Windy, upset baby

[spacepoodle]

I'm sure this has been done to death on here but I'm at my wits end tonight!

DS is 3 weeks old. He has always suffered from wind, even when I breastfed for his first few days. I stopped breastfeeding as he kept latching on over and over again which was extremely painful for me and distressing for him as he wasn't getting enough milk. We are formula feeding now and he is constantly windy. His default awake state seems to be grumpy and uncomfortable.

He is noisy when he feeds - he gulps and slurps and it is almost as if you can hear the milk hitting his tummy. He also makes high pitched squeaking noises. He is frantic when feeding regardless of whether it has been four hours or five minutes between feeds. Even when I wake him to feed he becomes frantic. He never seems satisfied despite drinking between 90ml and 140ml each feed. He arches his back and screams every time we try to wind him and sometimes when he's feeding. He will do a couple of big burps then cry and usually become inconsolable for anything up to 1.5 hours after a feed.

We are using anti-colic bottles. We've tried Infacol (made no difference) and Colief (seemed to make him worse as he was pooing every 30 minutes). We've tried breaking regularly during a feed to wind and also only breaking once then winding at the end. We keep him upright after his feeds and try to move him about to get his wind up.

He is now at the point where he doesn't want to lie flat at all because it's obviously uncomfortable for him. He will sleep in a sling during the day and eventually in his Sleepyhead at night after being rocked, jiggled and swaddled.

I've spoken to the health visitor who assures me it's normal. She tried to check for tongue tie but said she couldn't tell...

It's becoming very distressing for us as nothing we seem to do makes things better for him. Does anyone have any more suggestions or advice?

Honestly - it might well be normal.

You will get a lot of people telling you it sounds like silent reflux. Genuine GERD is rare (and if you have a GERD baby, you know it) but parents don't like the fact that many newborns are very, very unhappy, so they medicate them.

The sounds you describe are definitely normal and so is the frequency and duration of crying. So I guess my advice would be: keep him in the sling as much as possible and trust that it will pass.

DS is 6 months and was windy and frustrated by it for the first 8 weeks or so, then it seemed to gradually ease. He was breastfed, and have heard the same from people BFing and FFing. It was upsetting at the time but babies seem to 'sort themselves out' with the wind thing at a certain point. I was never convinced infacol was particularly helpful so stopped using it. Gripe water was mixed - DS seemed to like the taste (dill!) and so was happy to take it but not sure if it helped wind!

Actually, it does sound very like silent reflux - if it is then yes, it will sort itself out in time as the abdominal muscles including sphincter between stomach and oesophagus develop. This is usually around 6 months but can be longer, in the meantime the baby basically has acid reflux (heartburn) after every feed and/or when lying down, it's understandable that they cry. GPs can prescribe medicine which can help. May not be this but perhaps worth asking your GP or health visitor about.

Well, silent reflux typically presents with very harsh coughing and choking during and after the feed. And screaming most of the time, not just around feeds. Also not typically grown out of until well into the second year.

All that said sometimes, OP, it makes you feel better just to be doing something - so by all means see the GP and explore that possibility (be wary though that Gaviscon often causes constipation and makes babies very uncomfortable for different reasons).
You could also ask about CMPI - which is easier to explore if you're FF as you could try a non dairy based formula.

My DS in 13 weeks and I've just been through exactly what you are describing! I'd also say silent reflux. We tried gaviscon, ranitidine and CMPA formula (GP reckoned it was worth a go).

I very much understand the need to 'do something'

What worked for us in the end was aptamil reflux and regurgitation formula. I read itcan constipate babies but this hasn't happen to us and with gaviscon it did.

Basically the milk is thickened so that it is harder for tummy acid to come back up.

It is a bit of a faff to make up as you have to wait 7 mins for it to thicken but it has been so worth it for us.

I'm glad this has worked as I wasn't keen on what seemed like a cocktail of different things I was giving him.

Big hugs, it's tough xx

It sounds very much like tongue tie to me. The falling off and relatching, and frantic exhausted/exhausting feeding is classic tt. TT can also cause a bit of reflux (as the air swallowed brings up acid with it).

Trouble is, the NHS usually won't cut a tongue tie if you're not BF. Can you afford to see a private lactation consultant who could diagnose and snip? Usually £100-200 I think.

Thanks everyone. Dr It's really difficult to know whether he's simply a bit windy and grumpy or whether there's an underlying cause. He does look happy and relaxed occasionally but never around feeding time.

He coughs a lot, I forgot to mention that, especially around feeds. He doesn't vomit that much but I can hear stuff coming back up while he feeds - most of the time he swallows it back down again! He has a lot of symptoms of reflux, tongue-tie, colic and basically symptoms of being a newborn baby!

Mar thank you. When did you start your DS on the reflux formula? I'm reluctant to change to heavy formula as he's so young but maybe it's something we need to try.

Mini thanks for the suggestion of a lactation consultant. I assumed they only helped with breastfeeding - will they help with formula fed babies too? I guess they will work with anyone who's willing to give them money! We would definitely pay if it's going to help.

I started feeding him over an hour ago and am sat here with him squirming, grunting and staring wide-eyed at me like I have a solution to his problems!

I think we started him at 8-9 weeks on the reflux formula. I use dr brown bottles and you need to use a number 3 teat as the milk won't go through a smaller one.

He has a lot of symptoms of reflux, tongue-tie, colic and basically symptoms of being a newborn baby!

This is it - and it is hard. As someone who works in infant health I'd say that much of time, by the time people have tried meds/new formula/giving up dairy the baby is 12 weeks and has outgrown it anyway, but it just depends really whether you want to give yourself all the hassle because it also feels productive or just leave it and see.

FWIW I did former with my first baby and latter with my second. I'd started my job between babies so had a lot more experience. It also had never really sat right with me filling my baby with all these chemicals. 'Symptoms' ceased for both around 10 weeks.