Baby cries for no reason at same time each day...

[ItWasntUs]

LO is four weeks old tomorrow but is prone to having a crying stint at pretty much the same time each evening for several hours (2-3 hours)

He's sleeping OK (breasted) in the day and night (2-3 hours between feeds) but in the early-mid evening, he'll cry and only stop for short periods usually when he's distracted. He doesn't appear sleepy at these times and won't breastfeed at this time.

I've spoken to breastfeeding support and they think he's maybe cluster feeding.

We've tried infacol but he doesn't appear to grind his legs around like you'd expect for wind. Nor does he bring any wind up when he's being winded....

We've tried swaddling, playing, comforting, putting him in a dark room, putting him in a breeze, taking him outside, bathing him, swaddling him. Nothing appears to placate him for very long.

Is this normal and will he grow out of it ?

Thanks,
DNK

Sounds like colic, which is actually just 'unexplained crying' rather than just wind. Keep doing what you're doing, TTSP.

Eventually (usually by 11 weeks!)

Try googling overstimulation. Am bfing, hence short reply...

I read an article when dd was small about overstimulation, what we usually call 'colic'. Explained that a baby's immature nervous system can become too stimulated by the end of the day and they just can't handle any more. We learnt really rapidly, particularly with ds, how to spot the signs of him becoming overstimulated and we could avoid aggravating it. We were v shocked when it worked.

One of my dds was like this and the hv said it was colic. Some infacol before every feed helped but as a previous poster has said it will stop around 11 or 12 weeks. Try not to overwind your ds as any wind needing to come up should be sitting on the top of his tummy and if you are circling your hand over his back you are mixing the wind bubbles back up with the milk so therefore trapping the wind if that makes sense. I found lying my dd down briefly then lifting her to my shoulder she would bring wind up without much backrubbing from me. My hv told me that the wind was just being trapped throughout the whole day and then by about 7pm it just got unbearable which is what was causing my dd to cry.

Really feel for you as it's awful

Thanks for the replies.

What were the signs of overstimulation, just out of interest?

We've tried not playing with him in the afternoon and it doesn't appear to make any difference if he's had a "quiet" or "busy" day in the run up to screamtime.

He's just settled, sleeping on DW....hopefully, he'll settle for the evening now.

My DD used to do this - around 6pm she'd start fussing, and normally stop around 10pm. We used to spend a lot of time walking her up and down, or else I'd feed her (she liked to cluster feed all evening if she could). She eventually grew out of it, although the evening cluster feeding continued to past 5 months. She's 11 months now, and that evening fussiness is a distant memory!

Have you ruled out hunger? DD2 was a cluster feeder in the evening, between 5 and 7 she might have 3 feeds but she would then sleep for 8 hours. It took us a while to figure it out cause we kept saying "she couldn't be hungry" ........might not be it but worth a try.

Is he constantly crying for 2 hours? If so I'd apply the 10 minute rule - it's my name for what my Mum said to do. Leave him dry and fed in his cot for 10 mins - no less, with no interruptions. If he's overtired and needs sleep, then 10 mins will be enough for him to drop off. If he cries that whole time you know he's not tired so pick him up, put him over your shoulder and see what he does. He'll either go to sleep or start rooting, burp or poo. Then you know what to do - change and try feeding again.
10 minutes crying alone is much better than 2 hours.
My DD3 is 2 weeks and tonight she fed from about 4:30 - 6:30 with a few mini sleeps in between and then I took her up to get ready for bed and fed her from 7-8:30. I think she'll sleep 'til about 3am now if the last few nights and her big sisters are anything to go on.

Thanks for the replies again.

He had a long feed prior to it starting and my DW tries to feed him during him crying without too much success - he gets irritated and refuses to feed from breast or expressed bottle. We're not sure he's that hungry.

WHen you say sleep for 8 hours, how old were they? We've been told to never let him sleep more than 4 without a feed although that's not likely just at the moment.

At the moment, it's quite upsetting and exasperating but he's putting on weight so we tell ourselves it could be worse....

Don't wake him in the night every 4 hours. It sounds like he is getting enough in the day. Sounds like cluster feeding or colic-it will improve

Harecare DS is 6wo - there's no way we'd leave him to cry for 10 minutes on his own unless it was an emergency.

We've never actually had to wake him except the first day in hospital. Otherwise, he sleeps only for 2-3 hours at a time.

The MW and HV said all is good as he put 2oz on in his first week and 10oz on in in the next week.

DW thinks he maybe doesn't feed for long enough (maybe 10mins at a time) but he does seem to be feeding for longer as time goes on...

Does this all sound normal?

Yup, he's perfectly normal, crying included, it happens to loads of babies! My one bit of advice is wake him every 3-4 hrs during the day but never at night.......you know what they say about sleeping dogs, well it's even more important for babies, if they are hungry they will wake and it helps them to distinguish between night and day

DD2 used to do this at the same time of day.

I was giving her some Infacol-style goop and walking her around.

One day I had to put her down to use the bathroom and when I came back she was asleep. She didn't sleep long, but was fine when she woke up.

From then on I used to put her in the carrycot when she started to show signs of the crying approaching and she's have a quick cat nap.

I never knew what the cause was, but overstimulation sounds about right.

Ds2, did this, I read on mumsnet in talk somewhere that you should cuddle, holding him on your shoulder so he's looking at a plain white wall, no stimulation, it used to work. Sometimes.

flisspaps To me a crying baby is an emergency! If I can't make my baby stop crying and I've tried everything, then the 10 minute rule is the last resort and never fails. Worst case scenario is that baby cries continuously for 10 full mins and the moment I go to her she stops and I can problem solve. Best case scenario is that she was tired all along and falls asleep. I know that if I don't apply my rule to my babies they will cry continuously for much longer than 10 mins by me rocking/trying to feed/walking etc. Sometimes babies cry "leave me alone, I'm tired" not just "hold me, feed me, change me, play with me".

It could well be colic. Dd was like this. She started off a happy baby, then went through a growth spurt bf, and she was really coliccy. I took her to a cranial osteopath, as it's all to do with the birth, and how the bones form after birth, and if baby is growing, could be in pain. It was explained better to me by the osteopath. We only needed two appointments, and dd is amazing, and now sleeps through 11/12hours a nite since 9wks, and is a really happy little baby at 11mo :)

DS used to do that he was over stimulated and over tired we had too take him to a quiet dark room to calm him.

It's normal but exhausting and nerve-shredding, and yes it will improve. All babies are different, keep trying different things and eventually you'll find what works for your baby. For us it was walking round gently bouncing and singing softly, or alternatively popping dd in a sling and going for a walk round the block - I really recommend that, sometimes a bit of fresh air and a change of scene does everyone good, and if the crying stops for just a bit it gives you space to think and calm down. For friends of ours it was white noise and swaddling - horses for courses. It's normal to cluster feed (feed all evening) at that age and some say it helps build up a good milk supply, so keep on letting him feed whenever he wants. Hang in there and just keep trying to work out what helps.

we used to get this with DS2 and it was clearly overstimulation. He was a very bright baby and very easy to overstimulate. The only way to calm him down was to leave him in his cot with the lights down and swaddled. He would then start to calm down. He used to get more and more frantic if you picked him up and eg started to sing. He most certainly wanted to be left alone. So agree with Harecare on this

DS went through a phase of getting into an inconsolable screaming fit at around 3pm every day when he was tiny - the worst day was when it lasted for 1.5 hours straight. I don't just mean mewling/grizzling, this was full volume screaming and was horrible for all of us.

Eventually I noticed it was the same time each day and guessed he was tired, so put him down in a dark room in his cot. He dropped off in about 3 minutes flat (after an initial grizzle) and woke up several hours later a completely different baby. So maybe it was overstimulation with him too. He certainly was not soothed by either me or DH. I'm with Funnyloves and Harecare on this.

BTW he would always end up asleep after these afternoon fits and we'd checked hunger/nappy, so that's why we thought he might be tired. He would also rub his eyes as an early warning sign and his eyes looked a little droopy (for want of a better description)!

now FunnyLovesTheJubilee has said about leaving her baby down i remember Ds would calm down if lay on the sofa next to us now he sits in his buggy or lays in his cot we call it chill out time.

You always think a crying baby needs to be held but some babies seem to need there space.

If he's only feeding for 10 minutes, he might not be getting enough hindmilk. Foremilk contains a lot more lactose than hindmilk and too much of it can cause colic-like symptoms.

I think I read somewhere that starting a feed on the same breast that you finished with at the last feed can help; otherwise, get a bottle of Colief from your chemist and give that a try.