Six week old constantly straining and uncomfortable, any advice or similar experiences?

[SNK93]

Hey! I’m a first time mum and my little girl is now 6 weeks old. Since the first week she has always strained and cried in pain/discomfort but it seems to be worse now.

It is constant, the times she is awake she is straining, bringing her legs up and crying etc the ENTIRE time. She ends up being sick a fair amount from the amount she is straining.
We have been to the doctors and they have said it could be reflux so we have tried the infant gaviscon for a few weeks but it hasn’t made a difference. However it is not the vomiting that’s the issue, it’s the discomfort and she is now not sleeping well because of it. We also tried the Kendamil pro comfort drops for a while and now I have been using Infacol. We are doing tummy massages and bicycle legs etc. We are at a loss and it is so hard seeing her in constant pain and discomfort.

Has anyone had the same experience and can recommend anything/provide a glimpse of lights at the end of the tunnel? Thank you.

Have The doctors suggested CMPA?

Thanks for the reply! I asked if it could be that however they said it doesn’t sound like it as she doesn’t have a rash or diarrhoea.

what was the birth like? was she exposed to any antibiotics? if so probiotics could be a good idea.

my child was like that. it became eczema at around 3 months and then turned into food allergies. however, it was all linked to antibiotics at the start.

Have you tried walking with her face down on your forearm? The pressure and warmth along her stomach will help her muscles work more effectively.

Are you breast feeding? If so you can try cutting out gluten for a couple of weeks to see if that helps.

The birth was alright, I don’t believe any antibiotics were given. I’ll continue to give the kendamil pro comfort drops and hope they help 🤞🏻
What probiotics did you use? It’s so difficult seeing her in such constant discomfort.

We haven’t, I will definitely try this. Thank you!

Thanks for your reply! I’m not, we are formula feeding and using Aptamil

All 3 of mine struggled.

What do you mean by straining? Is she constipated?

Baby 1 we ended up putting her on goats milk, it worked wonders. In the early days a doctor told me to put a bit of brown sugar in her milk to help consipation. Also said if worse comes to worse I may need to physically have to help pull poo out. I did once, it helped her a lot. She also slept on her side with a sleep wedge. Gaviscon and infacol didn’t help. Rescue remedy did. We saw an osteopath for a while who originally suggested the sleep wedge. Note - this was a very old fashioned Dr and not in the UK, sleep wedges were widely used.

Baby 2 Ended up in hospital after a nasty vomiting bug we all had but she lost a lot of weight. They prescribed formula for CMPA. We would have tried her on goats milk like our oldest but it was really expensive and hard to come by at the time. Infacol caused her extreme pain and gaviscon was no help. She did have movicol for a while. Again slept on her side and also not UK. After 3 months of prescription formula she got so much better.

Baby 3 we had learnt a few tricks. One was a good way to get wind up, which involved something called torso rotation. I will link the technique. We also kept her upright for at least 20min after feeding. She didn’t like side sleeping so we used a wedge under her cot mattress to help her sleep slightly upright. Eventually she was diagnosed with a dairy allergy. She seemed ok on soya for a while but that can be very harsh on the tummy and she started to get worse pains. In the end the only milk she would take was cashew but she was 12m+ by this stage and had started to develop several food allergies.

It’s so hard seeing them in pain but very very common for small babies to get reflux and struggle with digestion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hrIY2uhc-S4&t=4&app=no_hover&persist_app=1

Straining as if she is trying to push/poop/pass wind. She had constipation for a few days at first but has been fine since on that front although she does only go once every 2 days or so, unsure if that is normal?

She is often able to pass wind but then still struggles in pain and cries as if there’s a lot more and her tummy is so uncomfortable for her. She’s pretty good at burping, ah yes we have been using that technique thank you!

The doctor’s have said they don’t think it’s an allergy but I am just unsure what else to try and so at a loss of what it could be so maybe it would be worth changing her formula?

Thank you

I think it’s very common at this age, their tiny tummy’s are getting use to digesting the milk. I don’t actually think there is a “normal”, what’s normal for one baby may not be normal for another. As long as your monitoring for any change in her routine, i think it’s just a wait and see game atm, keep watching and don’t be afraid to speak up if something dosnt feel right. I had to take my 2nd dd to the Drs 5 times in 7 days before they finally agreed with my instincts that something wasn’t right and sent her to hospital o when she was 10 months old.

Also lots of cuddles x