6 week old suddenly inconsolable

[Pittcuecothecookbook]

My daughter is 6 weeks, and until yesterday has never really cried much! The usual cries and moans when she is hungry but this has only been a few seconds until I feed her, or sometimes when we put her on the cold changing mat in the night and she stops when we've solved the problem.

Yesterday, last night and today however - she is just crying and crying and nothing will help.

She's had normal wet and dirty nappies, is feeding ok (BF), has gone down for a couple of naps (but only for a very short time) and doesn't have a temperature (forehead read 36.8°).

Online reading suggests a growth spurt but this is very unlike her.

Any tips or explanations, or do we just need to wait it out? Lots of cuddles in the meantime and my husband and I are swapping between us to give the other a break (we're both on shared parental leave).

Check there's no hair tourniquets around little fingers and toes.

Also, check there are no toenails becoming ingrown. It happened to my baby and the doctor just pulled back the fleshy part of the toe and secured it with a medical tape. Elastoplast would work.

6 weeks is a common time for them to have a sudden growth spurt so she could be more hungry than usual or over tired.

Have you tried skin to skin? I found this calmed my baby down when he got really upset (particularly in the evening). Strip your top and the baby down to a nappy and lie her on your chest or feed her.

Thanks all. No hair wrapped around digits - great tip though. Toenails look normal and we're doing skin to skin now, she's nodded off so thanks for that one.

Fingers crossed just a very short lived blip! I'm worried now I've taken my content baby for granted and this is the new norm now...

Was gonna mention the above but glad others have.

Also check mouth incase of teething!

Our wee ones like getting us nice and secure and then BAM nightmare to work out what's wrong lol

Try Highland Cathedral on YouTube- works miracles for our daughter.

I did briefly wonder about teething as she's been trying to suck her hand lots and has started dribbling. She's only 6 weeks though so imagine it's too early? I'm a FTM though so may not recognise the signs. If it is teething, should we be doing anything specific?

Could it be an ear infection? Is she tugging at her ears and does either ear look or smell "off" inside? Does she cry more when laid down?

Or it could also be really bad trapped wind.

No signs of ear infection but I'll keep a look out. She can be quite windy sometimes but doesn't seem to be at the moment.

She's slept on me the last 2 hours and just had a feed. Fallen asleep on the boob, so obviously needs her sleep. I'm imagining a long night tonight now too!

We took her to a wedding at the weekend. We were careful not to pass her around and I fed her during the ceremony. She slept during the speeches and my husband wheeled her around outside the majority of the time. We left when the dj started up as it was very loud and there was lots of strobe lighting. Hoping that being there hasn't stressed her out too much - would that make her out of sorts?

I also had three glasses of prosecco (midwife said it would be ok!) over the day and now wondering if it's related?

I'll basically second guessing everything now!

If it's the alcohol, it will pass soon. If 6 week growth spurt, feed feed and feed even if there seems to be no milk so your body reacts to the demand. Avoid supplementing as your body will adjust more quickly to her demands.

We had a very grumpy day at 6 weeks, think she was just a bit too hungry to sleep. All back to normal the next day though

Two of mine started doing this around six weeks and it was overtiredness. If they hadn’t had enough sleep by 5pm they’d be awake and screaming for hours. I had to walk them in the sling to get them to sleep before it got to this point.
I’m not sure if yours is that, but it’s worht considering. I think they can only manage about 90mins awake at this age, which goes quickly.

I rember this well and spent hours (days) wracking my brain and trying to figure out what was wrong/what Had I done wrong.
But really it is perfectly normal, developmental behaviour for 6 around 6 weeks.
You might notice an increase in cluster feeding for a few days too.

Lots of skin to skin, a few good box sets and lots of snacks should get you through ok

Not to scare you but my 5 week old started this and hasn’t stopped for 2 weeks! We have been to the doctor and checked everything. Apparently a growth spurt: loosing my mind :(

It won't be the alcohol- you can actually drink quite a lot without it being noticeable in breast milk.

Download the wonderweeks app....all will be revealed!!!

It is remarkedly accurate, my DD is just coming in to a stormy week...Oh dear!!!

My 6 week old is doing this as well. I remember it happening around the same time with older DC.

It's around 6 weeks when they can start to 'wake up' a bit and start being a bit more aware of their surroundings and starting to smile etc. It's very tiring for them and they can need a bit more effort to get them to sleep than before.

It's also growth spurt time which can mean lots of feeding.

I'm finding a sling and a dummy is about the only combination that stops her howling at the moment (after all the obvious things like hunger and nappy have been checked).

Ear pulling is a classic tiredness sign.

I bloody love mumsnet sometimes. So good to get feedback from others going through the same.

sourpatchkid my midwife said I'd need to be 4 times over the limit for it to affect my milk. There's so much misinformation around though, everything else says 1 or 2 units a week (and it was over that!)

I got the wonderweeks app, thanks for that recommendation. It does say sunny week until 7.5.weeks but perhaps we are a bit ahead of ourselves 😂 obviously very advanced for her age, haha.

She's not taking a dummy despite our best efforts but just had a trip out to the library (for me) and she slept the whole way and back so must have needed it

Thanks for taking the time to respond ladies and gents

Try the NUK genius dummy if you haven’t already