Help! 5 week old squirming and squealing in the night

[charliegal]

Can anyone offer advice. I am worried about my 5 week old son..during the night he often thrashes around and yelps, grunting and gasping. It seems to me that he is constipated and very uncomfortable or in pain. It is awful to watch. I pick him up and take him to our bed, where sometimes he will settle. I feel so helpless. He is being breastfed. Has anyone else experience this?
(New Mum).

aw poor little thing. Firstly babies are pretty noisy sleepers but yelps etc could be a sign of reflux especially if it happens when he is on his back. My DS was like this and it was silent reflux. It is very unusual altho' not impossible for a breastfed baby to be constipated ... i would take him to the HV or GP just to have a thorough discussion.

If it is reflux it can be treated pretty quickly.

IME sleeping babies are just incredibly noisy. A GP friend of mine says it is the number one reason why women bring their small babies into the surgery. 99.9% of them are absolutely fine and normal, just really, really noisy.
Mine sounded like steam trains or farm animals while sleeping.

I remeber crying and wanting to put DS in his own room at about 6 weeks old because he grunted SO much. Also thrashed in the basket, vomitted and farted! All pretty much in his sleep (which kept me awake). He has now really calmed down and only wakes me up when he needs feeding, or his teeth are giving him gyp, as he's now 5 months.

If your boy settles in your bed, you may like to consider co-sleeping for a while if it means that you sleep better, which will make you feel so much better about everything . We did this a few times in the early days, and I still keep it in reserve if he is ill/upset. Most of the time he sleeps well in his cot. Also if you feel your babe is windy you can try massaging his tummy in a clockwise direction, or bicycling his legs to help shift things along.

Sounds like you're doing just fine, but the first weeks of breastfeeding and looking after a tiny baby are pretty tough - so be kind to yourself

Thanks for the advice. You're right, the noise he makes is frightening. I think it is just normal gripes/wind he is experiencing, I find it hard not to be able to make eveything better.
The first weeks have been tough- amazing but I feel a bit shell-shocked!

We had a similar issue with DD from when she was 4 weeks old. She had terrible wind that seemed to give her a lot of pain. For us the answer was Infacol along with really careful winding throughout feeds - esp about 3-4 mins in as she gulps a lot of air with the fast initial flow. This has made a huge difference. She is still a noisy sleeper, but no longer thrashing about in pain.

Good luck, our DD is now 7 weeks and already things are much easier (usually!)

Daff
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