Wind in a BF baby - would Infacol help?

[GoldenSnitch]

DD is 5 weeks old tomorrow. She feeds really well and sleeps OK but increasingly, I feel like wind is causing her problems.

I am forever winding her. If she is in my arms then I am rubbing her tummy or patting her back or bottom. I regularly lay her over my lap and put or rub her back and bottom and when I change her nappy or lay her on the floor to play, I cycle her legs...and yet she always seems uncomfortable and regularly burps up huge quantities of milk! All of her nappies seem to be quite explosive too!!

She's not screaming or pulling her knees up though so I don't think it's colic.

It seems to be getting worse and she is becoming harder and harder to settle to sleep. I have spent whole days and nights picking her up every 20 minutes because she starts to cry almost as soon as I put her down!

I was wondering if Infacol might help to shift the wind and make her more comfortable - does anyone have any advice?

Any other suggestions would be welcomed too...

Thanks

Well, up to you, but DS was exclusively breastfed and we still ended up using Infacol and it did help. You have to remember it's not like food, they don't actually absorb it ... I used to feel a bit "wrong" giving it to him for whatever reason and therefore at first did not use it consistently enough to have any effect. Eventually DP pointed out to me that this was silly and when we started to use it correctly it did help.

A medic friend of mine recommended it for DS1, and assured me that it was totally benign - so there's no harm in trying it. I think you do need the cumulative effect of regular use.

We had the same problems - although DS was lifting his legs a fair bit. Infacol made a huge difference, as did Gripe Water (although I can't remember the point at which it is deemed 'safe' to give them Gripe Water).

We also used to give him something we tenderly named the fart massage. As he pulled his legs up we would hold them in place (not with any force) and the exertion of pushing against our hands as he brought them down would often encourage a few farts out and leave him much easier to settle.

Only other thing could be your diet - I noticed DS often had quite a bad reaction if I'd been eating anything particularly garlic-laden. Ditto chillies.

Oh and the "tiger in a tree" hold sometimes helped us too (though not always) -- you could try that, if you haven't already.

I used it for a short while with DS but we had a nightmare getting feeding established and he was topped up with bottles a few times until I got myself sorted (I know now that the bottles probably hindered the process but I was a newbie and made the mistake of listening to the midwives!) I can't remember now though whether the Infacol was while bottle feeding or breastfeeding.

So far, DD is exclusively breastfed and things are going much, much more easily...except for this wind!

What's the "tiger in a tree" hold Dorothea

Will keep a track of what I've eaten before a bad session redllama to see if I can spot anything. Any idea what the timescales would be? ie, how far in advance would I have to have eaten something to affect her?

I'd notice at the feed following whatever I had eaten and then it would be worse at the next one, if that makes sense.

I seem to remember from my NCT breast-feeding session that it takes 4 hours for something to pass through.

Mentioning holds - something else we did with DS that really worked was lying him flat on top of me to feed (tummy to tummy) . This had more to do with my abundant supply though, but it did make a big difference to his general windiness - a good one for the pre-bedtime feed.

Infacol is supposed to be good but I always forgot to give it before a feed so Gripe water was my saviour, cant remember how old they have to be, it says on the bottle. I think it was 12 weeks but clearly remember the day I was able to use it as one of the best days of my life, it was like magic. Try not to spill it, smells like dill

I did wonder whether my supply was the culprit. My let down is so strong, the milk squirts out once she's started suckling so she pretty much just has to swallow for the first minute or so!!

If she comes off it goes everywhere!!

Will attempt tummy to tummy but my boobs aren't as pert as they once were, I'll have to retrieve one from my armpit

She does seem more comfortable after a side by side laid down feed but my friends baby died from SIDS while co-sleeping so it makes me really nervous.

tiger in the tree hold

not the best pic but the only one i could find! this hold really relaxes my DS, especially if i walk around a bit too. he was really windy when he was first born (mw ended up taking him away & winding him for an hour on the first night it was so bad!), infacol really helped in the first couple of months but i've noticed now (at 4.5 months) that he's a lot quicker about bringing wind up himself - he'll try & sit up after a feed, i'll lean him forward & rub his back for a few seconds & that's all it needs.

don't know if this is a common experience, but from my experience it does get better as they get older

Boots website says not to use Gripe Water under 1 month. She will be 5 weeks old tomorrow so it should be OK.

Never used Gripe Water. Is it better than Infacol?

Try dentinox (colic drops - even tho you say not colic it will help) and/or gripe water when they are old enough to take gripe water. Carrying in a sling to ensure they are upright as much as possible also helps. Failing that carseat journeys (esp motorway driving) is often something very new babies find soothing

Ah, I've tried that one becksydee. She hates it She likes being over my knee if I'm sat down though.

If I try to lean her forward to wind her, she leans back and makes it really hard.

She always falls asleep in the car and in the pushchair too.

I really must get my sling out and work out how to use it

ah well, keep going with putting her over your knee then if she likes it DS does that thing of making his body go completely rigid so i can't bend him forward easily too, probably because he's uncomfortable. it can often take some gentle persuasion to get him into the right position!

the classic over the shoulder hold works too, but i always forget to have a muslin ready & end up with dribble &/or milky sick on my neck

what kind of sling have you got?

We gave our DS a few teaspoons of a sort of fennel tea normally before each bf but afterwards if we forgot. We put about 1/2 level teaspoon of fennel seeds in one of those tiny avent bottles of boiling water and let it cool, remove the fennel seeds then stopper it and put in the fridge for up to 24 hours, we then made a fresh lot the next day. The fennel seeds lasted an age and no problem with suddenly realising your running low and have to slog out to the shops. This coupled with "the fart dance" (DS on his back with us raising, lowering and cycling his legs) produced results of an astounding volume

We have a Moby wrap becksy

DD does the rigid thing too. I can sometimes get her lent forward if I sit her on one leg and lean her over the other but she does make it hard sometimes!

Fennel tea sounds like it works Groovy! I'd never heard of that.

Worked really well for us, I had been trying Infacol until a lady in my post natal group recommended the fennel (her mum was a herbalist) when DS was about 6 weeks (he's now 2.9 yrs) we used it right through his windy phase. This seemed to work better for us than the Infacol but I can't remember if you had to give it a day or two to work like Infacol. Might be worth a shot coupled with the other things suggested.
Good luck

Can I use them together?

good choice - one of my slings is a kari me which is pretty much the same as a moby. if you make a kind of pocket thing out of the crossover bit closest to your body & cradle your DD in it, then spread the outer crossover bit across & bring the bottom bit up, that is quite a good carry for BFing (prob haven't explained that v well, sorry!) main thing with stretchy wraps is to make sure they're wrapped really tight, otherwise the fabric will sag & your DD will end up clinging to your waist

good point about fennel GG, i'd forgotten about that. DS's wind also got better once i started drinking at least 1 cup of fennel tea each day - it tastes good & is supposed to help with let down as well, but obviously GG's method is a much more direct way of getting fennel into your DD!

Do you mean the fennel and the Infacol/ Gripe water GoldenSnitch?
If so I'm really not sure, we switched straight from one to the other as the lady at the group had been very enthusiastic about it and anything was worth a go at that point (as far as I'm concerned it was one if the best tips given to me).

I just felt better about using something "natural" rather than the Infacol as I can be a tiny bit hippy-ish (!) and so wouldn't have wanted to mix them, but this is based on no knowledge at all about why using them together them might not be a good idea.
I would be inclined to try one or the other along with the sling/ massage/ holds that have been suggested and see what works.

I think I'm going to start with Gripe Water as I can get DH to pick some of that up from the Pharmacy on the way home. Will get some fennel seeds in next time I do a supermarket shop and will save Infacol for a last resort.

Will get the sling out tonight too. She's finally asleep at the moment so I'm letting her get as much rest as she can.

If only I could go to bed too!!

DH is getting the gripe water now...

Fingers crossed it has the desired effect