Hunger or something else?

[jamie980]

This must sound like a really stupid question but I have a three week old who has suddenly become quite fussy in the late afternoon / evening (as to be expected).

I presumed this was normal cluster feeding but after a couple of hours she was refusing to latch and getting quite agitated - but still showing what I thought were hunger cues (rooting, opening her mouth and sticking tongue out) and crying once moved away from the breast.

An hour of trying and failing to get her back on and we ended up giving her a bottle of expressed breast milk which she took some of but then behaved the same way.

I’ve been reading that some of the symptoms of reflux can look similar to hunger cues and she does spit up / sick quite a bit (not sure if any more than normal for a newborn though). We have been giving her Infacol as she was quite gassy over the last week or so and she doesn’t seem to be suffering too much with that now.

Other things that might be relevant: I’m using nipple shields (fitted and recommended by local infant feeding team) due to inverted nipples and she regularly takes bottles of expressed breast milk at night. My supply when pumping seems good so I don’t think any issues there and she’s gaining weight well and plenty of wet and dirty nappies).

She’s pretty content in the day time and in the early hours it’s just from about 5pm to 11pm she’s very unsettled. Totally get that this is normal newborn behaviour but I don’t want to be trying to cram more milk in her if she’s actually suffering with her tummy in some way and I’m inadvertently making it worse.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Could be wind?

I suggest offering infacol before your feeds and see if that helps, also, try keeping your baby upright after feed to let wind escape.

Infacol really helped us, produced some next level farts though 😂

Should add: she’s latching and feeding pretty well at other times and seems satisfied with what she’s getting

Sorry just read you did try infacol.

I could just be growth spurts or overtiredness being confused for hunger. Its so hard to tell. When my baby was 3wks old I thought the boob was the only answer to crying but looking back she was probably wrecked and needed sleep.

You could try settling for a nap if you feel like your little one has had enough milk.

Good luck xx

Thanks @balihai550 - have been using infacol and it’s been a godsend (yup, the farts though!) but doesn’t seem to be helping with whatever this is in the evenings

Cross post sorry @balihai550! You could be right, I automatically think every cry must be hunger but it could be so many things. Thanks for taking the time to reply xx

If you have time, look up takingcarababies on Instagram, she has a lot of good info about wake windows for babies which is such a better way to figure out when babies are tired.

Could be colic, our little one suffered more of an evening from it.

I’ve got a 3 week old too, congrats! 😊
We sussed the other day that he was overtired in the evenings. I was trying to make sure he fed a lot in the after dinner so he wasn’t starving overnight (and selfishly was trying to break him out of cluster feeding through the night). when we’ve now realised to just let him sleep as normal and he’ll let us know if he’s hungry in the evenings. It is hard to get him to sleep when he’s this tired though, have to try a lot of options and push through.
Good luck!

How have you been getting him to sleep @Piccalily19? I wouldn’t be surprised if this was my baby’s problem too but she seems just absolutely wired and will nod off for 10 mins or so then wake up again

It’s been mostly luck and guessing to be honest @jamie980! But we’ve had the most success with white noise for babies videos on YouTube, skin to skin and generally just cuddling him all evening while we watch tv. And we keep lights dim and tv/talking not too loud until he’s asleep too to try calm him a bit

White noise is magic isn’t it @Piccalily19! Ollie the Owl has been the best present we’ve been given so far