Does anyone else's baby grunt a lot and strain but not do a poo until a couple of hrs later?

[JenEm]

Hi
My 4 week old seems to spend an hour or two grunting / straining in the early morning every day. He doesn't actually do a poo until later on in the morning. At other times of day he pos with no grunting or straining first. So I don't think he's constipated.
Is this normal, it's wierd that it's at the same time of the day - 5am every day.

Advice?

Hi Jen

my DS did this - always a couple of hours before waking. We thought it was wind but it turned out he had silent reflux - he was grunting and wriggling from discomfort. Once we got him on medication (ranitidine), it stopped. We were given infant gaviscon first which was no good.

I'm not sure why it was worse at that time of day?

Anyway there were other clues that he had reflux - comfort feeding (he piled on the weight), arching during feeds, wet burps (you'd hear him swallowing stuff) and scarily choking incidents - if on his back, he'd go red and struggle to breath if acid came up.

In your case it could be wind but it's worth considering reflux just in case.

Our little one did the same thing from early on. He would strain and grunt soooo much in his sleep that he seemed in pain but wouldn't actually wake up! So much so that I was wondering when we could move him into his own room so we could all get some sleep! bless him.....It was wosre at night/early mornings too. We didn't really notice it in the day time.

Anyway, we thought it might be wind. We didn't think he was constipated either as he was pooing often.

We have since used Infacol (sold for gripe, colic) and whether it is coincidence or not, it does really seemed to have helped. I also wonder whether as he has matured (he is now 11 weeks old) his body is dealing with things a bit better and it has got better of its own accord.

It might be worth mentioning that others that I have spoken to have said that boys are more noisy than girls....no help whatsoever, but quite interesting!