Baby drawing legs up-will not sleep on back

[Functoriality]

Hi,

My 4.5 week old daughter seems to be very gassy and cries and draws her legs up every 5 minutes if lying on her back on the bed. If she passes wind she will sleep on till the next episode. So she only sleeps on her tummy on me. Last week she started bringing up sick after every feed, fussing arching back while feeding and had sour smelling breath that seemed to get worse with each passing day. Her paediatrician thinks it is reflux and has started her on ranitidine. It's been a day on the medicine and the sick and fussing seem to have subsided but she is unable to sleep on her back because of trapped wind.

Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms? Are the wind and reflux related? Will I survive this? I have hardly slept in a month.

Thanks

My DD is 7 wks and absolutely hates being on her back, drawers her knees up and generally fusses until she cries. I sleep her on her belly during the day and on her side at night .... I roll up a towel and place it against her belly upto her chest so she cannot roll into her front, it's the only way she ... (And I) can sleep!

It's v hard to dissagregate normal newborn behaviour from possible reflux behaviour. Not wanting to sleep anywhere but on you could be normal OR it could be a result of reflux. Sometimes babies reflux when farting or pooing, which can really upset them (DS did this, he had reflux).

How are you feeding your baby? Breast, bottle, or both?

Ranitidine wouldn't really stop the vomiting, but it can make it less painful.

Thanks for replying. I thought my dd was the only one. No one else seems to understand. Did your GP give a reason? My GP dismissed it as colic in week 3. My paediatrician thinks it is reflux.

I have tried placing her on her side. She does a little better but still cries. Draws her legs up and wakes herself up. So tired.

Do you wind her regularly? I don't know if you bf but my DS has reflux and we were told to wind after every ounce, keep upright for 20 mins after every feed and tilt the crib mattress. My DS is on ranitidine too. It sounds colicky to me too. Have you tried infacol or colief?

Baby massage might help, get some olive oil on your fingers and massage her tummy clockwise in a circle around her tummy button, then cycle her legs. This can help pass wind.

Also, Infacol with every feed really helped my DS. I know some people don't rate it, but the couple of times we stopped it, we got the crying back.

I have a 4 week old and when she starts fussing on the beast and arching I take her off and place her right over my shoulder so there is a little pressure on her tummy and pat and rub her back, she doesn't particularly like that and gets quite cross but more often than not she will burp sometimes more than once and then she is fine and I place her back on my breast and she will continue to feed normally.
If she gets restless in the night whilst asleep I do the same until she burps or seems more content.
She also seems to have lots of gas type wind a trumps a lot which see
seems very painful for her, we hold both of her lower legs and rotate her whole legs in circular motion up and over her tummy and then back down and this usually helps clear the gas quicker and seems relived.

I think breast fed babies can suffer just as much as bottle fed babies with trapped wind. I have always gone with my mums advice of winding thoroughly after every feed for a more sound sleep....(she had 5 children so has quite a bit of experience)

Busy weekend- couldn't reply till now.

narmada - I only breast feed. Your explanation of pain while farting and pooing clears up something which was confusing me a lot. She will sleep on the bed but wakes up with sudden screaming. It has stopped since starting meds. Will be trying to put her on bed tonight.

Pobblewhohasnotoes- we have started a management plan like you are on, however she has been fussy and feeding every hour today, do the plan has sort of hot derailed.

noblegiraffe- we have a night time bath and massage ritual which she enjoys some days. Started and stopped Infacol many times. Didn't stick with it for recommended 2 weeks yet.

ImGoingToCountToThree- I definitely need to go more winding, though dd has started burping on her own mid feed.

Fingers crossed that the acid damage has subsided and dd will sleep on her back (beside me) tonight. I could really do with a miracle soon.