Breastfed 6 week old in pain with lots of farts at night - am I doing something wrong?

[fanjolina]

Hi, hoping someone can either help or reassure me. My DD is 6 weeks old and the first of my children I have breastfed. She is feeding well (seems to be attached all day) and putting on about 6oz per week.

My only concern is how affected by wind she is. Not so much burps (which I try to get up after every feed), but farts. It is a particular issue at night. She writhes around and makes sound like she is in a lot of pain, then she farts and relaxes again. Only for the same thing to happen about 15 mins later. This goes on for most of the night. She sleeps through it, but I don't as the noise of her writhing in pain is so loud and distressing. It has even woken my DH up, and he wears ear plugs in bed!

Is this normal and to be expected of a BF baby? Or am I doing something wrong, such as not latching her properly? Would giving her gripe water help?

Sorry for all the questions - just want to stop my DD being in pain (and be able for me to get some sleep at night)

Well I gave up the cokes yesterday.....and had the worst night ever! She did not settle at all. She was sleeping, but writhing around, making noises and farting ALL night!

Does anyone know if grip water would help?

Thanks

fanjolina, would it help if I said again 'if she is sleeping, she is ok' ?

She really cannot be in pain.

Some babies writhe and wriggle and fart (and some grown ups do, too ).

That reassurance does help Tiktok - thanks. It certainly ensured I wasn't worried about her last night.

Knowing she's not in pain, my search for a solution is ourely selfish . Last night I could not sleep at all due to the noise she was making. At 5.30, DH took her downstairs (she was still asleep), just so I could finally get some sleep.

DH now wabts her to sleep in a separate room at night as she disturbs us so much

How about industrial strength earplugs??

I'm serious.

Putting your baby in a separate room is not considered safe - see www.sids.org.uk

Dh wears industrial strength earplugs already!! And he can still hear her moaning and writhing around.

I have avoided earplugs, so that I can hear her when she needs a feed.

And don't worry - she will stay in bed with me. I will kick DH out to another room before her!

Gripe water is brilliant stuff (I have used it myself when I have had a bad reaction to sugary things) - but they have to be over a certain age (can't remember what that is). Infocol may work?

I was eating lots of runner beans and plums with DC1 as my Mum kept bringing them from the garden and that made DC1's colic worst.

Thanks for the recommendation on gripe water BottySpottom. I will give it a go. I believe it can be used from 1 month, so DD is old enough for it. I had been using Infacol previously (as it was the only thing she could have prior to a month old) but it didn't help things.

When you buy it, check the small print as some of them have to be thrown out after just a month. Good luck.

DS3 can trump for England. He's 4.5 months now and less windy than he was. He's EBF and otherwise happy. He thrashes around in his sleep, lets off a good Donald and then settles again. I think it's normal.