Help me get through this growth spurt

[Newbeginning1]

My 6 week DS seems very unsettled and is feeding constantly and then sleeping for about 30 mins then we go through it all again. He keeps fussing as well and is getting really frustrated that the milk isnt coming quick enough.

Pleas help me get through this as my nipples cant take much more and its only day 1.

Hmmmm they do reach a peak of crying at about week 6 and then start to slowly settle often.

I think you should try to spread feeding to every 2-3 hours for now and just cuddle them in-between, take for a walk to distract them etc. So you can give your boobs a break, nipple shields are worth a try if desperate though? I used to smoother myself in Kamillosan between feeds and wipe off before, that was much better than all the others I tried.

Make sure you're eating plenty of high calorie foods like flap jacks and porridge for breakfast to keep your energy up to produce milk and drink plenty of water. Now's the time for cake and chocolate whilst BF As I'm sure you've heard already.

Have you looked at the kellymom site? That's very helpful. Or go to your local BF clinic for some tips, or call La Leche, it's free and they can really help you too.

There is always the possibility it is wind of course? My usual blurb I give out is basically to try not to worry. It's such early days; you cannot spoil a baby at this age. Do whatever it takes to survive

They'll settle down again soon enough, there is a growth spurt at week 6 (I think).

You could try some infacol or gripe water at every feed for a while as that can help, if you're not using one or the other already. Make sure you wind them well and maybe wind them half way through every feed as well, if it helps?

My second child cried for 2 to 3 hours a night until aged 10 weeks and I spoke to my health visitor about it, she agreed it was probably colic and 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. He'd wake for feeds at 10.30pm, 2am and 5 am often at this stage. In the day I'd keep him up for only 90 mins only before putting back down for a nap.

Things will get better soon lovely, sending you a hug x

Very interesting tips, thank you!

I have a two and half week old. He has been great at feeding from the start but in th elast few days started fussing - feeding for a short period only, then waking up and screaming I guess because he's hungry. The Midwife suggested Infacol which helped initally but now it's been 4 days and he's been crying so much he can't get to sleep. He drifts off but then does a burp or wriggles with wind and wakes himself up.

I will try the cycling legs and the warm bath and they sound like good ideas. I think I'll try not to give him the infacol if these work instead.

One question I have - can you overfeed a breast fed baby? When he is really screaming th eonly thing that will definitely calm him down is my breast. Is this a bad thing? Could it be making the wind worse? Or is it what he needs as he's got wind?

Help!

I think the breast comforts them when their tummy hurts sometimes. You can't over feed them breast milk in my opinion. I always settled mine off to sleep on the breast in the early days and then transferred to the cot/ moses basket tbh.

I think sometimes maybe they confuse the tummy pain with being hungry too. I know my son did. But I always offered boob in the early days, especially when yours is only 2 weeks old!

BTW my advice does contradict slightly there but Newbeginning1 nipples are sore, so I think it is best for her to start to spread feeds slightly.

Hope that makes sense? At only 2 weeks old I think you should roll with it for now...

If they are very windy they think they want more food as their tummy hurts but by giving them more food you are exacerbating the problem. i had to wind my DS for a very long time, sometimes took an hour to get it all out and eventually he would sleep. Took me 6 weeks to work out problem and health visitor told me more boob makes the problem worse. He was a hungry baby and i couldn't keep up with him i lost too much weight even though eating for Britain, never eaten so much in my life.
In the end gave him a small bottle after feeding from both breasts at early evening feed. Warm bath also helps. slept through teh night at 10 weeks but can still get very windy. Agree don't eat anything that would give you wind. At 6 weeks I had a 36 hour period when he literally fed every two hours.