Unsettled baby

[Marsh212]

Hi All,

Baby is 8 weeks old . Was breast feeding but started bottle feeding a few weeks ago as unable to sustain breast feeding.

Baby seems very unsettled and never content. They are either feeding , crying or sleeping.

They hate tummy time and on't lie on their back long . If they do lie on their back it results it more spit up and more burps .

They scream and scream when being burped. I try to burp every ounce but in my mind I am thinking is this counter productive due to the screaming.

Babies latch on the breast wasn't good at all which is one of the reasons I had to stop. I started with MAM bottles and now I'm on Dr browns narrow teat but even with a 1 teat I can hear the gulping of air which then causes coughing. I am wondering whether I need the premature teat !?

Baby is not settled after feeds and they still has burp even 2 hours later with some spit up . If they fall asleep they will wake up and need to burp. When they have slept they wake up and within 5 minutes start screaming again. I have a dummy but they don't take it well and spit it out

I am fed up and feeling guilty as I feel like I don't know their cues for anything . Not a clue .

I'm not sure if it's colic, reflux or just an unsettled baby I have tried all sorts , feeding upright , keeping up right after feeds , consistent burping, smaller feeds etc but the gas is still there

Any advice or has anyone else had experiences like this ?

TIA

8 weeks is prime time for fussiness. Have you tried other types of bottle? It might be the teat has too fast a flow for them

Edit - Missed the bit where you said you tried various bottles!

If their latch wasn’t great when you were BFing, do their symptoms sound anything like these? I had an unsettled baby too and it turned out to be Tongue Tie

Sorry yes I used MAM with my other child so defaulted to that but my baby just doesn't wrap their mouth around the teat at all. We now use Dr Browns narrow teat bottles which I think baby has a good latch on yet milk still drips out of their mouth alot during the feed so I'm at a loss really.

I will try the premmie teat and see if that helps at all

I have been told baby doesn't have tongue tie but tbh they have never been assessed by a lactation consultant or anything just doctors in the NHS .

Have you tried the Pigeon bottle?

We were in a really similar spot early on and honestly switched after trying a few others (Dr Brown’s, MAM etc). Our lactation consultant actually recommended Pigeon Softouch and it made a noticeable difference pretty quickly.

The latch is a lot more natural and we found way less gulping and air swallowing compared to the narrow teat bottles. That helped with the constant burping, spit up, and general fussiness after feeds. It didn’t magically fix everything overnight, but it definitely reduced a lot of the feeding stress we were dealing with.

It also just felt easier for baby to stay settled during and after feeds, which made a big difference in those exhausting early weeks.

Might be worth trying if nothing else has really clicked yet.