6 week old baby

[notakardashian]

Ds is 6 weeks old and I need some advice. Breastfeeding didn't work out so we have switched to formula.

Was offering on demand but he can take 5oz every 1-2 hrs then bring some up. One day he polished off 48oz (very little came back up). Today I've been offering 6oz every 3 hours, he takes 5oz but the hour before feeding he screams ( he is the loudest child I have ever heard ).

He doesn't nap other than in the pram or in the car so I do either in between every feed. He is constantly over tired. He sleeps at night 8-7 waking twice for food and a nappy.

He doesn't seem to like being held anymore either. Can't use a sling as infected section incision. He's also huge at nearly 14lb. Height and weight all match up so not fat.

He is just not a contented baby at all. In fact, he's downright miserable most of the time and very loud about it. He gets hysterical very quickly and has damaged his vocal cords by screaming.

Can anyone advise how to make him happy please. I'm struggling.

Growth spurts can unsettle them and he's the right age for one. They feed like crazy during spurts. Where are you putting him to nap? Like if it's on his back and he's crying as soon as, it could be reflux. I've seen lots of threads today about babies an this sort of thing. Mine was miserable until we got her medications an she was like a different baby altogether. OMG 14lb 🥰

Have you tried a dummy?
Not that it's a magic cure but sometimes good for settling.
Hope you are not being too hard on yourself.you have just had a baby and an infected wound

Have you got a bouncer to keep him upright? The lights etc may distract him a while. It's horrible when they're overtired though. Cry for hours etc and fight closing their eyes. You have my full sympathies and you must be tired and sore by the sounds of it!

Silent reflux, allergies? Sounds incredibly stressful, you poor thing.

I found when DS2 was little I could find his limit for upchucking by doing paced feeding - you hold them pretty much upright in a supported position with the bottle nearly horizontal, lots of breaks for breathing and so on, takes ages to finish a bottle (sometimes we went over the hour you're meant to keep made-up formula for, sometimes it would go cold and he would get frustrated) but did reduce throwing up and seemed to be more in his control - I saw more variance between days which was what I would expect.

We have a dummy and a bouncer. The bouncer is tolerated for 30 mins or so sometimes. Very occasionally he will nap for an hour in it.
The dummy helps satiate him after feeding when he's screaming for more. For nap time / bedtime it's a nightmare as he bobs it out of his mouth then screams for it back.

He doesn't like to be cuddled, wont be put down either.

For naps I try Moses, big cot, Carrycot, pram, me, our bed, sofa. At night he sleeps in Moses in our room pretty well, although he's too big for it but I'm terrified to swap to the big cot.

It is stressful, much longed for baby but in my darkest moments I feel like a failure. I just want to make him happy but he's far from it. Could it be the feeding? Does anyone know how better to feed him?

My gp doesn't believe in reflux or colic. I have an appointment with a different gp but not for 2 weeks as non emergency.

Can you go back to feeding on demand if he is hungry? Bringing up small amounts after is normal, and if he's still screaming and hungry after feeds then I would just give him what he wants for now. Maybe do smaller more frequent feeds than a big amount every three hours?

My little girl was probably the same weight as your little one at that stage.
She's always been 99th percentile average - she was quite hungry too. About the same time had colic, gripe water worked for uus and me learning better winding techniques and changing to a faster teat at about 12 weeks(had been actually advised to do this before we left the maternity ward but never bothered) does the bouncer have a vibrate function? Feel your pain as it is so tough xx

Also had a go at paced feeding but if you so much as tilt the bottle he explodes into screaming. Full on hysteria. He just wants milk pouring into him all day every day.

We were never officially diagnosed with colic but once I tried gripe water and it worked I just thought that what it was.

Am using gripe water. He drinks it off a spoon! Have also tried infacol which I may go back to as I think it suited him better.
Have tried a number 2 tear but the gulping and choking was too much I think. He's still on number one teats.

Teat not tear.

Hi OP, hope you’re doing ok, it sounds really tough. Have you tried different types of bottles? My DS was always ok with just normal tommee tippee but other mums have said mam bottle are better especially if he is really upset after, could it be a lot of wind? That’s the main thing that has really really made DS scream. Otherwise is does sound like reflux, do you have anyway of keeping him more upright that wouldn’t involve a sling? I swapped DS to pushchair part of his pram at 4 months for that reason but 6 weeks of probably really too little I would think...

Yes I can go back to feeding on demand, just felt like he was taking far too much and making himself ill.

Dd is formula fed as bf didn’t work out for us either. She’s now 5 months but we literally fed on demand the same way a bf baby would be and she is a grazer, so we always had a bottle on the go then would just get a new one after two hours. We made the bottles quite small so we didn’t waste lots of milk. She’s generally a happy baby but every time she was moaning and whinging we’d offer a bottle and more often that not it fixed the problem, even if she only had 50ml or so.

Now she still has smaller bottles than most babies her age but she has them more often, about 150ml every 2-3 hours. She still grazes so it can take an hour or more to finish a bottle and she often falls asleep feeding.

She’s been perfectly on the 50th percentile since she was born.

Don’t know if that’s any help. I just wonder why if he’s screaming for more after a bottle you don’t just give it? Because it makes him sick? A friend had a massive baby and the ended up weaning him on to solids early as he was so hungry.

We used the variflow teats -
I remember people saying the best thing to use was colief, I never tried it though.
Do you think your getting all the burps up?
It sounds dumb but I remember the difference it could make. For sleeping.
Are the poos normal? Hard ?

Yes because he makes himself sick, then is empty and wants more.

We did do it like you and constantly had a bottle on the go but it seemed a never ending cycle of a feed, a wet nappy (cue screaming), a very short sleep, then screaming for more food. He never got full enough to sleep for long enough to rid him of his over tiredness.

He burps well for me, less so for dh.
He tends to poo once per day and they are massive but not hard. He's not been today though.

Do not be fobbed off by a doctor. Tell them what you want. Our baby's reflux was cause by an intolerance to her formula and I kept going back to get it sorted. You're a great mother! And it is so hard to know what to do when they can't speak. Have you spoke to your health visitor about it??

Sounds like reflux to me although obviously can't diagnose over the internet.

If your GP "doesn't believe in reflux" they are an idiot. I'm glad you're getting a second opinion but you need an earlier appointment - IMO this is urgent - so try getting an urgent one with someone decent. If you look on the GP surgery website they sometimes list the GPs' interest areas, obviously paediatrics is the one to look out for. Anyway if you can't find that info any GP would be better than the one you've already seen!

Your HV might be able to help as well, give them a call - they obviously can't prescribe but sometimes they can help you navigate the system to get the treatment your baby needs.

Lastly I recommend the book "Colic Solved" if you can get hold of a copy, it covers both reflux and colic (as reflux is sometimes misdiagnosed as colic).

Health visitors are in a pool here so we have not seen the same one twice.
First one advised to persevere with bf even though the child had pink crystal in his nappy, jaundice that wouldn't clear, failure to gain after 3 weeks and a viscous cough from screaming from hunger.
Second one advised I was over feeding him formula, then on taking his measurements advised to keep doing what I'm doing. Even though he's miserable.

There are only 3 gps in our practice, he's seen 2 of them. Also seen an out of hours gp and 3 different paediatricians. All confirmed he was healthy.

Is he actually being sick or is it just posseting? If it's proper sick then he'll be bringing up large amounts. If he's just bringing up small amounts every so often, then it's posseting and entirely normal.

Well sadly health visitors are often crap hit and miss in terms of the quality of advice they give

You could try a lactation consultant, I think they help with feeding problems whether baby is breastfed or formula fed or both, and they will have knowledge about reflux. You'd probably have to go private if you went that route.

If I were you I'd get an urgent GP appointment ASAP and go armed with a print-out of the nice guidelines on infant reflux.