Unhappy 3 month old - why? Help!

[NaviMom]

Hi - I have a 12 week old son. He's had a lot in his 12 weeks - stressful birth (chord 2* around neck plus born only 6 lbs), double inguinal hernia repair at 5 weeks (key hole surgery), heart murmer (pulmonary aorta stenosis), tongue tie separation, reflux and suspected dairy intolerance (CMPA).

He's been on omeprazole (the crush and dissolve kind) and full dairy free since 9th July. I mostly breastfeed him and when we do give formula it's Aptamil Pepti 1. He had his 8 week jabs on 16th July and was miserable, I think due to the rota virus.

Whilst he's happier now than he was at (say) 6 weeks, he's still not happy. Lots of pained crying. Feeding is a stressful experience - lots of latching on and off and feeding only for a few mins and then needing a feed an hour later (when I should be prepping him for a nap). For last few days he's had 1 poo a day at 2am and it's been very runny/mucuousy. Brownish/dark orange and last night small specks of blood in it. Otherwise he's had a lot of tummy gurgling and bloated/distended tummy. Very gassy

What do we think is wrong with him?

One thought I've had is that the omeprazole doesn't agree with him, so I'm tempted to cut it out for a few days and see. Could omeprazole cause unhappy tummies?

A bit desperate - any help much appreciated!

If you are using pepti he's not fully dairy free. This formula is dairy based and some babies still react to this formula. You might need an amino acid formula such as neocate or alfamino as these are completely dairy free.
Of you are dairy free have you also looked at removing soya? About half of babies are allergic to both dairy and soya

Omperazole can cause something called an acid battle where the body initially tried to increase its acid production in response to being told to reduce it and can mean that symptoms get worse in the first couple of weeks. My daughter only responds to the highest doses of omperazole so we had very little benefit from omperazole until she was on the highest dose. She also needed as much gaviscon as I could get in her as well as lactulose for the constipation and later a third medication when her omperazole couldn't be increased any further.

My daughter latched on and off continuously until I got her allergies (she has 20 in total!) under control and her reflux treated adequately - her reflux is in addition to allergies rather than because of them. Feeding issues in the end was our early warning sign that I had eaten something she reacts too.

Could be colic. Starts at 3 months. Ends 3 months later. Difficult. But it WILL end.

Thanks both! Never a simple solution is it :)

Yes I had heard that pepti wasn't dairy free, so will look into those other alternatives. I've heard they don't taste very nice so difficult to get the baby to take them, but better that than extreme tummy pain!

Oh gosh 20 intolerances! That sounds like a nightmare. Will watch out for soya in my diet as well

Have a paed appointment this week so will update with what the next steps are in case helpful

Ok so update - we’ve been prescribed neocate. Only problem is he hates it! Refuses to take it, even when mixed with 50% expressed breast milk.

Im going to persevere as I do believe the neocate will help him in the long run, but I don’t have enough EBM to keep mixing it In and then end up throwing it away when he refuses. So I’m going to mix it with aptamil pepti and then fade it out

any other tips for me? I mostly breastfeed with one formula feed per day (to give me back up in case my supply is low, I’m out and he won’t take the boob or if I’ve had some wine)

So desperate as the little guy is still MISERABLE for hours on end.

As recommended upthread I was going to say try cutting out soya. Other than that could he be overtired? It could be worth tracking hours spent sleeping/feeding/crying and seeing how they add up. Ours wasn’t a good sleeper and I had to force a nap schedule by putting her in a moving pushchair which was the only place she’d sleep. Huckleberry app was good for tracking and sleep schedules by age.