my waist, hips & thighs, it never went back where I wanted it to. That's the vanity bit, the health issue is obviously more serious but it does show that my body took it very hard. Take care of yourself!

Is he choking and gasping with your fast letdown? Breaking away several times and arching his back whilst feeding? Nipple shields are great for that if you've tried everything else.

We've tried Infacol, Dentinox and Gripe Water and found the Dentinox by far the most successful. We give it with a wee syringe we got in the chemist and within a few seconds we usually get a monster burp. Worth a try.

Btw, I'm dairy free and haven't seen any particular difference in burpiness.

Has he been checked for tongu tie? If he can't latch correctly then he may not be able to form a seal with his mouth and then could be swallowing a lot of air as he feeds. Also over supply could be making it hard for him to maintain a seal but it sounds like you are already trying to mitigate that. Your supply will settle down soon anyway and as baby gets bigger he'll be better able to cope with the flow so if it is that causing the problems it should reduce as he gets bigger.

Annarose, not really. At let down occasionally he'll swallow frantically, but that's not really very often, only sometimes If he hasn't fed in a good few hours & I've too much milk. He doesn't seem to swallow much air to me anyway, but that's interesting about the tongue tie Tarka. I mentioned tongue tie to the GP but himself was sticking his tongue out at the time so he said it wasn't an issue. DS is visibly thriving as well, so he wasn't worried about him not getting enough.

But the air has to be getting in somewhere! At least it's not causing too much discomfort for him, not compared with proper colic. I'll look into Dentinox though, even if we only used it for his night feed it would be very helpful.

Forgot to say thank you!

Drinking fennel tea - about 2 cups a day - made a big difference to my bf babies' wind.

Had this with DS. Infalcol and feeding with him vertical (think it's called natural nursing) as recommended by really helpful BF support worker really helped. It was amazing that a 2 week old baby could lift his whole body to get to my chest. Basically meant that if he took in air (he was a greedy guzzler) it tended not to go down