Advice pls!! 3 wk old formula & breast suffering from wind - thinking of changing his formula. Advice please!

[tryingtomakeadifference]

Hi all,

3 wk old baby boy, who has regained his birth weight, and is now 3.6 kilos. Feeding every three hours daily and about every 4-5 during nights, combined breast and SMA formula.

I'm not sure how much breast milk he is getting but stays on for about 30 minutes (only in recent days, milk production has been poor and has only just increased - I think), then has between 65-90mls of formula. I am using DR Brown bottles, so I don't think its the bottles.

I burp him after feeds and he brings up a little wind and then will be quite content, but in the hours after that he is getting what I think is pain in his tummy. His legs are coming up to his chest and he is quite happy then cries out, and seems to do these kind of gluggy burps. Like he is trying to bring up wind but the milk is blocked in his throat.

He is on SMA pre mixed formula jars and I am thinking that maybe it is a bit too thick?

Does anynoe have alternative formula suggestions or should I try gripe water or something.

I am stretching his feeds so that he doesn't guzzle and have tried propping his moses basket up when he goes back in duting night feeds to try and let gravity help, but he will go down then wake about 10 mins later with these painful cries.
Other than that he is quite content, sleeping well, gaining weight etc.

Any advice - and I'm hoping the answer is going to be the old faithful 'colic' - he'll grow out of it!!!

WE used SMA for our DD and it made her very uncomfiortabl;e with wind and constipation. On advice from a friend, who had done some research, we switched to Cow and Gate and never looked back.

Infacol - is good for wind. Use for first couple of months to bring the wind together.

I changed formula to aptamil and found it made a huge difference.

Can I ask you a question back - am just about to have another baby and was wondering how you were finding mixed feeding. What made you try it, when did you start and when do you give ff/bf?

Really due to poor milk production. Started out tryin to BF and he just kept pulling off in frustration. So started pretty much straight away.
On advice from a specialist have tried to up BM, but it needs a lot of time a discipline!

Now thou, he feeds for about 30 mins on breast and then has between 65-90mls of formula.

It's working (apart from the wind!) so can't complain! BF just wasn't working exclusively. The DR Brown bottles are designed differently so they have to work for the formula or expressed milk, and apparently mimic BF and he goes between both quite easily.
Thanks!!

hi tryingto - no advice re: formula i'm afraid as my dd was exclusively bf for six months but she did suffer from "colic" or just good old trapped wind for the first 3 - 4 months with the same symptoms you describe. I did lots of baby massage - there are some special anti-colic moves I was taught so you could try finding a class near you. I did all the other things you mention (winding properly after every feed, propping up basket etc) and gripe water seemed to help release it. We even took her to A&E one day after 10 hours straight screaming thinking she must be seriously ill, they did an X ray and came back to tell us she was full of trapped wind lol!!!! Anyway i can laugh now but it's hard work when you're dealing with it - good luck, all i can say other than the above is that it won't last forever.

Any brand of gripe water and how do you give it ? (or does the packet explain) my friend used it and thought her baby went hyper after! Lots of E colours or something?

bump

bump again - sorry. Any more advice pls?!

bump again - sorry. Any more advice pls?!

I'm just emerging from this - ds is now 13 weeks and so much better - he almost burps himself now and he is sleeping through.

I did mixed feeding with aptamil and I used infacol. I think you have to be consistent with the infacol.

I tried dr brown but found they made very little difference from the avent - and they were a lot more hassle to clean!

It isn't perfect but time does help!

Formula? If so what type? I think by the weird noises he makes, it's the SMA. I think he needs a thinner one. Is there any difference in them or as the HV said they are all similar?

As said in previous post Cow and gate worked well with us. Think I remember Tiktok in another thread that you can change formulas until one seems to work, so maybe give the various made up cartons a go

I've got friends who used Cow and Gate Comfort with success, though I have no experience myself.

I used Infacol and it was a life saver

I was breast and bottlefeeding, started with SMA gold, but had to change, now use Aptimal find it much better, After research it seems to be the most like breast milk,
I breast and bottle fed (topped up) for 4 months, hard work but worth it.

Also gave him gripe water, that definatley helped. Good luck

Little Pickle M - how do you administer gripe water?

I think Aptamil is the lightest formula - it seems to work for my ds anyway (wind was no worse whether he had that, breast or expressed breast milk). SMA was heavy and his poos were very undigested.

Infacol comes with a pipette so it is really easy to administer. I tried gripe water (used the infacol pipette) but it made ds vomit.

Sorry only just seen your message. I gave gripe water after milk with a teaspoon. Hope you find things are a little better..