oh HELP me...Why oh why is my baby crying, i can't take it anymore. i have had it up to here :(

[MerlinsBeard]

so i wasn't going to start any more threads on MN but i can't cope with this any more

ds1 still struggling with Y1, ds2 turned up to 11(too much to explain, if you don't know please don't ask!) and ds3 has spent the last 3 nights being awake more than he is asleep, feeding stupidly and just CRYING

I don't want reasons i want him to stop

He is fed, warm enough, not stomach achy, nappy clean, doesn't want cuddles....i just want him to stop

Agree with everything said. Having a good moan on here helps. Plus terrys choc tub. Plus calpol. Plus, just admitting that he is 7 months, and driving you mad. And just do nothing. All sounds good to me.
Let us know if this all helps.

he is calpol'd and in pushchair being rocked (in case he falls asleep and i don't have to wake him to transfer him for picking up ds2)

still moaning but not crying - he can SEE me now

It could just be something brewing, in a day or two he might have a cold or something. Has he eaten anything different lately? Any of your others been ill? Nappies OK?

Chances are he's bloody knackered from all that crying when he should be sleeping.

I agree, Calpol, cuppa, cake

Sometimes just leaving them be is the thing to do.

oooh........is he becoming a 'velcro-baby'???

I had one of them....still got one in fact going on the fact that he tried to take my arm to school with him this monring.

he is weaning so EVERYTHING is different but wasn't interested yesterday in anything other than smushing his food into the table!

The others haven't been ill and nor have DP and I.

The 3 C's...you should patent that

MOM

DS4 has just started cranial osteopathy on Saturday after we couldn't take any more of the screaming / colic / refusal to exist without me in sight (he's 6 months)

He seems far easier to settle already, less screechig (one batch last ight but calpol sorted so probably due to his teeth coming in atm). He ahs also dcvered a whole new level of sleep which seems to refresh him much more; and is currentlya sleep in the buggy (almost unheard of).

Not cheap- £45 here for first session, £35 for up to 5 more- but we're pleaed nonetheless.

Is he FF or BF? Any family history of anything like milk intolerance or signs of reflux?

SSsssshhh NO BOSY MOVE

He has and is doing the eye popping iopen thing they do when they don't want to sleep

BODY

just noticed the time so will rush this post

Peachy - i can't afford cranial osteopathy or i would def consider it. DS2 has milk intolerance but it doesn't seem to be the same, although i know that he may have diff symptoms. He is breastfed but i have had nothing out of the ordinary except perhaps a little less to eat than normal (would that have that much effect?)
no signs of reflux but i don't really know what to look for - he isn't sicky at all

oh I had a velco baby ( still do LOL)... they are soooo.. wearing!!!

I made him a poster with pics of the family on, so he could look at me in the night without having to wake me up!! ... and I let him sleep with a raggy made from one of my t-shirts.

Less to eat wouldnt affect it they say but in truth the reason I am not on WW was that DS4 worsened dramatically when I as, lts of screaming.

Have you tried a dairy free diet yourself? I have 3 intol lads and it always presents differently- but if bf the key is you stop the itake, as I have done. A day or two would answer that question.

Know what you man re osteo- only affordable here as we had him baptised yesterday and people chipping in in lieu of gifts.

Its all just guess work isn't it?

I'd put him somewhere he couldn't see me. Mine always kick off worse if they can see me. Maybe I'm just mean though

DC4 went through a using mummy as a dummy at this time. Drove me mad, always wanting to be latched on.

Put some music on.

Ashton and Parsons powders are very good, very soothing. They are good for tummy upsets, teething, general grumpyness. About a fiver for 20 I think. And they do last a long time.

Always realised too late,when mine were driving me mad, that they were coming down with something. It would make itself apparent and the light would break over me and I would get that DOH! moment. Easier to cope when its something concrete. Hope it improves for you.

When mine have got like this, i put them away in their room for about ten minutes and just have some space.

I hope you are ok?

he may not have 'traditional' reflux in the sense of being sicky.....it may be 'silent reflux', which makes them feel as tho they have constant heartburn. this is was DD3 suffered with (well.....she was sicky and heartburny).

I have had four with reflux....three with dairy allergy

DD2 (allergic to dairy)was sicky all the time, fed all the time (the HV never believed me when I said how often until I kep a diary.......18 feeds per day, and that was BF, so you can imagine how tied I felt, and how dented the sette looked).

DD3 (allergic to dairy) threw up constantly, and was so drained from that she fed very badly. also screamed all the time......so much so that at 3mths I lost it and gave her 10mils of calpol as I just could not take the screaming anymore....she was 9lb at that point (was 8lb born, so took three mths to put on a lb she was that sicky). I then rang and confessed to the docs, so they finally took me seriously.......she had the worst reflux they had ever seen in a NT child!

DS1.....sicky and screamy, but not like DD2 or DD3. and he was not allergic to milk either.

DS2.......hell! that is all I can say. he was a dream baby in one respect (I could have have ten of him) and was very easy to settle with a dummy and a fleece blanket, as long as I was within his sight at all times, but he was very allergic and very hard to feed as his reflux was not so obvious, and it took until he went yellow at 2mths for them to figure he was allergic to milk like his sisters had been.

that is an essay, sorry, but what I am trying to say (and probably not well) is that none of them had exactly the same symptoms, and yet all of them suffered some degree of reflux/heartburn/milk issue.

oh, DD2 and DS1 never ever lost weight with their reflux...in fact, they gained beautifully. DD3 and DS2 dropped from the 75/50 centil at birth to off the charts completely......and until they were two I was constantly asked if they had been premmie babys.

soooo

do not rule it out. he might just be teething badly and generally unsettled, but he may have some degree of reflux/milk issue.

lots and lots of hugs tho, and hugs for the mini-monster

Our history is much like Psycho's; none have been dx'd with reflux but in hinmdsight I should have ressed the point and ds4 certainly should have been looked at for silent reflux- if the Osteo doesn't sort it I might push. He's seeimnng a Paed for FTT ext month anyhow.

It migt be well worth a 2 day chek to see if cutting out dairy from your siet woks, MOM? I know its a PITA (I'm dairy intol myelf- casei=- but allow myself treats if I am willing to accept the consequences iykwim: 6 months of strict ahs been a bugger) but it might give you answers? IIRC lactose doesn#'t pass through BM, but casein will.

peachy, my smaller three were only officialy DXed with it because of the calpol OD I gave DD3. DD2 was suggested, but they never looked into it properly (ie, barium swollow), as she gained weight so well. they even took until she was 13mths and had lost ovr 3lbs in one week (she was in hospital at the time too with ashtma) and MIL got a little bit cross with the paed who was ignoring my plea's for help.

I did the cranio stuff with DS1 (I took him to begin with as I had a acar accident when pregnant with him).....helped his reflux really well.

MoM....it may sound a pain trying to go dairy-free for a week, but it might help.

I am bit reluctant to cut things out from my diet because (and i being brutally honest here) i will not stop at just dairy i am only just managing to eat as is (am teetering and bf actually helping me to stay eating!) but if i need to do that i will

I am ok...had a cry on the way back from nursery (and looked like a LOON). he slept from half way TO nursery and then until we got thru the door and is awake now. IN his highchair, bashing food into the table

mini aside..Psycho, did you know that the Drs still won't officially diagnose DS2 as milk intolerant

oh and he isn't crying now (but its just a matter of time )

.....really??? why on earth why not??

let miniest monster bash for all he is worth,..he may just enjoy it so much he will forget to cry

re ds2 -i don't know if he has to much milk(he can manage fromage frais and a scrape of soft cheese and i don't need to read labels iyswim) then he gets cramps and STINKY poo (sorry TMI!) and will either get blocked up or the squits, if i swap him back to soya he is fine

i think they have ne down as possible munchausens, have been in with him sooooo much recently

DS3 still bashing, am i mean? He is shouting now though and blowing raspberries!

No you're not mean, yu're a fab mum.

The lad with the intol- how is he on lactofree stuff (asda do yoghurts now as well as milk)- easiest ay ime to distinguish between lactose / casein intol.

You know, even if I couldn't stop dd or ds from crying, just knowing the reason would help.

An NCT friend of mine gave me this book that suggested growth spurts can cause pain and uncomfortableness. As well as their bodies growing, their brains also grow, physically and mentally as they try to deal with everything their senses are telling them. Let's face it, a simple task such as the school run is boring for us, but for the baby there are new smells, new sounds, new sights, new sensations such as cold, rain, wind, a little sunshine. None of these make much sense to them. So much information is passing through their brains!

When they go through a growth spurt you can physically see the changes, but you cannot see the changes in their brains. And there is a theory that this can hurt, or at least be very uncomfy.

I noticed with both of mine that the crying did have a kind of pattern, with them being ok for a couple of weeks and then crying for no apparent reason for a few days, perhaps a week, then being ok again.

Also what you have to remember is that just when you reach the end of your tether, they calm down. After a day or two of calmness you seem to forget the trauma you went through, but if you think back you'll see that you've been here before, the baby did eventually stop and will do so again.

This isn't a solution for you, but I hope it helps.

MOM, my SIL has got the whingiest baby I have ever known! I discovered two things that made him shut up when I had him for half a day...one was carrying him in a sling but round the back of my hip. The other was putting a muslin over his head!! This was when I was holding him (so quite safe) and then we played peek a boo but really he was just like a budgie - cover him up and he shut up!!

The other week we took him out for a few hours whilst B and SIL had some escape time....we had to leave him the pushchair at all times apart from to change his nappy once. My sis left the changing room door open to avoid any accusations of child abuse due to the screams. He had no food or drink as he cried as soon as we looked at him.

I bet your DS isn't this bad eh?