6 month old started solids now inconsolable at night

[Itsnotlikemilkingacow]

My DS is 6 and a half months old. He was EBF until we started introducing solid food about 3 weeks ago (still breastfeeding as well).

Also in the last couple of weeks, he has started becoming very distressed at night when trying to get him to sleep. He will cry inconsolably for hours (proper crying not just tired whinging) and will throw himself rigid, writhing and arching his back. He also grunts a lot.

It got so bad last weekend that we called 111 in the middle of the night. They arranged an out of hours gp appointment in the morning but the doctor ruled out any infections etc (and of course he was fine by then!).

He has suffered with silent reflux but this has (so far) been well managed with ranitidine, which he is still taking and is adjusted regularly as his weight changes.

He does not have any rashes etc and nappies are normal. However he is not putting on weight at the expected rate, he has gone down percentiles on the chart.

So could his discomfort be related to starting on solid food or could this just be a coincidence and something else is going on? Could it be an allergy or intolerance of some kind?

(Just to confirm that I will be calling the HV again and will get proper advice, just wondering if anyone else has experienced the same or has any info/ideas to help).

Not a medical professional but my experience was that I went a bit hard and fast with weaning and my son ended up quite constipated. Could this possibly be the case for your LO? Sorry to hear he's not having a good time of it!

Same thing happened when I warned my little girl, she went from being a great sleeper to being very restless and whingy at night. I stopped weaning and upped her milk again and tried again a week or two later but really took it easy with what I was giving her and at what time. They say six months but not every baby is ready

How many meals a day is he having and when?

I held off giving DD dinner in the evening until she was around 10 months as I had read that eating too close to bedtime can give them painful wind as babies. It's better once they're crawling/walking as they can move a bit but if they're being carried everywhere is doesn't help with digestion.

At 6 months I introduced one meal at lunchtime ish, then I added breakfast from 8 months. This is all quite slow by lots of peoples standards but I was also contending with potential food allergies and trying to work out what was what.

Also, what are you feeding him? Are you sticking to single foods so that you can tell if something causes an issue?

Having exactly the same issue with DS at the moment. Started weaning 3 weeks ago and since then he will scream for hours at night, and has started waking through the night crying as well.
We saw the paediatrician today about his CMPA and reflux, and she seemed to think it wasn’t his reflux, but constipation causing the problem. She advised trying him with a fruit purée at lunch time to see if that helps and making sure he takes some extra water with his meals.
I will give it a go but to me it seems as if he is acting exactly as he did before his reflux was treated (on ranitidine for it- just been told to drop the gaviscon)

Thanks everyone

Nappies so far have been normal, no constipation or diarrhoea.

Maybe taking it slower would help. At the moment we are only doing breakfast and lunchtime meals. He actually eats very little though! Will not allow a spoon with food near him (although will happily chew on the spoon without food!) And has shown little interest in purees, sometimes will take a bit off my finger. He will suck on toast and cucumber. Happily eats a 'melty stick' type of snack. I have been worried about him not eating anything so have been trying lots of different things, maybe this has been too much.

He has been given fruit and veg as both puree or finger foods (carrot, sweet potato, apple, pear, banana, strawberry, cucumber), baby porridge, yogurt, scrambled egg, puffs/melty sticks, we tried some salmon one day!

His reflux was not linked to CMPA but could he develop a cows milk allergy now he is having it directly in his food (eg the yoghurt, butter on toast etc)?

I was concerned about DD's weight at 6m too so I tried to go for more calorie dense veg in the first instance (parsnip, butternut squash, avocado). I think she also liked the texture of these things. I tended to give her a little bowl of the puree plus a stick of whatever it was to eat.

Baby porridge has so few calories, you might be better giving ready brek which is also fortified (not to mention cheaper) and smooth textured.

Go easy on the amount of avocado if you give it. DD wolfed it down so I gave her more and it was too much (apparently its fairly common for little babies' tummies not to cope with a lot of avocado due to the fat content).

Until you work out what's what I might avoid bread/toast for a while as bought bread has so many different ingredients that could be causing an issue and it'll be impossible to pinpoint.

It could be possible that you DC is adjusting to being able to digest solid foods. If it's done too rapidly, it may be uncomfortable. It's a big change for their tiny bodies!

So I had issues with weaning as my daughter had severe silent reflux and dairy intolerance, and solids caused terrible trapped wind and constipation. I would suggest trying one thing at a time, e.g pear purée. Feed them this for 3 days, then move onto the next thing if they are showing no signs of discomfort, e.g sweet potato purée. It's a real shock to their digestive system so you need to build up to a wider ranger of foods. I would also be cautious with dairy products as cows milk is really harsh on their tummies.

The health visitor has suggested going back to just breastfeeding for a week to see if that improves things, then restarting on foods but slowly introducing new things as said by previous posters

Glad you've got a supportive health visitor.

It might be worth sending off for the free Ella's kitchen weaning pack which gives a rough idea of what to introduce when. I ignored the stickers at the time and saved them for when DD was old enough to do them herself and she had a lovely half hour with Grandma sticking various pictures of food on her chart.

Hi OP

I know this post is a few years old now but I am DESPERATE! I’m experiencing the same thing with my 6 month old baby. He has been inconsolable at night since starting solids and screaming in pain almost when laid down. The GP advised only feeding him breakfast for a while to see if this helps. It did a little but baby is still very uncomfortable at night. I have not given him any solids now for 3 days. I am wondering what did you do in the end (if you can remember!) to help?

I hope you see this or maybe someone else can help.

Thank you!

What are you feeding him? Could be an allergy. Or coupd just be that his digestive system isn't ready yet. They don't all produce a full set of digestive enzymes at 6 months, so good passes through undigested and can cause bloating and discomfort. Weaning is a balance between exposing them to different tastes/textures and not overloading their little bodies. Milk is the nutritional part of their diet still, solids are more education than food initially.

So with my reflux children I was told to go slowly.... give them the same thing for a few days before adding something else in. E.g. carrot puree for 3 days, then pear puree for 3x days, then sweet potato etc. they need to adjust to each food type before you introduce a new one.