Baby screams after day feeds, but not at night?! Help!

[RosiesMumma]

Our baby girl is 5 weeks old and for the first couple of weeks, she was absolutely fine.

For the last 2-3 weeks, she screams and cries after every feed, but only during the day. In the night she’s fine and goes straight back to sleep for 4 hours at a time. But as soon as daytime feeds start, she’s screaming for up to a couple of hours after every feed and is difficult to settle.

We’ve moved her onto comfort milk last Friday as she’s only doing a dirty nappy every 4 days. The doctor has also prescribed laxatives to try and get her moving. She’s had 3 doses over 3 days of lactulose and has had 2 dirty nappies since then which were quite full.

We feed her exactly the same formula using the same bottles on a day and night. I just don’t understand why she responds so differently.

We burp her in lots of different positions, bicycle legs, stretches, dentinox, we’ve tried tommee tippee advanced anti colic, dr browns and mam bottles, all with different teats. We pace her feeds and are only feeding when she’s hungry.

She’s so content on a night, but so unhappy during the day. I’m just not sure what else to try or accept that this is what it’ll be like till she grows out of it.

Thanks in advance for any insight or suggestions!

This sounds hard. The only think I can think is she wants to feed for comfort not sustenance. I know it’s not for everyone but have you tried a dummy? The recommendation is not to introduce one until 6 weeks, but that’s to do with establishing breastfeeding and doesn’t apply to you and your DD. I breastfed both my babies and in the early days (so called “fourth trimester”) they sucked constantly. Could be sat on the sofa latched on for 2 hours sometimes. It would explain why it’s not all the time. Maybe worth a try…? Good luck.

Thanks. We have given her a dummy at about 4 weeks as we thought it might help if it is just colic. It definitely does help, but she’s still screaming after day time feeds. I just don’t understand why feeds from 9pm-9am seem to be fine and she will happily just go back to sleep. It’s driving me insane as I just can’t work it out.

I would consult a qualified lactation consultant who can check whether your baby has a tongue tie. Some tongue ties are posterior and quite hidden, so you need an expert to be able to identify these.
Tongue ties can cause a child to swallow too much air by latching inefficiently (even with a bottle, not just breastfeeding) causing discomfort ('colic' is often excessive air swallowing due to inefficient latching). At night the baby may be more relaxed/tired and not swallow so much air and that's why there is less screaming then.

Thank you. I shall look into this. She was checked at the hospital for this when she was born and they said she was fine. But I guess a second look wouldn’t harm!

Maybe it is nothing to do with the feeding.

Do you have brighter lights in the day? TV on? Feed in a different room?

Sorry I can't halp more.

Sounds like my son (now 25y). He didn't get diagnosed as coeliac until adulthood, but the discomfort as a baby must have resulted from my diet. I cut out dairy thinking it may be that, but never considered gluten.

As a child he had awful constipation and discomfort, also likely caused by coeliac and associate lactose issues. Gluten damages the gut and that allows lactose to leak into the body and cause a bad reaction. Once off gluten for 6 months he now doesn't react badly to milk and dairy products.

If bottle feeding try a gluten and lactose free alternative. If breast feeding try adjusting your diet to remove gluten.

The only thing I found that reduced his day time discomfort was an electric swing. But I wish I'd known that removing gluten would have made him comfortable.

I’ve tried feeding upstairs so it’s the same as the night, but she still screams after the day time feeds. I just can’t work it out! I mean I should probably be grateful that she’s an angel on a night. But with her screaming for long periods in the day, it’s making it difficult to see family and go places.

One possible difference is that the daytime is brighter and there are more distractions which might be causing her to gulp more air with the milk. This is easily tested/fixed by doing dayime feeds in a quiet, dark room.

Ah, cross posted!

Thanks for replying. We’ve been told it’s not likely to be an allergy because it’s only during the day that she’s reacting like this. If it was an allergy it would be all the time. But I honestly just don’t know! I will consider an alternative formula if she doesn’t improve after a few more days of the comfort formula. Thanks!

My daughter was awful to feed it started with the 3am feed but then switched to not feeding during the day and feeding ok overnight. It was due to severe silent reflux and multiple food allergies. She fed better lying and just generally seemed more relaxed overnight. Proteins from your food are massively reduced after 8h and I didn't tend to eat after dinner time so it could have been that my breast milk upset her less overnight

Does she start screaming straight away or only after you’ve finished the feed and tried to put her down?

A couple of minutes after. Usually while she’s laid on my chest after burping.

We’ve been to the doctors but he dismissed any type of reflux and allergies. But to be honest, he didn’t seem bothered at all and quickly gave us laxatives to try get her doing more dirty nappies.

I don’t really want to switch her formula again, but maybe I might have to try if she hasn’t settled in another week or so.

Thank you.

Does she take the bottle quicker or slower at night? Have more or less? You could try a faster flow in case she’s getting frustrated from trying to get more, faster.

My daughter was 17 weeks before she was diagnosed as the GP was dismissive... symptoms started before her 10 day midwife check!

I can’t tell any difference between day and night feeds. We’ve tried slow, medium, fast teats and all same result. She’s fine while she’s drinking the milk. It starts a couple of minutes after. We’ve tried upping the amount she drinks incase she was still hungry. She drinks it all but then a little bit tends to come back up so I think it’s maybe abit much for her still.

Usually it will be a midwife checking at the hospital, but midwives, GPs, neonatal nurses etc do not normally have the qualifications or knowledge to diagnose a posterior tongue tie, only those who have received this specific training are able to detect a hidde posterior one, as they'd have to feel inside the baby's mouth and know what to feel for. The anterior tongue ties are easy to spot, and some posterior are also visible, but not all.
A qualified IBCLC lactation consultant would be your best bet, or any professional listed on the Tongue-tie.org.uk website.

OP how did this go for you? My 3 week old is very similar at the minute so I’m very interested in hearing your experience. Hope things improved!

She ended up being admitted to hospital with a cows milk protein allergy shortly after this as her skin broke out into blisters and her breathing was not right. She was moved to prescription formula and things got a little better but not completely. I think she had colic to be honest and it just took time. At about 5 months she became the happiest baby and now at nearly 8 months we have no issues with colic at all.

Hang in there, it does get better!