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7 week old, excessive wind and irregular nappies

4 replies

loveisagirlnameddaisy · 28/08/2012 12:00

Hi, just wondering if this problem is one DS will grow out of or whether anyone has any thoughts...

7 weeks old, started with excessive wind at 2/3 weeks and nappies are very infrequent (3-4 days) and the last 2 have been liquid diarrhoea, no substance to them at all. They are mustard yellow, not green.

He is pretty unhappy most of the time when he is awake and the wind affects him during the night from midnight onwards when he is coming into lighter sleep. Seen the HV today and she was pretty good (I get used to being told everything is normal), wondered if he might have a slight lactose intolerance and she's suggested I see the GP, although I don't have much faith in them unfortunately.

Has anyone gone through this? I've just assumed he'll grow out of it if it's simply wind, but now she's brought up the intolerance thing, I'm not sure what to think. The wind on its own doesn't bother me, but his bowel movements are bothering me a bit.

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DontstepontheMomeRaths · 29/08/2012 12:31

Oh you poor thing and your baby Sad Is he breast fed? Most of my suggestions are going to be based on a breast fed baby.

His poo?s shouldn?t be green anymore, yellow is pretty normal I think by 7 weeks. This weblink has some good pictures, although a little gross: www.breastfeedingmaterials.com/view-breastfed-baby-stool My sons used to look yellow with bits in. I think at about 6 weeks his stooling pattern did change from memory.

If you look on this website link here, there are several links at the bottom about babies poo and what it should look like and the regularity: kellymom.com/parenting/parenting-faq/bf-links-concerns/#poop

It took with my second baby who was very windy to up to 10 weeks to settle easier. Even at feeds at night he'd squirm with wind after and be uncomfortable for ages (which would drive me mad as I was so tired). So I?m a great advocate of co-sleeping in the early days if it helps for now, if you don't already? You cannot spoil a baby at this age. Do whatever it takes to survive. You won?t be forming bad habits for later on at such a young age, if that is a worry you have?

A sling can be really helpful to comfort them at this age as well.

My second child cried for 2 to 3 hours a night until aged 10 weeks, feeding didn?t seem to help or calm him and I felt like I was at my wits end, in fact I used to make the mistake when he screamed of thinking he was still hungry, so I?d try and feed him on top of the wind and then he?d scream harder and then do a massive burp and bring the feed up, so I spoke to my health visitor about it at the time 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. However I don?t believe there is actually any evidence that what you eat affects your milk. Certainly Tiktok on mumsnet also I believe says this (from memory) however I hadn?t started posting properly on mumsnet at this point, so I gave it a try. She said if none of the above did work I could try buying Colief drops from a chemist and mixing in with a feed by expressing it first, as she said sometimes colic is caused by a lactose intolerance. I never needed to buy these in the end. Colief drops maybe a big help if it is a lactose intolerance? They are expensive but can be a big help with windy unhappy babies I understand.

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 you can buy, 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. I wouldn't use gripe water if you opt to use Colief drops though.

The warm bath in a quiet room was also a real help. Every night at the time he started to get agitated I would put him 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.

There?s some great advice on the kellymom website if you are breastfeeding.

If Colief drops do not work, go and see your GP and see what they suggest to try imo.

Remember things will get better soon lovely, sending you a very unmumsnetty hug. I found it so hard to see the wood from the trees at this stage. My tips may or may not work, as every baby is different but there?s my thoughts. There is some great advice on here though, I wish I?d used mumsnet when DS was tiny.

loveisagirlnameddaisy · 02/09/2012 07:04

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. DS is second child, I vaguely remember DD also being a bit windy but can't remember what I did.

Have tried all the OTC products, currently giving Dentinox a go. We do the massage and leg cycling although he doesn't have any trouble burping; it's more that he gets trapped wind lower down and strains for ages to pass it.

Since I posted I saw the GP who as I predicted prescribed Gaviscon. I don't know why since he doesn't have reflux. I'm switching him to a comfort version of his Aptamil formula (we're not bfing), and taking him to the osteopath on Tues. Otherwise, I think we just have to let him grow out of it... He's 8 weeks old on Tues and we have our 8 week check at the docs on Mon with a different GP, so will be interested to hear what they say.

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JellyMould · 02/09/2012 07:16

Just to say I have a six week old with the same patterns (poo every 3/4 days, very loose watery poos, trapped wind). I've told the hv and gp and no one seemed worried. We're using infacol and have just started baby massage. The bath sounds like a good idea. I've been wondering about a tummy tub.

loveisagirlnameddaisy · 02/09/2012 09:32

Have only just seen the tummy tubs, they look cool!!

DS loves his bath but tbh our main problems now are from 4am onwards so not ideal to put him in the bath then. He is starting to improve during the day; fewer cranky periods and more restful, staring at the sunlight type periods! So that's good. Praying that 3 months brings relief for him as poor little man has been so unhappy. :(

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