Wind and sick after every feed

[lazzaroo]

I have a 5 wk old girl, my first baby, who I am exclusively breastfeeding. Things got off to good start, no sore nipples and great weight gain.

However, she is very often sick after a feed. Sometimes projectile and large amounts. Also, she appears to have wind after every feed and really struggles to bring it up. I seem to spend whole time between feeds trying to ease her discomfort or get her to burp. Then she gets hungry again and whoe cycle starts over. Often I am tempted to fed her to sleep in hope that we avoid this but sometimes she will wake 30 mins later in obvious discomfort. This is even the case at night where I am having to sit up with her for up to an hour after she finishes feeding i case she is sick. Even then, often when I think she is sttled and lie her down she will be sick after that.

I have good milk supply and fast let down reflex so think sometimes she has to gulp down too fast. We tried infacol but it didn't seem to make any difference. We also have moses basket propped up.

HV (and my mum) suggested a dummy may help. I was unsure and have put this off. But in desperation tried it las night and this morning only for her to spit it out!

When she is well, she is a happy baby and I am, sad that I am coming to loathe feeds because of what may follow. I hate the thought that I am somehow making her uncomfortable.

everyone just says she's 'just a sicky/windy baby'.

any advice gratefully recieved.

In all honesty I think it does sound like she is a sicky/windy baby. You're 5 weeks in and it might seem like it will never end, but honestly it will. Each day she will get stronger and more capable of holding it down, and in time will be perfectly fine after a feed.

It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job so don't be disheartened. Think of how lucky you are to have a happy dd who is breastfeeding easily - things could be much worse, and it sounds like she is doing really well.

I know it seems like the situation will never change but one day you will look back and it will all seem like a distant memory (take it from someone who's been there - I used to literally wail when my dd vomitted up all her milk after a feed.)

Keep doing what you're doing - you sound like a fantastic mum

Thank you. I really hope so, as I am finding it really hard to enjoy her at the moment and don't want to wish time away. I seem to spend too much time wishing she'd go to sleep as I know then that she is content.

I feEl guilty htat I don't really 'understand' her. She cries almost immediately after a feed and I don't know if she is still hungry. Whenever she is offered the breast she takes it! I'm sure she'd feed all day if I let her!

Have juat fed her and she is red faced and screaming again. I'm going top take her out in pram. for some reason that settkes her and she isn't sick when lying in it.

Hi lazzaroo. My DD, now 21 months, was also a very 'sicky' baby. She would generally throw up after every feed. It wasn't generally projectile but it was very frequent. And I was feeding her very frequently as she was throwing it up. She wouldn't throw up immediately after a feed but a while after.

I kept mentioning to the health visitors at the clinic but I didn't get any helpful advice initially. She was born on the 25th centile but, whilst she did gain weight, she would fall through the centiles and ended up close to the second and was starting to look quite scrawny.

Then a nursery nurse at the clinic asked whether I had tried cutting out dairy from my diet. Apparently the protein from cow's/goat's/sheep's milk is used to build our breast milk. So if your child has an intolerance to dairy, they can be affected by what is in your diet.

When I cut out dairy properly (I say properly because there is lots of hidden dairy in many foods and it took a while to educate myself!), the vomiting just stopped and her weight gain improved. This was at 5 months of age.

We since had a dietician referral and DD was diagnosed with cow's milk protein allergy (ie the protein triggers an allergic reaction; it's not the same as lactose intolerance which is an inability to digest the lactose milk sugar). She was prescribed a special hypoallergenic formula milk which I use on her cereal and in cooking (for drink she is still BF). Apparently most children grow out of the allergy by the age of 3. My DD now seems to be able to tolerate a small cooked amount eg margarine in a cake.

If this strikes a chord with you, maybe your DD could have the same problem? Might be worth a mention to your health visitor.

Just reread your second post by the way lazzaroo - my DD was a very unsettled baby, would always accept the breast and just wanted to be fed or held - I couldn't put her down. I didn't really feel I could read her hunger cues, I just ended up feeding her all the time!!!!

I didn't understand how other babies could feed every 3-4 hours and be content to be put down inbetween. I'm sure the dairy was an issue for my DD as she would have been in discomfort.

monkeymiss, I am very interested to read what you say about the milk. My first child was as you describe your child with the sickness. She then developed a cosntipation problem from about 14 months old whihc is an ongoing problem - she is 8 now.

My third child has been diagnosed as milk intolerant and has hypo allergenic formula and so one (he is dairy free too)... so now I am wondering if my first had it too...

I posted this on someone else's thread and thought you may find SOME it helpful, but I do think the milk allergy is a possibility as well, reading other posts on here, my son was only happy for 20 minutes after any BF before he'd start screaming again for the first 10 weeks of his life:

My second child had severe colic and cried for 2 to 3 hours a night for the first 10 weeks, towards the end though it was no where near as bad though.

I found my health visitor really great and she had so much helpful advice for me. I've just spent 5 minutes looking for her original advice, just in case you find it helpful as well, as now that he's 12 months old, the sleep deprivation has suitably caused my brain to forget it all smile

Her tips to try were:

Warm bath covering tummy.
Lying him on his tummy with a warm (not hot) hot water bottle under him to soothe tummy.
Cycling his legs whilst he's on his back. Holding feet palm to palm and rocking legs sideways, whilst lying on floor or lap.
Or scooping with right hand down his right side whilst holding feet palm to palm.
Or rocking him face down well supported on legs.

She also said don't eat anything that gives you wind such as brocolli, cabbage, caffeine, cauliflower, garlic or other stimulants. She said if none of the above did work I could try buying Colief drops from a chemist and mixing in with feed by expressing it first, as she said sometimes colic is caused by a lactose intolerance.

I found that out of all of those the cycling the legs was particularly good. I also found that as he had trouble burping, the infacol made him cry harder as it coalesced the bubbles into one big one that still went downwards but hurt more. But giving him gripe water after every feed straight away really soothed his tummy. I had to do it every feed though without fail.

The warm bath in quiet room was also a real help. Every night at the time he started to get agitated I would put in the bath, in a bath cradle and keep putting warm water on his tummy and every now and then top the bath up with warm water, so it wouldn't get too cold for him. Once or twice he was in the bath for 2 hours in the early days as it was really calming for him. Once he started doing big yawns and it was bedtime, I'd take him out into a dark bedroom and change him and BF him quietly and then often he'd go to sleep straight away.

But let's face it all babies are different and these may not work for you but it's always worth a try!

Goodluck

I Had this sort of problem with my son. though my son kept crying with discomfort!

Does your daughter cry alot?

does she arch her back when trying to whind her?

I kept going doctors, nothing wrong.

One day i was at the end of my tether and i kept crying because i didnt know what was wrong with him so i took him hospital they diagnosed him with reflux! I was given infant gaviscon and at first this was great, it was really helping him!

Then all of a sudden he would start crying again and all his symptoms came back, kept taking him hospital and he was given omeprazole. this worked a treat. To get this medication it was a fighting battle for me but i got it in the end.

I hope she is ok as this must be horrible for her and for you.

goodluck!

Just read your 2nd post and this was the same as my son. reflux is like heartburn so very uncomfterble and my son used to cry when you take the milk away as the milk soothes the reflux but when you take it away it is a burning sensation again!

How is your little one now?

Hi there,
Sounds like reflux to me. Our second baby, now 6 mths old had exactly same symptoms, windy and sicky etc. To cut a long story short i kept taking him to docs and then at 5 months was finally diagnosed with reflux. There a very good site - www.livingwithreflux.org where you can find out more.
We were initlally given infant gaviscon, and also zantac for babies - and haven't looked back since.

My DD is a "sicky" baby. She's 13 weeks now and its easier for her to get her wind up - but she's still sick after every feed. To be honest it upsets me more than it upsets her, she's gaining weight very well and is generally a very happy baby. I'm just having to accept that my washing pile is neverending....

Thank you all for your replies. We are still dealing with the issues I outlined, although the past couple of days she seems to have been better at bringing up some wind and she is able to get some sleep betwen feeds, whereas before she was too uncomofrtable.

We had our 6 week check this week and the doctor suggested it could be reflux, didn't do any tests or anything though. He prescribed infant gaviscon but that has made her really sick. I have spoken to our HV and weighed up which is worse. Stopped using the Gaviscon and going to go back to gripe water. I have reduced my dairy intake and also citrus foods which seems to have helped.

I'm tryng to have a more positive attitude (depsite too episodes of projectile vomiting today!) and remember that she is generally happy and gaining weight very well (has gained 3lbs since birth).

All of your hints and ideas have been really useful and I am sure i will use this site more often

Glad she's gained 3lbs!

I really hope she starts to improve soon. You could try the Colief drops?

I found out that my dd who had the same symptons and was exclusively breastfed was probably allergic to casein. ( Milk protein different to lactose) We did not have projective vomit but paediatrician said it would most likely have been reflux. I would insist they check it out you may be able to avoid a lot of pain and discomfort for your dd.

Hi Lazaroo

Lots of what you say really resonates with me as I also have a 5 week old girl who is really unhappy after most feeds, arches her back, cries, punches my boobs, and gets in a real state. My HV said it was colic and so I have been trying Infacol, which I think works a bit, but I've also being trying an organic herbal remedy called Windypops (!) which for newborns you just put one drop on your nipple before you feed them. I think this may be working, an although I think it tastes horrible, baby doesn't seem to mind it. I've also cut out caffeine including chocolate and all carbonated drinks. I don't know which woks better, but this week has definitely been easier than last week. I think the main thing for me to get through it is to know there are lots of things you can try and as long as she is happy sometimes then you know that she is OK, and it will hopefully pass as she gets a bit bigger.

Blakey1 - this is what my son was doing. my HV told me he was colic and i was giving infacol but he wasnt colic, he had reflux.

He would have better days/weeks than others.

Reflux is a terrible thing as this causes them so much pain and discomfort.

If you think she gets bad again i would take her to doctors if they do not do anything go to the hospital, as i put previously this was a fighting battle for me.

the doctor put him on infant gaviscon but he got to used to that and had to go on stronger medication so he was on infant gaviscon and omeperazole.

this may be a fighting battle for you but there was one really nice paed at my hospital who explained that the medication costs so much money and they dont like to give it out, i went mad, i said so how can you leave a 3 week old baby in pain.
disgusting.

as i said i did eventually get it as i kept going to the hospital.

good luck

my son is now 7 months old and of all medication, he came of it at about 5-6 months.

sorry it wasnt a paed it was a nurse who said how wrong it is that they dont give baby's the medication.

Hi Roxy

Thanks for your advice, I am watching my daughter quite carefully and am going to ask GP about reflux too.

good idea. good luck, let us know on here how she is getting on!

Lazaroo, i could have written exactly the same post as you and was in fact going to do so until i read yours!!
My dd is 5 weeks old now, she's BF and wakes every couple of hours for a feed at night. She really struggles to get wind up and is is in obvious discomfort after a feed. sometimes she'll vomit quite a lot & it seems as tho she's bringing up the enire feed, sometimes she'll be hungry again afterwards because of this. The whole feeding & winding process can take between 1 and 1 1/2 hours at night. I also find it difficult to put her back in the moses basket as i can hear her gurgling & know for a fact she will vomit again.

aftre reading some of the responses to your post I have cut out dairy and in the last few days there has been a minor improvement but not sure dairy is the cause yet.

I've been trying some different winding techniques so you migh twant to try as her winding time has improved a lot, sometimes only up for 1/2 hour at night before I can get my head down again.

Try sitting her up on your knee and rocking her from side to side or even standing up with her on your shoulder and sway her from side to side. this moves the wind inside her & I can often hear it dispersing when i do this. also try to hold her on her for about 30 seconds then put over your shoulder and pat her bum. lying flat on her back stretches her body out & lets the gas disperse the when you lift her upright over your shoulder the gas usually comes up. I still giver her back a rub in between thei, anything to helo get hte gas up.

I have a blanket under the head of her matress to raise her head up as this sometimes help them keep the milk in rather than lying flat on her back where she will definielty vomit. Last night I put her down and she was still gurgly so I put a book under the stand of her basket and she settles almost immediately.

Hope this helps x