Shall I switch to formula this morning- grunting baby - no sleep - help!

[polar515]

I have a 6 week old son who has become increasingly more grunty since it started about 2 weeks ago. He grunts in his sleep -at first it he seems to be quite straining and also now when awake alot.

Yesterday he had no restful awake time - all the time he was awake he seemed unsettled and grunty.

I was hoping for a pattern for feeds to start emerging soon (at the magic 6 weeks), but this seems to be coming less so, with feeding anything from every 1 1/2 hours to 4.

I have been BF all day and giving him one bottle of form before bed.

Last night he was really unsettled - crying ++ from 10.30-2.00am. Previously the bottle has calmed him and then he has slept before next BF.

I have tried winding him more, infacol and gripe water, thinking it may be wind he is not getting up.

I am concerned it might be the way I am BF.

We are getting no sleep with his grunting - we even tried him in the nursery last night rather than in with us, and the grunting was still so loud (even without a monitor) and I was still so worried that he was in distress that I ended up camping downstairs with him and DH took over at 6am so I could get a bit of sleep before he went to work.

I am thinking whether to try him on bottles today to see if this might make him a little more settled, with a view to carrying on BF if not change.

I feel desperate for him to be more settled and in a routine and I am worried I am not doing the right thing and that is what is making him distressed.

Could he choke if I leave him unattended at night?

Could it be 'reflux'

Is this just all normal?

Help!

Grunting sounds perfectly normal - some babies are just grunty! He's probably finding his voice and starting to test it out - he might find the noises he can make interesting and comforting. I doubt very much whether it has anything to do with discomfort or wind - if you're breastfeeding then you're already doing the best thing for him! As long as he's gaining weight well then he's probably fine and the sleeping will settle down in a couple of weeks. He's still very new and just getting used to the world. You could try carrying him in a sling during the day - it frequently helps with night-settling because their 'cuddle' needs have already been met for the day!

I would second the grunting as normal - I think my MW said it was something to do with their narrow nasal passages making them a bit snuffly at first. Not sure that formula will make any difference really - also be aware that if you start to give formula to replace breastfeeds, it's hard to go back to exclusive breastfeeding (not impossible, but as soon as you stop offering him the breast your supply will start to decline as the milk is made on a supply and demand basis - apologies if you know all of this, I didn't when my son was born and wished I had known! )

when did you introduce the formula? i would say it's far more likely to be that which is causing the problem.

feeding every 1-4 hours at his age is absolutely normal, in fact it's desirable! he is doing what he is supposed to do

Also should have said - I know what you mean about being desperate for a routine, I was like this too as I am a very structured sort of person. However I found there really was no pattern until about 3 months, I tied myself in knots trying to identify one before that but it was just a waste of time and energy! Things will settle down, it's still early days.

polar, I had similar with the crying for my DD1 - everyone told me colic/wind hits around tea time - she was 10pm - 3am every night. I also got told that, if it was colic/wind, it would stop at 12 weeks....and it did, almost overnight.

I didn't find that 6 weeks made that big a difference with either of mine - in fact, having held out for some sort of breakthrough with DD1 I didn't even think about it with DD2 (just as well ). The frequency of feeding sounds pretty normal, am afraid - he's still pretty little and may take a bit more time to fall into a pattern. But you will get there!
Good luck!

I wouldn't switch to formula just because of this, as others have said it can be perfectly normal. However both of my LOs were very grunty and seemed really uncomfortable with it and it turned out they both had reflux. Does your DS have any other symptoms of reflux? Try keeping him upright after feeds and propping him up in his cot and see if this helps at all.

My DD grunted for about 2 hours every morning at that age. I took her to see a cranial osteopath, two times and she stopped! It might be worth a try. The explanation sounded bizarre but if it works...

All sounds normal. Also, I'm afraid to say 6 weeks isn't when it starts to get better, but really the peak of when things are hard going. I found weeks 6 to 10 the toughest with my two. Hang in there though - it really does start to get significantly better soon.

I had a grunter too, but it got a lot bettter around three months.