What's giving my 3 week old tummy ache?

[lillamyy1]

3 week old PFB is a 10 pounder and very hungry. I bf in the day but as he feeds for between 45mins and an hour I ff at night because it's quicker and we both get more sleep! He has between 80ml and 125ml three times a night.
In the last week or two he's been very flatulent and very often squirms about and cries and gripes before parping or pooing audibly. He's also very tetchy in the evenings and will try to feed but then gets cross and seems to have tummy ache because he brings his legs up and wriggles loads and he gets really frustrated because he's trying to feed but is in too much discomfort and in the end I usually have to hand him over to DP to calm him down.
Also his poos have been green sometimes in the last few days.
I think it's something he's allergic to that I'm eating. I've been having quite a lot of smelly cheese and cured meats (missed them while pg!) and salad. Midwife says it's more likely to be tomatoes than dairy but it only seems to be since I've had all the cheese...
Anyone's baby had a similar issue? I'm worried this might be a precursor to colic

It could be the formula

It's it's diet-related, then it's going to be the formula. There is, after all, FAR more dairy in formula (which actually is dairy :) ). It would be pointless for you to do without cheese and yet maintain his formula intake.

He's having a lot of formula, BTW - if he's having (say) 300 mls or so every night, then that's a big chunk of his overall intake (about a third, by my reckoning). This risks reducing your breastmilk production and 'tells' your body to stop making breastmilk - the long gap between breastfeeds caused by the formula is very likely to mean you cease making milk. Now, if you're ok with that, then that's your choice, but if your plan is to keep up breastfeeding alongside formula feeding, it won't last long.

Just so's you know :)

Hope your baby gets more comfortable soon.

Feeds of 45 mins to an hour are normal at this age - they tend to speed up as the baby gets older, and night feeding at the breast becomes easier. Talk to a breastfeeding counsellor or breastfeeding support group about making night feeds easier.

Maybe I should try to express enough for the nighttime in that case... That way I'm keeping up the demand and only giving him bm but can bottle feed at night... But my supply is more than ample atm.

Expressing is time consuming - you will take ages to express 300 mls!!!

And it will make no difference - you will still be leaving mahoosive gap between breastfeeds, and it's this that reduces supply.

Honestly - can you not think of ways to make night feeds easier ? :)

I was thinking the same way as you with my PFB and by 8 weeks my milk was gone.
I have my second right now and I held her on my boob for the first 6 weeks. It took her ages to get full. Now she is 4 months old and feeds between 7-10 minutes.
I have done some expressing but only after the feed, when baby is full. Usually in the morning.

I feel so sleepy when I'm feeding in the night and sometimes I drop off while feeding. I'm scared I'll drop DS or fall asleep and smother him. I'm on ads which make me especially drowsy.

It takes me half an hour to express 100ml. It is time consuming but I found the night feeds so tiring that I couldn't cope during the day.
DS will feed for 10 mins then fall asleep for another 10 mins then wake up and feed again for another 10 mins and so on. Add a nappy change or two to that and I'm awake for over an hour each time he wakes up. Then I'm too tired to function during the day
I'll try to speak to someone about it - I don't want my milk to go

It'll be the formula.
Contact La Leche League for help. They often have a local FB group.
It gets easier honestly. Three weeks is a tough stage. It's normal to feed every hour or constantly. It's really really hard emotionally but something you have to ride out with the help of your partner and family. At 8 weeks DD does 3 hours sleep at night now.
If you like BFing it would be so sad to lose your supply. Formula undermines breastfeeding. Please try and get help.

lilla, I tried to help you with information about how breastfeeding works, and explained what might happen with continued ff at night.

Now I see I am berated by you for being a bf nazi on another thread, for 'reprimanding' you about not bf at night....I absolutely did not 'reprimand' you, but instead explained what you needed to know, to enable you to make a choice with the right info.

You are not being fair :(

Just like to put my input in :)
Hi Lill!

Tiktok... She will not loose her milk supply by ff at night. If ff helps her to function in the day then she's doing the right thing to be a happy mommy! :) a happy mommy means a happy baby! My mother breastfed in the day and ff at night as my brother was a very hungry baby and ff helped him to sleep, he was fine and her milk supply didn't dry up!
It sounds a lot lot like colic, ff won't make him feel like that. My DS was purely ff and I'm very proud!! :) he's a healthy nearly 2 year old, very bright and is one amazing little boy. So bf isn't always the best for everyone and I think people need to realise this and stop criticising other mothers for how they feed their children.
Give her some useful information instead of worrying her about her milk supply.

That's all :)

Tiktok is a bf counsellor and knows what she is talking about. Giving formula during the night at that age may very well interfere with milk production so it is something to think about.

I do know what I am taking about :) ta! Long gaps at night with no breastfeeding risks slowing and reducing production, when the baby is as young as this. There is a real risk that milk will dwindle away.

This is useful information, which anyone who wants to continue mixed feeding needs to know.

I have not made this stuff up :)

It's up to the OP what she does with this info, of course.

She may need to consider how to make night feeds easier for her.

Please don't say 'happy mummy equals happy baby'. Obv any mother needs to be happy, but in fact in this case the baby is not happy. The OP posted because she was worried he was not happy.

Cupcake92 your mother was unusually fortunate and possibly benefited from either ebf for the early weeks before ff at night or had previously bf other babies both of high would have made her supply more robust.
Tiktok has clearly only kindly shared accurate information to help this mother make her own decisions.

You clearly are entirely ignorant as to how milk supply works and unable to distinguish between information with is useful and evidence led and individual experiences which may be variable and not useful for generalisations.

I am confused as to why you are complaining about people bring critical when no one is, other than you who is being critical, rude and entirely inaccurate.

And cupcake, I was not in the least criticising her. :(

I am puzzled why you are so certain that because your mother had the experience of ff at night without her milk being affected, this will happen to the OP too in exactly the same way.

It sounds like colic to me. You can try something like infacol but it's likely that you will just have to ride it out. As for the breastfeeding my dd was like that for the first few weeks feeding loads but by 10 weeks she was feeding for much shorter periods so we all got more sleep. If you want to keep your supply up you could try one bottle of formula for the first feed and then breastfeed for the next feed. Also wake him up if he starts falling asleep so he can have a proper feed then it will take less time overall if you see what I mean. I know it seems horrible now, I remember crying at 3am for about a week, but it does get better.

Rolls eyes? Rolls bloody eyes!
Bloody hell, u lot need to not be so patronising.

And no my mother did this from day 1 and the only other child she had was me and I was 100% ff due to her being very young still.

Ff is perfectly fine for babies. And anyone who wants to do it should do it and feel proud. A mother should do what she thinks is best and works for her and the child. Not what anyone else thinks.

of course ff is fine but the op wants to keep bf and giving formula can interfere with supply.

I ff both of mine after a bad start to bf but still agree with what tiktok and others have said

Thanks everyone for the advice/support.

Cupcake calm down for goodness sake.

I roll my eyes at anyone talking out their arse, to be honest. There is nothing patronising about it.

Of course people should do what they feel is right for them.

I didn't say anything different.

I think ppl should prob avoid doing something just coz it worked for someone on the internet's mother, and instead, they prob should use decent info to help them work out what would be best for them.

Op, will wait for an apology from you on the other thread :)

I don't think it would be the formula making his tummy bad op, otherwise all ff babes would have bad tummys! Or am I just a dummie! I bf dd exclusively for 6 wks and then mixed fed until she was 6 months old, my supply lasted until around then, I remember still having milk when id stopped feeding her.
Which formula is he having at night time?

I do appreciate all the advice.
It was such a difficult decision to ff and starting to bf was so difficult (milk didn't come in for 6 days due to emcs and blood loss, baby v hungry and grouchy, etc) that I've felt the whole time that I'm not able to care for DS like I should. I did feel like I was being told that difficult decision to ff at night was wrong, but I expect I'm being over sensitive about it.
I just don't know what to do and feel like whatever decision I make I'm a failure

Sorry Tiktok for being unappreciative. And really, thanks for the advice.
Thanks Cupcake for sticking up for my decision

Op you are definitely NOT doing anything wrong! Please please don't think u are, if ff at night works for you then do it! It doesn't matter if your supply decreases, you'll just ff more to make up for it and that is absolutely fine. Never think you are a failure, I remember similar feelings when I had my son, he was tongue tied and breast feeding did not go well! Whether u formula feed or breastfeed and how long u manage either etc will not impact your ds at all in the future in my opinion. There are many many more decisions that you will make in the future for him that will have a bigger impact if you know what I'm trying to say! What's important now is that YOU feel comfortable and happy in how you feed him and don't completely wear yourself down trying to bf exclusively because you think that's what makes u the better mum. You sound like u are managing brilliantly!

Aw, Lilla, if you read what I wrote, I didn't even hint that what you were doing was wrong. I explained that the amount and timing of the formula would have a possible impact on your decision to breastfeed. This was clearly something you did not know or had not considered. And if you wanted to continue breastfeeding, you needed to bear in mind that what you were doing might affect that choice. And I was polite and non judgmental :)

I did not deserve to be called a nazi on the other thread for this - blimey!!!

Bellies, a few babies - not all - are intolerant to dairy. It's not that uncommon. If they are, they react to infant formula.

Belljess, not bellies, sorry!!!!