Please help , 5 day old baby

[D1anax2x]

I’m just looking for some advise please if anyone has experienced this with their newborn. I have a 5 day old , he was absolutely fine but for the past 2 days he seems very unsettled. When he’s awake he always cries and goes red , he also goes very tense and fidgety. Almost seems like he is constipated but he isn’t. He is formula fed and on hipp organic. He feeds absolutely fine and has wet and dirty nappies. He doesn’t seem constipated , his poos are a normal consistency but he does do a lot of little poos. He does also make a lot of grunting noises. When he feeds he does also spit up little bits but not alot. We saw a health visitor today who did say he can be abit mucusy as he was delivered very quickly which can cause the spit up and sneezing. Just looking for some advise really if anyone’s been through it as it is very hard watching his constantly be like this whenever he’s awake. And to mention if we put on white noise or give him a bottle he settles down eventhough he’s probably not even hungry. Thankyou.

Don't ever under-estimate how much wind babies get???!!

I was going to say it could be wind

I think he probably is a bit hungry. Normal for babies to need to feed little and often

It sounds like wind. Is he getting burped during and after every feed? Also presuming he’s not still hungry?

Yeah I burp him between every feed and after every feed , I also keep him mostly sat upright during feeds and try keep him upright quiet abit. He seems to be burping and passing gas fine and even after he passes gas he still carries on screaming and crying none stop.

Do you have a suitable thermometer to check if he has a temperature? Not saying that's the problem but I remember I didn't know to have one at the very beginning.

Does winding him help?

Just seen he settles after a bottle. He might be hungry. Newborn appetites ramp up really quickly, this caught me out too.

How much do you feed him and how often?

I saw a health visitor and she was saying how at a couple of days of their stomachs are still tiny and they drink 2-3 ounces every 2-3 hours which is why I assumed he’s not hungry as he’s been taking 4 sometimes in a space of less than 2 hours. I’m probably just being dramatic and overthinking though I just don’t remember my first one being like this at 5 days.

Yeah it's probably a mixture of hunger and wind. Sometimes they have more than one burp to make so try a longer wind and see if that helps at all!
My LO was like this and I found he needed a longer wind and a wind half way through a feed (always a guzzler not matter the teat!) Also newborns constantly grunt and sound like little hedgehogs! X

My initial thoughts were either reflux (feeding can make them feel better in the moment, but worse after a feed) or a poor latch. If it’s a poor latch, he could not be taking a full feed and is still hungry, or taking in lots of air.
Google the “Special K” latch. Does his latch look like that?
Unfortunately when you bottle feed you get fobbed off with oral function and no one cares about the latch. My poor first suffered terribly for months with me not realizing their latch was terrible with MAM bottles, when I switched the teats to Lansinoh teats it was like I had a new baby overnight. I’ve never used the MAM teats again.

I think sometimes babies are very quiet to start with, as they get over the shock of being born! Then suddenly, they wake up and make their presence felt.

@Cantgetausername87 when he cries I do try offer him more but he gets to a point where he just dribbles it all out from the sides and doesn’t take it in or latch on which I then assume he’s using it for comfort. I tried a dummy but he spits that out. I’m constantly burping him but even after he burps I continue for longer but he just won’t settle. He screams and cries and straightens his legs out and stiffens them and goes bright red. And he’s like that literally all day long and nothing I do helps x

@Nodlikeyouwerelistening He seems to be latching on fine and so far I’ve tried tommee tippee but they just make him throw it back up and mam bottles which he does seem to spit up a lot after he uses them and he latches on better to them. Thankyou though I will try have a look for those teets and switch maybe that will help hopefully.

@Corfeking I feed him on demand which can range from 1-3 hours. I use a prep machine so minimum I can do is 4 ounces so I offer that and let him drink whatever he can take really.

@D1anax2x I used a prep machine for my baby but had to stop as it gave her awful gas.

@LoveIndubitably I do have one he doesn’t seem hot but I didn’t even think about checking his temperature I will try do that now as I do also have a toddler who goes nursery and this time of year I suppose they can catch all sorts thankyou. It’s just so overwhelming having a newborn and a 2.5 year old so I didn’t even think of doing that thankyou but no winding doesn’t help him x

@Corfeking oh really it could be that then as he was completely fine for the first few days and I was mostly using pre made ones for the first few days so might be worth a try on just pre made ones for a day see if that helps.

The prep machines do put a lot of air into the bottles. Make sure you swirl to mix rather than shake - it might calm the bubbles and the gas. Which formula are you using? Some can make babies gassier than others. We used cow and gate and had no issues.

Also, have you checked for tongue tie? Formula fed babies tend to get dismissed a bit re tongue tie, but DD2 (combi breast and formula fed) had a terrible tongue tie and she couldnt hold a dummy in her mouth, couldn't latch properly on a teat, swallowed loads of air as a result, had loads of milk dribbling out of her mouth. We had it divided in the end but it was a long hard slog before it healed.

Could be wind … look up some baby massage techniques on YouTube which directly help with this! It seemed to help my baby

Keep an eye out for reflux / silent reflux

and a couple of mins of tummy time before each feed has massively helped my second get his wind out of his bum… wish I knew that with the first. Little and often is key and I’ve found much more effective than massage with the added benefit of building his strength too

@Slowfeedingbaby Im using hipp organic at the moment as I found that’s what worked best with my first one. Might be worth mentioning I did try to combi feed but I wasn’t sure if he was getting enough from breast and I did also try pump and feed through bottle but that then made me really ill and gave me flu symptoms as they got too full and it was too much for me so I stopped and just moved onto bottle. He’s not been checked for tongue tie but he seems to be latching on okay and only dribbles out milk when he seems to be too full and just uses it for comfort x

And a few people have mentioned hunger here but I’d look at the opposite and whether he’s being over fed. Some babies will just feed and feed and it will give them a bad stomach.

my first had terrible reflux so with my second I’d always try other ways to settle him before reaching for the bottle in the first instance.

he has been a much more settled baby overall, partly due to luck and also second time experience

@Edizzler25 Thankyou I will give that a try , i have noticed he easily lets out gas when burping but not through his bum unless he’s done a poo. So could possibly be that , I tried massages and leg movements but he tenses so much and won’t let me do it.

Like PP said, very often babies are very sleepy and quiet for the first couple of days after delivery and then you get the real deal. Three things that have massively helped me:

• feed on demand and as often/as little as baby wants. Every 2-3hs is a long long time for a newborn. Some babies do just fine with that routine and take bigger feeds, other babies prefer to feed almost constantly but only a little at a time. My DD did the latter - it took me some time to figure out that she wanted to have just a little milk every 30-60 mins, sometimes bigger feeds, but she never took much. It kept changing also and by around 3 months she started drinking maybe every couple of hours. Do not time the feeds. Every baby is different and will not overfeed unless you force them
• anti-wind massage. My little girl had loads of dirty nappies and was burped well but still, every time I did those bicycle legs with her, she’d release gas. Just because baby isn’t constipated doesn’t mean they are not gassy. Assume they are, especially if they get tense / make grunting noises. Loads of YouTube videos on how to do this sort of massage or exercises, can be 1-2 mins several times a day
• if baby has been uncomfortable (gassy) for a while and worked themselves into a state, they might need more help than just a massage. Rocking, shooshing, baby on your arm so their belly is pressing into it helping release gas - you kind of need to do all of that to help them come down

Also, newborns still cry an awful lot. I googled many times during the first 8-10 weeks ‘when will it get easier’. The vast majority of babies start settling by around 12 weeks and crying a lot less. You’re doing great xx