Hi. I’m a ftm to a 7 month old. I have zero experience of babies so am just not sure if I’m just looking for a ‘problem’ so I can fix it or if this is just normal. This is so long, I’m sorry, but I feel a lot of it is relevant.
As background... He has always been combi fed due to supply issues on my part, but is now mostly breast milk, with less than 200ml of formula a day. He had a mild tongue tie snipped at around 4 weeks. He’s around 80th centile for length but has dropped from 75th to 50th for weight since January. HV didn’t seem worried, said it’s fairly normal at this age as they’re getting quite active. We’ve been weaning for 5-6 weeks and he’s really enjoying it, mixture of purées and finger foods. Still have fish and soya to introduce from an allergen perspective. Seems to be hitting his milestones - very mobile with a backwards commando shuffle, nearly crawling, but can’t roll back to front.
The main issue is that he has always been very farty, but frequently really struggles to get them out and often ends up really screaming in pain and with a very bloated belly. This is almost exclusively at nighttime. When he was younger, we would have 3-4 days with no poop and then a mega blow out. Sometimes they had a really sour, vinegar smell. They’ve been quite thick and pasty since the 3-4 month mark, which I always put down to the fact he has some formula, but I don’t think he actually has enough to be causing that. He has to to really grunt and strain to go. Now we’re weaning he generally makes little wedges with an occasional pastey one. We went through a phase at about six months of proper constipated pebbles but that seems to have gone since we changed to hydrolysed formula.
He has always thrashed his head round in his sleep and does that crazy leg slamming thing a LOT. He wakes every two hours on a good night and only wants to be breast fed back to sleep, though a lot of the time I think it’s more comfort sucking. He usually goes back down really easily but, in the last couple of weeks, we’ve really struggled, he whinges/screams/cries as soon as he’s on his back. We see lots of squirming and some arching of his back during and after feeding, but this usually goes along with farting so not sure if it’s reflux? He does sometimes do that ‘looking like I’ve got an unpleasant taste in my mouth’ thing. He’s very rarely sick or possets. He’s always been a bit hiccuppy and sneezes daily. He has always been a bit prone to dry skin and, after getting it all over in December, we now use aveeno emoliant to keep it at bay.
In the day he’s an absolute joy - really content. The trapped wind etc is only an issue over night and it’s now breaking us! I can deal with getting up every two hours for a quick feed, but not every hour with ages spent comforting the crying. I feel like he is not getting enough sleep with the constant wakings and really worry about this. I have to go back to work in two months so we were looking to try and gradually up formula/reduce breast feeding so DH can split the nights with me. It just seems impossible to get any kind of good nap/sleep routine whilst this is going on.
Things we’ve tried:
Using gripe water, dentinox, infacol etc made things better briefly.
Using Colief didn’t seem to have any effect
Tummy massage, warm baths etc haven’t helped.
Giving a probiotic - not sure if it’s helping but I guess isn’t making it worse.
Cranial osteopath - around the 3 month mark. Again seemed to help at the time but I’m not convinced by it tbh!
Gaviscon - it’s a pain to administer when breast feeding and the last time he had it before a night feed he vomited twice. Also he’s already prone to constipation so I’m not keen.
Just breast feeding - my supply isn’t good enough and he seemed to end up constipated.
Me being dairy free - for 5 weeks now with an occasional hidden ingredient slip up. We hadn’t had any extreme night time wind, so thought we were onto something, but it has come back in the last few days.
Lactose free formula (combined with me being dairy free) - seemed to help initially but then we got pebble poop!
Currently on hydrolysed formula but he refused to drink it, so are weaning him on gradually by mixing with regular formula. Although not ideal I know (I’m useless at pumping) his regular formula intake is now down to about 20-30ml a day. This seems to have helped the pooping but the screaming night wind is back with a vengeance.
Keeping a food diary for him and I can’t spot any correlations.
So, is this normal or is something up? I feel there’s elements of reflux, a dairy issue but nothing seems that consistent and it’s ONLY a problem at night. HV is useless and just surprised that ‘he hasn’t grown out of it yet’. GP suggesting CMPA, hence the hydrolysed formula, but - despite both of us being dairy free - his night wind has been almost as bad as it ever has been for the past few days.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? Could there be some other underlying cause? My gut tells me something isn’t right, but I am a clueless ftm so maybe it’s just normal!