Constant grunting & straining

[Leannej1986]

Not sure if this is the correct place to ask for advice but here goes.
I'm a first time mum and my baby is 6 weeks old. Since he's been 3 weeks old he constantly strains & grunts allday and all night. The only time he's not doing it is when he's feeding. He doesn't always cry with it but you can tell he's uncomfortable and just a very unsettled, miserable baby.
I thought it was colic so gave him gripe water which did nothing and then had him on infalcol for a few weeks nothing changed and then he started not taking the milk if I had used it. I'm bottle feeding him. He farts a lot and we now finally can get him to burp. Huge issues with that from birth not even midwives/ doctors could get him to burp it's only been the last 2 week's since his neck is stronger and puts his head up that he now burps.
He goes to poo every 2/3 days and it's soft and yellow, so he's not constipated as it's not hard.
He still feeds fine can now finish off a 5 ounce bottle, if he's due a poo he can only normally stomach bout 2. He wakes up every 3 hours in the night for a bottle, pretty much on demand in day, can be every 2 hours.
I just know something isn't right for him to be like this 24/7.
Doctors look at me like I'm just an over anixous mum and play everything down for me as if it's all normal.
Has anyone else had this with there baby and what did you find helped or did it just go on its own when they started to manage their digestive system better and relax their bowels?

Hi, @Leannej1986 - we're just bobbing on here to say that we've moved your thread over to Parenting and we hope you get some useful advice and support here.

Best of luck with your wee one.

Hi! I have exactly this issue with my 4 week old. Have you tried infacol? That has helped us, it’s like grip water. My daughter is also on gaviscon now for silent reflux which has also helped.
But, be mindful that grunting can be a respiratory issue though - does he have a cold or anything? I would ask your doctor to put on an oxygen level reader on just to rule this out. I only know this as I’ve just been through it myself with my daughter too!

X

@gettingonabitnow Thank you for your response. I was on infalcol but he stopped drinking the milk when I put it in after 2 weeks. We used it because he wasn't burping so midwife advised we try it.
I was also told he had silent reflux after he had a cough and was given gaviscon he didn't get on well with it at all my baby was completely different not happy at all. So stopped that. His cough went after I got a humidifier.
He doesn't have a cold etc or any symptons of having respiratory problems. X

You don't put the infacol in the milk, you give it to the baby before the feed!

To be fair, you can do either. We always gave it before a feed to make sure our baby got the full amount.

Okay we had the same issue except he went more frequently than that. He was very miserable and strained every poop despite it being runny. We noticed this issue from 8 days old and it was heartbreaking.

You say you're bottle feeding him.- is that with formula or expressed breastmilk? My son was breastfed but we suspect two things of my son (now 15 months old)

• firstly, we think he had a dairy allergy. He was actually officially diagnosed with this when he was around 8 months old although it is difficult to 'prove'. This is very common and can lead to digestive issues and tummy ache. I tried giving up dairy and soy and it didn't seem to work but the moment he was put on prescription milk (Puramino Nutramigen) he improved massively. My breastmilk seemed to be a real issue for him.
• secondly, we ALSO think he has what's called a 'lazy' or 'sluggish' bowel. This is because he has suffered from constipation on and off, even when dairy free, since being weaned, and a paediatrician has agreed that this is likely. He has been prescribed Movicol since he was around 10 months old (laculose was useless as it did something different) and this worked well. You wouldn't need that at the moment though. Actual constipation (ie hard poo and not going for sometimes a week at a time) only started when he was properly on solids.... but in hindsight we realise that his grunting and straining over soft baby poo was an early symptom of digestive issues in general.

• we also went down the silent reflux route due to his unhappiness, and went onto gaviscon and then ranitidine but it didn't help and I really don't think it was reflux at all anyway.
• there are also many that think that many babies have immature digestive systems and you just need to wait it out. I read that a lot and was told that by one GP, but I couldn't bear to see my little baby so miserable and in pain and was sure there was more to it.
• gripe water and infacol did nothing for us by the way. Neither did coleif or anything else we tried in desperation!
• we did get prescribed probiotics (biogaia) which we still give him (when we remember). I couldn't say if they make a difference or not but there is a lot of research that shows they can massively help digestion.

I hope that helps. I realise that I've not really given any solutions but I would probably research cmpa (dairy allergy) and see if a doctor might prescribe dairy-free milk to trial for a week to see if there's a difference (bear in mind they usually prescribe a half-way house forst before prescribing the amino based formula which is the really expensive one like Nutramigen Puramino or neocate). I would also research sluggish bowels and see if any of those symptons sound familiar.

In the meantime, we found that when my baby was struggling to poop, sucking a dummy and holding him upright really helped him to go. Usong a baby csrrier a lot aeemed to help a bit too, I guess because he was upright more and because he was in pain and uncomfortable so being held seemed to comfort him

Good luck!

@surreygirl1987 Thankyou for your reply, he's formula fed. I will look into those avenues see if any of them relate to him. Crazy at how many possibilities there is.

My DD sounded like a distressed goat when she was tiny. The health visitor suggested that it was likely to be infant dyschezia (www.aboutkidsgi.org/childhood-defecation-disorders/infant-dyschezia.html) and would get better by itself. Sure enough, I suddenly realised one day that she wasn't grunting any more, probably around 14/15 weeks.

I heard it can be worse in premature babies because the digestive system is one of the last things to develop - DD was born at 34+6. If your DS wasn't prem it may go away sooner.

Maybe formula doesnt agree with him? Could you switch?

My little one was the same for the first 14-16 weeks. She wouldn’t burp but farted like a trooper, I found winding her made her worse and she would get very sick. Turned out it was reflux, it can be silent so no sickness just a burning in the back of their little throats.

I hope you get answers soon

This is a bit of a late reply but I my little boy is 7 weeks old and does exactly the same. If he's feeding or sleeping he's fine but if he's awake he's just miserable, straining and grunting, with the occasional cry of frustration. It's really starting to get to me.
How is your little one doing now? Any difference? I hope so!!

Lorna3012 How are things now? My little girl is formula fed and will be 5 weeks on Sunday. She has exactly the same issues as your little one. Just seeing if you managed to find a solution?

From my hazy memories op (youngest of 3 is now 12) the grunting thing sounds pretty normal. Poos all sound normal and feeding sounds about right too. It can take time to settle down and the sounds they make can be pretty alarming but from what you've said here, it seems within the normal ballpark so I guess just keep doing what you're doing and keep an eye open for any changes.

He's 13 weeks now and things are compleeeetely different. It's like he's learned how to do the majority of things like pooing,etc. He's much more content too. Wind is still a problem so we have to pedal his legs a bit and help him but it's so much better than before. Patience, it really does get better!!!

Lorna3012 Thanks so much for replying... and that is very reassuring! Congrats on your little bundle of joy and I am pleased to hear all going well! I will wait patiently for her to get to grips with it all... Just good to know she will at some point!

I dont know if it's your case, but we also changed his formula to one that seems to agree with him better and he's pooing more often. I think that made a difference too. Hang in there, it's such a steep learning curve, eh? Crazy!

Not read anyone else's posts but my second and third baby did this a lot. I would try and burp them for ages but it rarely came out the top end. That would grunt and wriggle and eventually fart. It did ease off as they got older. To be fair both had tongue ties which I don't think helped.

Thanks ladies.... Yes my little one is formula fed so I could think about changing this. She is only little (1 month old and only just 7 pounds) so I am hoping she will figure it all out soon.
She poos once a day at the moment but it can be quite a lot and also very smelly (sorry for the indepth information)! Not sure if this is normal?

Thanks for all your help and I hope your little babies are all well and wonderful!

That was also our case and when we took him to the physio for colic, he said that very smelly poo would indicate something not being digested properly in a baby so small. It should smell almost sweet apparently. Once we changed formula that also really improved😊

Really helpful, thank you! I think I will try switching. Appreciate your help!

My baby did the wriggling and grunting thing too in the early weeks. We tried gripe water/infacol with no obvious benefit. What did help was gentle clockwise tummy massage and bicycling the legs. Also I found putting a low pillow under the legs up to the bum, so they were sort of in a seated position, but lying on their back - this really helped them get some restful sleep. Obviously I only ever did this when they were supervised, I would never leave them alone with a pillow.

I can't recall when it stopped, it was gone by the time they were able to roll over by themselves.

Hi!
Congrats on the birth of your wee boy.
If it makes you feel any better my girl was like this until about 9/10 weeks and it just naturally gor a lot better. I use a drop of Infacol before each feed and it seems to be really helping.
I also do 'row row your boat' a few times a day (moving her legs up and down and in a cycling motion).... it really helps and the grunting will stop for hours.
I really do believe they are just getting used to their digestive system and there most likely isn't anything wrong.
Good luck!

I'm thinking my little girl might have this has treatment for constipation made no difference straining massively and doing very small poos like skid marks but still soft. It's just started at 13 weeks she was born prem at 34 weeks but never had problems with bowels or feeding really did have times not wanting to give wind up but that's getting better. Could this be infant dyschezia? Has she was doing 3 poos a day one of them was always a big one.