Chronic tummy issues in baby

[babayagga]

My daughter is 9 weeks old. From the time she was 3 weeks, she has had tummy problems:
Painful trapped wind, often accompanied by crying, grimacing, shouting out in pain;
Grunting and straining to try to pass wind/stool almost constantly when she is awake;

When she does pass stool, every 48 hours on average, it is soft and of a normal colour. But it seems to bring little relief, as trapped wind and grunting continue right away.

She is EBF, though we used to supplement with colic-friendly formula (it made no difference). Other things that haven’t helped are:
Infacol
Gripe water
Eliminating dairy from my diet (2 weeks)

I am at my wit’s end and fed up with seeing her in pain. GP says her gut needs to mature and her symptoms are normal, but after asking around it turns out nobody else I know has struggled with this to this degree.

Any advice if you have been through something similar?

Hi OP,

I’m a huge lurker here but I had to respond to your post as this is exactly what we experienced with our FF DS (now 11 weeks).

He would spend all day and night straining for his first few weeks and I was convinced he must be constipated or have a blockage somewhere even though his poo was always soft. He would cry out in pain and was really unhappy. I was also told this was normal...or “just colic”

Anyway, not wishing this on you as it was worrying at the time, but when he was four weeks old he had a small amount of blood and mucus in a couple of nappies. Being as this happened on a Sunday, we ended up at A&E and he was diagnosed with a cows milk protein allergy.

He has since been on special formula and this has almost completely solved the straining problem. He does still have a session of it once every morning or so (in his sleep) for 20/30 mins, and though this rarely results in an actual bowel movement it doesn’t last long and he isn’t in pain.

If you search CMPI or CMPA you will find a lot of info about symptoms etc and see whether this might fit your DD. The blood is only one symptom amongst many which may or may not occur.

Our DS has also recently been diagnosed with silent reflux which could potentially be another cause of the straining although we experienced almost non stop crying with this which was probably the main symptom.

The improvement since changing his milk and starting his reflux treatment has been amazing. Sorry if you have already considered and discounted CMPI. Just thought it was worth mentioning in case it helps.

We've just come out the other end of what you're going through. DS is 17 weeks old and had symptoms as you described from day one. It was horrible and having had no feeding issues with DD I was at a loss. In the end we found using both colief and infacol eased things a bit. Still using colief now but a lower dose. Also nightly baby massage and swaddling him offered a bit of comfort. I really hope you see some light at the end of the tunnel soon. Xx

It's normal in new burns but hard going. I've had one with allergies and one without. Both were very windy for the first 3/4 months.

Bicycling legs and tummy massage done regularly really helped.

Thank you all for the helpful and sympathetic responses.

How do I get a GP to consider seriously that she may have silent reflux, CPMA, or similar? I’d love to get her tested, but it’s hard to convince a GP that what she is going through is not ‘just a bit of wind’.

Also- if it were CPMA, surely the fact that I eliminated dairy from my diet two weeks ago would have helped?..

www.babydoc.com.au/faq/colic-bore-your-baby-to-sleep/

I know I post this link often but I think it’s very valid. If poos are normal I thinks it’s unlikely to be cmpa.

Mrs Dempsey- thanks for that, but I can hear and feel the loud and powerful bubbles in her stomach when she cries... Are those from overstimulation, too?

That’s what the first paragraph of the article says.......

Hi OP - you often have to eliminate soy as well - similar proteins or something. Made a huge difference to my EBF baby with similar issues.

It takes a long time for dairy to eliminated from your symptom.

Can you express? Have you tried expressing and then adding colief to the bottle.

Have you taken a video of your little one grunting etc to show to HV to see how normal it is?

Does been held upright for an hour after feeds help?

Do you eat a lot of garlic or onion? I found my BF babies couldn’t tolerate me eating these and I actually now have IBS triggered by both onion and garlic.
Keep a good diary and a symptom diary and see if you can see any links at all.

*food diary!!!

Try some probiotics. Gaia did from birth ones helped my DS

Went out today and bought Colief and Dentinox. So far, no change: she screamed during and after the feed. Have ordered probiotics online- will report.
I only breastfeed vertically and keep her upright afterwards; she won’t feed horizontally anymore- too uncomfortable.

As pp mentioned, it might be worth trying probiotics - would only do good so even if they don't fix it, it is s positive thing for them. We used the BioGacia baby ones, 5 drops into one bottle of milk s day. It made a massive difference to my DS1. We've just had DS2 and have started him on them straight away to help avoid some of the issues DS1 had.

Went to GP today and was prescribed baby Gaviscon - so far, no effect, and she hates the taste.

Waiting for Optibac powder to arrive. I’m thinking, since she’s only ten weeks, it’s safer if I take the Optibac and it will pass to her through my breast milk?

If gaviscon doesn't work go back... it's the first thing they'll offer, but there are other pontoons, I think the next is ranitidine, but you'll need to go back and push for it. (And for info our local chemists don't have ranitidine in stock, they get it in for the next day)

Thought I would update this for posterity.
I gave up Gaviscon because she hated the taste and, more importantly, because I am convinced her stomach problems are with lower digestive tract, not the aesophagus.
Have persevered with Colief. Effects so far:
More frequent pooing
More productive wind
MASSIVE cluster-feeding that has been going on for three days and nights.

The first two help; the third has me on the brink of insanity.

Will update this again with further developments.

With optibac it needs to be given to the baby direct as the healthy bacteria need to pass into her bowel. If you take it none of the bacteria will pass into her gut.

Update- DD is 19 weeks. She no longer cries hysterically because of stomach pain, but still needs our help to poo and to pass wind : massage, bicycle legs, etc. BioGaia drops haven’t helped much, either. She wriggled all night trying to fart- and I mean all night, with a few periods of relative stillness in which I manage to catch some sleep. Fed up with GP, HVs, etc. telling us this is ‘normal’...

I now absolutely swear by reflexology- my DS was screaming for an hour in the middle of the night last week and we tried everything so in desperation I googled suggestions for a sore stomach and got directed to a video on reflexology on his feet - I had to hold his left foot in my hand and press lines up his feet from the heel up to the toe - I swear he stopped screaming after I did his whole foot once and went back to sleep! A week or so later he hadn't pooped in 24 hours so I typed into you tube and again watched a video on how to do it on his feet to make him poop - by the next morning he'd done a massive one! Total convert now!

My baby has CMPA and was (now 7 months so on solids) EBF. The proteins in soya and almost the exact same as in cows milk, and 50% of babies allergic to cows milk are also allergic to soya. So try cutting this out too! It can take 6 weeks to see a difference (3 weeks to pass out of you and then 3 to pass out of your baby) there’s a great group on Facebook to join. “Cmpa breastfeeding support”. I’m not saying your baby definitely does have CMPA but worth a go? :)

@babayagga hi! I understand it’s an old post but I’m so tired of being told it’s normal. Did you find any solutions? How is your DD?

Hi @Mimi2022 , I’m the OP. To my utter surprise, people who said it would sort itself out were right for once! It did not go away as soon as she started solids, but as we built up to her having slightly fuller meals (around 8 months), her tummy started functioning as normal. She is 6 years old now and has normal digestion, thank God.

The tummy troubles definitely coloured her babyhood a dark colour for us, they just made everything so much harder, plus the anxiety. So my heart goes out to you.