trapped wind in 3 month old

[ionesmum]

help! My three-month old has been suffering from trapped wind for five weeks. I thought it had lessened but last night was as bad as ever. It started after a cold gave her a tummy upset. She arches her back, draws in her knees and then straightens them, and I can feel the bubbles of air in her tummy and her muscles trying to push them through. She doesn't cry all the time, but as the pain seems to come in waves she screams as each pain comes. It tends to be worse in the early hours of the morning.

She is formula-fed and SMA suggested trying their lactose-free milk, but this has to be done under medical supervision and my g.p. pooh-poohed this idea, saying "that it is just colic and she will grow out of it"! The h.v. only suggested gripe water, which had no effect and is a nightmare to give to dd who doesn't like anything that isn't milk (not even water, or watered-down formula- another h.v. suggestion.) We have started weaning on advice of h.v. but so far have only had small meals of baby rice.

The only way that I can stop the pain for dd is to lay her across my tummy and let her sleep there. Sometimes I fall asleep too, I try to keep awake but am so tired, but am well aware this is dangerous. Last night dd slept on me for 4 hours.I also think that this wind problem has contributed to her tiredness by day and so her inability to rectify her day/night confusion (which some of you have been kind enough to help with!) I am at my wits end, I am sick of seeing my little one in such pain and being fobbed off. I am sure that we could crack her sleep problem if it wasn't for this.

Thanks in advance for your help, I only found mumsnet this week and this is my third request for help!

Hi ionesmum.
Firstly ,my sincere sympathy for you .I know that you are living through hell at the moment.My daughter had colic for the first three months. We decided to give our daughter homeopathic remedy called colocynth,which took a while to have effect(3-4 days) and was ok but not fullproof. However just recently i was watching a documentary on a naturopath Jan-des Fries who claims he has the solution and is very easy to prepare. He advises to pour boiling water into a cup , cut a slice of onion and soak in the cup of water for a couple of minutes then remove the onion. Once the water has cooled down give your baby just one to two teaspoons of the solution. If teaspoon is no good try a small syringe which you can get from supermarket.He claims that the onion solution cracks the wind within a short period. I told one of my friends who has a baby and she too claims that it helped. So good luck . Anything is worth a try , especially if it is alternative and is not causing any harm to your baby.let me know how you get on.

Thanks for the further feedback. Had a rotten night with dd and she has been asleep for most of the day- too tired to do anything else! I think I will give the onion thing a try, although getting it down her should be fun- she even spits out gripe water, which I think smells yummy! We hope to see the cranial osteopath next week, and will change her milk if that doesn't work. Thank you all so much for your help, we do appreciate it!

MEARS - just wanted you to know that we have swithced our dd onto the Dr. Brown's bottles and they are FANTASTIC! The change in our little one is remarkable- her tummy is much less bloated after a feed and she is having much better nights. She is also on the Cow&Gate milk which you recommended and that helps her to fart out any wind which does form. It's early days but if this continues then I fell we will be ready to sort out a proper routine for dd, and our g.p. has given us some lactose-free milk just in case (but hopefully we won't need it now!) I only wish I'd got them sooner but we'd just spent a fortune on the Avent disposable system which was dreadful.

Anyway, thank you so much from myself and dd! And thanks to everyone else for your help, too.

Sorry to hear that so many of our Lo's are suffering with severe trapped wind. My little girl is 11 weeks old and has suffered with trapped wind from the bottom end since day one. I bf for 1 month & then moved on to formula with no change. As soon as she finishes a feed she starts squirming, planking, pulls knees up to her chin, grunting, back arching, pained crys, straining and goes red in the face. It's heart breaking to see. She is otherwise a healthy baby never cries unless she is hungry & I've not managed to get a bottle ready on time. I think she may have a bit of reflux too as she is quite sicky after every feed and splutters a little and has a look on her face that implies she has tasted something nasty. I have tried everything from infacol, gripe water, baby gaviscon (this made her projectile along with sma comfort) Sma Staydown (this made her constipated) Winding every few minutes, keeping her upright for 30 minutes after (although she fights me) only laying her on her side as she can't stand to be on her back, elevating her Moses basket at the head end, leg pedaling, baby massage you name.... She grunts like a goat & strains all night, never fully asleep hands are always moving & arms tense. I feel terrible for her. This last week she has started crying in pain 6:00pm on the dot everyday. She's gaining weight so Dr's are not concerned but I'm at my wits end. But tonight I stumbled across this... Sit back on the sofa, sit baby on your lap side on, their shoulder against your belly. Hold their chin in the Y shape of one hand & place your other hand on the top of their back like you are going to wind them but place 2 fingers at the back of their head to support it. Gently rotate the top half of their body round in circles. This should bring up burps and help push trumps out. Once some wind has passed & crying/squirming has calmed down move your hand down from their back & place it under their arm around their belly & start rocking your body around in circles. This has just rocked my little girl into a deep sleep for The 1ST Time!!! Even snoring!! I sooo hope it can help you all too good luck xx