I am not sure what I am looking for to be honest - will lay it all out so as not to drip feed. DS was born 41 + 1 by forceps and is now 8 months (36 weeks) old. He's been 9th centile for weight since not long after birth (DH and I are short and small in stature). He is EBF and we started weaning at 6 months.
We spend hours burping him - maybe 45 minutes after each feed and up to 2 hours at bedtime. I've seen comments before of "I've never burped my babies", or "are you sure it's wind?", but let me state with absolute certainty, it's wind. He can be crashed out on our shoulder fast asleep and even laid down asleep, but will wake a few moments or even minutes later clearly uncomfortable. Then we pick him up and begin winding again. His latch is fine and he brings up a big burp or two on his own immediately after a feed - it's the wind that follows that's the problem. We generally pat his back, jiggle him on our knee, walk around with him upright, circle his upper half round whilst sitting on our knees. Sometimes it produces a burp but other times we has to be laid down to "reset" and the burp comes out that way. Like I said this can take us up to 2 hours until he can sleep comfortably. Unsurprisingly, my husband and I are on our knees with exhaustion as we're spending up to 6 hours a day winding him between naps, bedtime and overnight feeds, however bedtime is when it's worst. I'm on maternity leave for 6 more weeks but my husband works full time.
I had mastitis at 4 weeks PP which could have been caused by cracked nipples or ill-fitting nursing bras, or both, and took antibiotics which affected DS' nappies for a long period afterwards (green, frothy and often blowouts). He has always had blowouts most days irrespective of the nappy size or type and has only just stopped having dirty nappies at night from age 7 months onwards. He still has very loose bowels even on solids but flatulence doesn't seem to be an issue. We've recently tried BioGaia Baby probiotics drops and they do seem to help but we're not in the UK and getting them shipped to us can be difficult. In addition we tried treating for silent reflux using baby gaviscon but as DS is EBF it's been hard to give him doses, and when we do, there is little to no improvement. In addition I'm not convinced it's actually silent reflux as he has no other symptoms and believe he should have grown out of it by now if it were? To note we tried introducing formula (Kendamil, Aptamil, Aptamil Comfort, HIPP) but he is not interested in any of them. He also won't take a bottle and hasn't tolerated a dummy since 10 weeks.
He has only slept through the night 3 or 4 times since birth and a "normal" night would be supper around 5:30/ 6pm, bath, feed around 7pm and try and put him down for bed as soon as possible thereafter, but lately he's ended up going down around 8:30 or 9pm due to the wind. Then he'll wake 2 or 3 times in the night for a feed and will generally go back to sleep after a "normal" amount of winding and a cuddle. He sleeps in a crib in his own room and has done since 6 months. He also has all naps in there and doesn't generally nap well away from home. Teeth are coming through but those nights are slightly different in that he cries and is clingy and clearly in pain, so we give him Ibuprofen or paracetamol accordingly.
We have an appointment with the paediatricians at the end of February but I would like to go prepared. At the moment we are so tired and frustrated that we are at a complete loss as to what could be the issue and are possibly struggling to see the wood for the trees. We think it could possibly be posterior tongue tie (hence cracked nipples) but that wouldn't explain why the wind persists after each feed. Another possibility is CMPI - as such I have just gone dairy-free in a last ditch attempt to resolve the issues. However if there is no improvement after 2 or 3 weeks then I'll go back on dairy as still breastfeeding 7 or 8 times a day. He has no health issues that I'm aware of other than the incessant wind or loose nappies (i.e. no eczema, doesn't squirm or appear uncomfortable, has never cried a lot). He had a large blood clot in his nappy at 3.5 months but we contacted the GP about it and they said if it doesn't reoccur then not to worry about it (it hasn't reoccured).
We are doing our best to give him solids however he is not interested in anything pureed and we are also very reluctant to give him anything that could make him windier or make his nappies worse.
If you have read this far then thank you. Any input at all appreciated.
Signed, a very tired and borderline-PPD FTM x