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?

Just to add - I’d tried cutting out dairy, reflexology, tummy massage, physiotherapy, you name it. Nothing helped except enemas, which brought her temporary relief during particularly painful times but which we knew we must not overuse because otherwise the baby does not learn to poo independently.

We could never hold her lying down in our arms - it always had to be vertical, with her tummy pressing on our chest or shoulder to help relieve discomfort.

My conclusion in hindsight is that she was born with an underdeveloped gut. Curiously, my other DD, who was born premature, never had that problem! Luck of the draw, I think.

@Humblecobra im glad to hear you DD is doing well!
ill try some of things you’ve mentioned but I was ready to seek a private consultant as of yesterday. We had a terrible night he is exhausted and trying to sleep through it but grunts and cries every few minutes so I didn’t sleep at all.

@Mimi2022 Do what you feel is right. After all, these are two different babies… I really feel for all of you, and I hope he gets some relief soon!