Immature digestive system .... or something else ??

[Tillyscoutsmum]

DS is 15 weeks old and ebf. He has always had "tummy" issues which I put down to an immature digestive system but now he is 15 weeks and still struggling, I'm not sure if its something else.

He is basically very windy (farty). It seems to be painful for him and will often wake him up. Its also really smelly. He often screams/pulls knees up etc. and his tummy is tight. He only poos about once per week and they are quite explosive - but not hard - just like normal, if very volumous, bf poos.

He feeds often and is thriving (and then some - he's off the top of the charts)

It is getting better - in the first 8 weeks he was either screaming, sleeping or feeding whereas we do now have some calm/happy times but he does still spend a lot of time seemingly in discomfort.

Any ideas please ?

Apologies for long/rambling post >

My DS is 10 wks old and has similar issue - lots of smelly farting which is worse if I have a curry!

The infrequent pooing varies and is supposedly this happens because the baby is using up all the nutrients you are giving him and so has nothing to poo out.

you could try infacol if he's having trouble with getting his wind out - not all babies do well on it but it could be worth a go. did help my DS for a bit.

Thanks.... Have tried infacol but it didn't really do much

a midwife mentioned to me that drinking orange juice and eating grapes can upset babies tummies, could that be causing his probs?

Hi tilly maybe your DS is intolerant to something in your milk - cows milk protein is the most likely culprit. Or caffeine/alcohol. How much do you drink? Maybe try cutting out all three for a week and see what happens. Obviously you'll have to make sure you have plenty of calcium rich food to counter the lack of dairy.
I cut out milk cheese and yoghurt and saw a big difference in my DS - he had terrible wind and explosive poos. He also has reflux. Infacol and gripe water were useless!
Cows milk protein is also found in lots of random foods (eg processed ready meals, sauces etc) which is why I just cut out the obvious stuff to see what happened. However I didn't substitute soya based products as can trigger a similar reaction!!

My DS also fed well - which was a clue that he had silent reflux. He shot from 75th centile at birth to over the 91st. However once we got his medication and my diet sorted he didn't need to comfort feed so much and has fallen back to the 75th!

Thanks both. I don't really drink alcohol (not when b'fing anyway), but do drink caffeine - maybe 2-3 drinks per day. I don't really drink much milk either. I do love cheese though. I suppose I could try cutting those things out though (next week after all the chocolate eggs have been demolished obviously )

We did consider silent reflux and he had gaviscon at 6 weeks old but it didn't really help and I was never that convinced he had many of the symptoms.

I've got to try something though - he's not a happy chap (currently screaming whilst DH tries to get him to sleep )

Poor boy

We found the gaviscon no good for silent reflux - ranitidine was what worked for us. But it might not be that.

Another thought - are his poos yellow or green? Loads of green ones could mean a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Do you switch sides when feeding or just stick with one boob per feed? If switch, try keeping him on one boob per feed for as long as possible so he gets more hindmilk. Too much foremilk can make them gassy.

Other possibility - does DS choke/splutter when feeding? You could have an oversupply of milk causing an overactive letdown (milk shoots out)? This can mean they take down a load of air and get a load of foremilk hence gassiness.

If you suspect either, try block feeding (use one boob per feed. If you do this already, use the same boob within a set time period eg four hours then switch. The "off" boob might feel too full so express a tiny bit for relief).

Oversupply can cause similar symptoms to reflux but not all.

Finally is your DS overtired? Again, I've read this can make the baby fussy and feed aggresively so taking down air. Overtired signs - glazed eyes, turning away from eye contact or can be a bit "manic"! Way to solve - get militant with naps and night sleep. Keep stimulation to a minimum about two hours before bedtime. Don't let baby stay awake more than a couple of hours. Put baby to bed early (6.30/7pm). Have a consistent bedtime routine which is short (bath, dress, feed is enough at this age I reckon).

I've had all of these problems! The overtiredness thing isn't always easy to recognise but we found early bedtime made a huge difference (and didn't cause early wakings - DS now goes 12 hours, waking for night feeds alas!) We used to spend two hours + trying to settle DS for bed but once we realised he needed more sleep and was getting tired earlier (we just put it down to the 6/7pm fussy time at first), early bedtime worked.

Sorry for the long ramblings. I'm up doing a nightfeed and it's all come back to me

Gosh - don't apologise. Thank you so much for responding.

Poo's are yellow and he tends to only take one boob at each feed. I think oversupply is occasionally an issue (first thing in the morning for example) but not for most of the time.

Tiredness is definitely a problem. I find it really difficult to get him to nap - he rarely self settles and when he finally does go, he almost always wakes up after one sleep cycle (about 40 mins). Luckily, he will do longer blocks at night but generally won't go down for the night until about 9pm. He will then wake at least 3 hourly for food and be up at 6.30 am and then back to cat naps every couple of hours all day. I know people have it much worse but after dd being such a chilled baby, we're struggling a bit tbh

He is such a big baby, its almost as if he has to take so much milk to satisfy him but his digestive system struggles to cope with it all and that makes him uncomfortable and he struggles to sleep properly and that makes him even grumpier. I did wonder whether early weaning would help (not yet obviously but probably before 6 months) but then worried it might make him worse or have bad long term effects.

Now, I am rambling - sorry !

Tilly he sounds just like DS with the poor sleep! My DS is now 6 months and only in the last month has he gone to bed reliably at 7pm. Before that it was 8pm, sleep 45 mins then awake til 10pm. Then one day we decided to experiment with an earlier bedtime and kept things calm beforehand and it worked. It didn't always at first, but it gave us hope.

Napping was and still is a nightmare. I basically did everything possible to get him to nap (rocking etc etc) and to get longer naps, I had to use a sling and start rocking after half an hour to get him to sleep more than 45 mins! Now he hates being rocked...

As for self settling, DS has only now started to do it. It's like a miracle - if I catch him at the right time and he's fed, I can put him in his cot and he goes to sleep all by himself (for only 45 mins so far!!)

We've started weaning. It has made no difference so far although we're only giving veg and fruit plus a bit of porridge. I think protein makes the difference but not given that yet!

It will pass!

Drink fennel tea - you not dc! It worked wonders for us and gas! Made it less gassy for The Cub and nicer to pass wind.

I drank 4 cups a day to begin with and got it down to 1 cup per day then stopped.

TastedLikePondWaterButWasWorthItTiggaxx

Really Tigga ?? I loathe fennel....... but perhaps it might be preferable to stopping coffee, cheese and chocolate

Thanks again Iggly. I'm glad things are getting easier for you. I just want my evenings back ! Will try earlier bedtime >

tilly - did you try the cranial oesteopath?

FWIW, we had a big change with DD afterwards - she was more comfortable, less rigid and less hiccupy (she still wakes every 3 hours for food) but she became less manic in her feeding

also, at around 15/16 weeks DD stopped cluster feeding and started to be put down at around 8 pm for bed

i think you may see a change soon (well i certainly hope so )

Ruby - we did 3 sessions of cranial but didn't see any difference unfortunately. DS absolutely screamed through each session as well - totally beside himself

He is gradually getting calmer so hopefully we'll get there soon

Glad it helped your dd and the cluster feeds have stopped. DS is downing an 8oz of ebm most evenings at 7pm so he's not cluster feeding so much - but still does the 45 minute sleep thing until 9pm ish.

Tily - My DS has got the same pattern as your boy, naps during the day of 40 mins ish then down to sleep by 9pm. He's also a big boy and has smelly farts and poos but doesn't seem to have problem with getting either out of his system!

I hope your DS settles down soon