9 week old - total hysteria of an evening - HELP

[tigermummy35]

Our 9 week old screams the house down, for no apparent reason, in the evening. Tonight, his nappy had leaked, so I took him up to change it and he went crazy when I was putting the clean one on. He goes purple in the face, sweat drips off his forehead and his screaming is out and out hysteria. He'd been fed 2 hours earlier, and goes 3-4 hours between feeds. But, every night, he goes completely crazy. Sometimes the hysteria starts straight after a feed, btw.

We've taken him in the car, or in a sling or his buggy for walks, anything to help him sleep and snap out of the hysteria.

Once he's finally given in and dropped off, he'll sleep really well (with a 10pm dreamfeed, he'll stay asleep til 4am)

Any help would be most appreciated, we are end the end of our tethers here :(

He doesn't appear to be windy either.

HELP!

Is he breast or formula fed?

Formula, aptamil hungry baby.

I does unfortunately sound very much like colic. If this is the case then most babies grow out of it around the 12 week mark which probably feels like very cold comfort now.

Back to using infacol then. We had a really bad time with colic early on (screaming for 7 or 8 hours), but we switched to Dr Brown's bottles, fed him sitting up and infacol with every feed. We've stopped the infacol, but maybe shouldn't have?

I kept using infacol right the way up until 5 months because every time I stopped DD would get terrible stomach pains about 2 days after.

I do know lots of other people who stopped at about 12 weeks and were fine though.

I'm not totally convinced it is colic though as he doesn't bring his legs up or straighten himself out like you'd expect. Just lays there turning beetroot and screaming hysterically.

I had exactly the same with my DD. She had silent reflux and would scream and scream in the evenings. It did stop when she was a little older, not sure if the baby Gaviscon also helped.

Well hubby has a lot of indigestion, so reflux is certainly possible. I guess I'd see my GP about that?

I would perhaps take him off the hungry baby formula as it can be very difficult for small babies to to digest. My HV warned me off it. You could try an easy digest formula such as aptamil easy digest or cow & gate comfort. It will do him no harm and may solve the problem if it is tummy trouble.

Keep going with the Dr. Brown's bottles.

My DS is exactly the same but I think it's overstimulation rather than stomach issues - he's going for longer at night and consequently napping less in the day and I think he just gets overtired by the evening. I'm hoping that once he gets used to the longer night sleeps he will calm down - today he had a longer nap than usual and although he still had a bit of a crying jag tonight he was a lot better than normal. He's on Aptamil (but the normal kind) and sleeps from 7-8pmish to 3-4amish, so similar to yours. How is he at napping during the day?

I think a trip to the GP would be a good idea so that if it is reflux they can prescribe infant gaviscon. If it isn't reflux they may be able to prescribe colief which I have heard has worked well for some people but at £10 a bottle its best to get it on prescription.

I meant to say, one of the reasons that I think it's tiredness rather than reflux for my DS is that the only thing that will calm him is one of us rocking him until he snoozes for a bit. He tends to have a 15-30min catnap, then wake for his final feed and then goes down for the night. It's like he needs a quick sleep burst to have the energy to set himself up for the night, if that makes any sense!

It was you mentioning changing the nappy that got me thinking. Laying flat can really hurt then and set the reflux off if that is the issue. GP should be able to help. I also used a Lila Kuddis Swedish baby pillow.

Lots to think about. He sleeps well during the day. He usually sleeps for a couple of hours in the morning, and a couple of hours in the afternoon. We've found he is sick quite a lot, so have put bed blocks under one end of his cot to raise it slightly, and I've even slightly raised his change mat at one end.

He seems happiest laying flat on our lounge floor, during the day.

When he gets crazy, no amount of rocking, cuddling or soothing generally works. If we can distract him, he will snap out of the hysteria enough to take his dummy and calm down - if we can't, then we have to take him out in the car.

I should say that he's on the hungry milk because at 9 weeks, he's already 14lbs 5oz and before we switched him, was taking 7oz every 2-3 hours!

When my DD used to do similar I sed to take her outside for a mo...the cold air seemed to calm her.

It does sound a little like over stimulation.

Do you mean he only has 2 naps? Most babies that age need 3 or 4 naps a day, so it could well be overtiredness. Try getting him off to sleep after he's been awake no more than 1.5 - 2 hours and see if that helps.

Thanks Angeldog, I will try that. He naps in the car and his buggy, but usually has two (sometimes more) proper sleeps.

With DD it was over tiredness that set her off screaming in the evening. She needed 3 2 hour naps during. The day and approx 12 at night (waking for a couple of feeds).

I was also told by the HV not to give hungry baby or follow on milk as babies can find them hard to digest.

I remember reading something about a condition called 'silent reflux' maybe you can google it.Not many GPs are aware of it, unless experienced paeditrician it can be hard to pick up. Perhaps you should speak to a paeditrician.