Baby in constant pain

[Burrit]

I’m really at a loss, I have an 8 week old baby who was born 6 weeks early, he was fed expressed breast milk from a bottle for the first 6 weeks as he never managed to latch on however after 3 very nasty bouts of mastitis a severely dropped milk supply and very little support I gave up with expressing and switched to formula, he was already having some formula with his feed as I wasn’t producing enough milk and would have maybe half formula half breast milk, he’s been on lactose free milk as has been incredibly windy and had what we thought was classic colic symptoms as recommended by health visitor, this never really made much of a difference, however the past couple of weeks he seems to be in constant pain, not even just in the evenings it’s all day, he will only sleep for an hour before waking up in pain, it seems like he’s trying to bare down to trump but it’s causing him so much discomfort, he started going days without pooing so I rang gp who prescribed lactulose and he’s now having a loose stool everyday but he still seems to be in pain, he’s having infacol before each feed and gripe water after which helps him get his wind up but he still seems in pain, I wind him about 4 times throughout his feed and keep him sat upright for half an hour after, he also has the mam anti colic bottles but he just seems to be in agony all the time and I don’t know what to do for him it’s breaking my heart, any advice please?

My baby had exactly these symptoms and was diagnosed with silent reflux at 8 weeks old. We manage it through a combination of things; Gaviscon, Omeprazole and HiPP Organic formula in Dr Brown's bottles. This was very trial and error though, and all babies are different.

We discovered that our efforts to wind DS were actually exacerbating his reflux which made us feel awful. We tried everything thinking it was wind/colic. We were also told by HV that it was "normal" and he'd grow out of it; I just knew something wasn't quite right, and like your LO he was in an awful lot of pain. He's relatively pain free now

My next quest is to find out what's causing the reflux, as it is usually a symptom rather than a condition in itself. Have you considered a cow's milk protein allergy? A very helpful pharmacist told me to look into it, might be worth a look?

I really feel for you, seeing your baby on such discomfort is terrible.

@emmaclare83 thank you, I think I will ring the GP today and get him reviewed, I can’t watch him throw himself around in pain any longer, I’ve been told it’s normal too because they’re digestive systems aren’t fully developed yet, but there’s nothing normal about a baby being left in agony all day to me and I’m actually concerned about the effect it’s going to have on him emotionally spending the first 6 months of his life in constant pain, it’s getting where he is pulling away from his bottles too because he’s in agony, and he’s having lactose free milk so would he still suffer with cows milk intolerance from that?

Sounds a bit similar to my DS (10 weeks) he was diagnosed with reflux 2 weeks ago and put on Gaviscon sachets to put in his bottles - it has really helped. Not fully taken away the symptoms, but greatly minimised them! I was also told about their digestive systems not yet being fully developed, and it should ease on its own as he gets older. But he needed help in the meantime!

I definitely would keep calling. It was the third doctor I spoke to who finally diagnosed reflux, as she had children who'd suffered with it. It seems some doctors are not as clued up on it as others which isn't their fault, but means it can be luck of the draw. If it helps, my DS has slept through the night for the last 3 nights now we've finally got the combination right, so there is hope! Trust your instincts as well, as a first time mum I trusted what the first few HCPs told me, but you know your baby. Yes they'll grow out of it in most cases, as PP said but if the pain can be dealt with in the meantime, it should be...and in my experience, can be! Good luck 🙂

How do you know he needs lactose free milk? Perhaps this is the problem. I second hipp organic. Worked for mine.

@Dinosauraddict precisely, I don’t want to leave him in pain if there’s something they can give him so he’s not in pain, I’ve just spoke with HV and she said to strip back to all he is having is his milk so no infacol gripe water or lactulose and see how he gets on because that could be making it worse, and @Expat30 I was just advised to put him on it by the outreach support workers as they thought it might be gentler in his stomach but is currently being weaned off it and onto sma comfort, this pain started before that though so I don’t think is related

Lactose is the sugar found in all milks - breast milk also contains lactose and true lactose intolerance is pretty rare in babies (though it does exist) as it's not a great evolutionary trait!

Cows milk protein intolerance is specific to the proteins in cows milk and you would need a specialist amino acid based formula or soya formula to eliminate cow's milk protein.

They are two different intolerances to two different things and need different treatment!

Cows Milk Protein Allergy - CMPA - affects around 7% of babies (so not as rare as some GPs seem to think). As the symptoms got much worse when you switched to formula then its definitely worth investigating. The only real way is to get him on a CMPA formula (prescribed) and see whether it helps.

Lactose is a sugar, CMPA is an allergy to the protein in milk, so lactose free won't help. You could try a soy based formula - this is what our GP advised us to do before they would prescribe. It's not ideal, because soy protein is very similar to milk protein and so it's common to have an allergy to both. My baby was better on the soy formula, but far better than that on prescription formula.

I think the milk could be the problem and I never weaned mine off. If the milk was causing pain I changed it outright. SMA is also known to cause problems in babies, my little hated it and it smelt disgusting!! I would go with hipp or cowgate - these 2 worked really well.

The outreach told me to wean him off it, you think I should try changing his formula then? I don’t want to keep changing his formula and end up upsetting his stomach more it does stink it’s just what they put him on at the hospital so I kept him on it I will speak to GP and see what he suggests thank s everyone

Yeah I would change it. When my little one wasn't agreeing with aptimal I changed it straight away and the change was near enough instant.

I honestly wouldn't advise you of this unless I saw the results in mine almost instantly. It honestly can be as simple as changing the milk and I hated the thought I kept feeding my little something that was upsetting her stomach. So I just changed it.

I experience very similar DS would just scream constantly. Never sleep. Was always try to poop/fart. When he did poo it was very loose. After lots of arguing he was in hospital for a week. Turnt out he had a blockage in his bowel and was backed up. Needed enemas. Ended up having a procedure under anesthetic to loosen his bumhole as it was too tight sorry tmi. They initially thought it was in the wrong place. This went on for 6 months I kept being told it was breastmilk, or it was colic, or he needed to learn how to poo.

My second had similar symptoms and was diagnosed with cmpa. It was horrible to watch but after going dairy free they were a completely different baby.

@AvocadoPrime before he was on lactulose his poo was kind of like peanut butter consistency was hard but kind of like a paste, that’s awful though poor little mite what a shame, it’s scary really isn’t it, thanks everyone, will contact gp and change milk

*wasnt hard that was supposed to say

@Burrit oh okay. Doesn't sound the same then as his was liquidy because it was going around the blockage. I hope it gets sorted soon. I know awful it is when they are in pain and you cant help them

My nephew had the exact same symptoms you describe and he was diagnosed with CMPA.
They prescribed him special milk and he has improved much since. Do it or also said that because he was in so much pain and wasn't sleeping he was also sleep deprived and to throw any routine out the window and get him to sleep as much as possible until he catches up.

Hi just thought I would update you all, GP seems to think it is reflux and has prescribed gaviscon so fingers crossed this helps!