2 week old, colic? Overtired? Will not settle!

[NatalieP92]

Hi everyone wonder of anyone can give me some advice. I have a 2 week old son who is a nightmare to get to sleep after a feed. He often will scream and arch his back as if he's in pain and this can sometimes go on for hours. The gp seems to think its colic and told us to try infacol which hasn't worked. He is a very hungry baby and due to having very bad jaundice very early on, he was put on cow and gate formula at the hospital due to me not producing enough to feed him. I am still pumping as much as I can, giving him what I produce and then topping up with the formula. The doctor I spoke to today suggested changing his milk to a comfort milk. Has anyone had any experience with this at all?

Through speaking to friends I've also heard that the symptoms of colic are the same as being overtired, which is all well and good but how do I tell the difference and how on earth do I get him to sleep?!

The only way I seem to be able to settle him at the moment is to put him in a sling and jig about until he doses off. Which is fine in the day, but I need to sleep at night!

Any advice at all would be great. I'm a first time mum and spending most of my days in tears because I just don't know what to do with him. All I want is for him to be happy and the inconsolable crying is just so heartbreaking!!

The back arching and screaming sound like silent reflux. Is he sick?

Nope he's been sick only once since he was born.

Yeah, silent reflux is basically when the acid doesn't come all the way up, so they're just in constant pain (unless vertical) but not sicking up at all. How's his weight gain?

I had read about silent reflux but its just so hard to work out what's wrong. Hes was 8lbs 2oz when he was born, 8lbs 3oz at his 5 day check and 9lbs by day 10!

@NatalieP92

I had read about silent reflux but its just so hard to work out what's wrong. Hes was 8lbs 2oz when he was born, 8lbs 3oz at his 5 day check and 9lbs by day 10!

Is he following his centile line in the red book, or dropping lines?

The thing is, it could be anything. Colic, silent reflux, an allergy, or he could just be a perfectly healthy, very high needs baby. If i were you I'd follow the doctor's advice.

Hi OP.

We used aptamil comfort because my LO couldn’t burp and she just seemed so unsettled with normal aptamil. She used to throw it up- She didn’t cry though. Took me like 45 minutes to get her burp. After using comfort she was burping quicker and didn’t throw up.

We tried infacol, something else begining with w and something else. Can’t remember but nothing worked.

I had to do the sling jigging at night after feeds until she was about 2 months old. I just put her in the sling straight after a feed and it would sometimes take an hour of pacing in a darkened room to get her back to sleep deeply enough to transfer to cot. Sometimes she woke up and we had to start all over again.

It's shit but it doesn't last forever. What also helped was swaddling - we used the Love to Dream swaddle suits because she didn't like having her arms pinned.

You'll get through it and things change very quickly at that age. It just doesn't feel like it at the time!

What's the poo like? Is it ever greenish, frothy, traces of blood? How is napping, does he go down after max of 90mins awake? Does being upright seem to suit him better/does he scream when laid down? Do you offer a dummy? The apparent "hungriness" makes me think he has some pain or discomfort and is sucking to relieve it, which you interpret as feeding behaviour. I could be wrong, maybe it really is a desire for more milk, but if you haven't tried a dummy I would.

As PP say it could be silent reflux, colic, dairy intolerance, overtiredness, just being high needs. If it's overtiredness, what worked really well for my highly strung first baby was to swaddle very tightly and then just hold in a dark room while I played loud white noise. Also manage awake time carefully and try to have him down again 90 mins after he wakes up, because the tireder they get the harder it is for them to drop off.

This sounds so much like my DS. He was born with jaundice and as a result was very needy and hungry. He slept perfect during the day but very unsettled at night and always looked in pain. He was never sick but struggled to burp and most of the wind went down resulting in small poos in almost every nappy, never a big poo. I switched from normal aptamil to comfort aptamil at 3 weeks and his like a different baby. We also started using a dummy at night and figured out he hates sleeping flat so raised his cot slightly at one end. I’ve gone from getting half hour sleep between feeds to 2-3hours!! He settles so easily now. He still looks in pain when passing wind but he stays asleep so isn’t really in pain. He now has 1-2 big poos a day and is generally a more happy baby. I’m not saying his perfect, we still have down days and the change isn’t just because of the formula, but at almost 5 weeks old I think it’s the best we are going to get.

Sometimes the mix of formula and breast milk can make him constipated and have more wind

Can you Try comfort milk with anti colic bottles?

Honestly I just had them upright and danced around the living room for hours every night. Infacol made the first one mildly better but by six weeks of screaming my lovely friend just rolled her eyes at me and shoved a newborn dummy into my screamers mouth. That pretty much nailed it. #2 didn’t take a dummy (or a bottle - rsv at 10 weeks put paid to any plastic near his face) and I basically just danced for ten months. #3 was born with no suck or gag reflex so was tube fed. We eventually managed to move to bottle from ng tube but she could only feed at night when her muscle tone was better. The only way to get her to sleep was to swaddle with one arm out.
Honestly, all different, no magic way of telling what they want/ need/ feel. You just have to try different things, rinse and repeat.
Congratulations, welcome to parenting 😊

It could be cmpa, It could be that he wants to suck to go to sleep try a dummy or if you’ve got milk just let him suck.
I found leaving the bottles to settle and using mam bottles helped as I also had to top up. Really wind him as wind can be hard to get up. But if he’s reall won’t settle there’s something else feed related going on.

Seedy, mucus, green smelly poop? Keep an eye out for milk allergy symptoms. Both my dc had it.

The bath is you friend! Put baby in the bath and scoop warm water on tummy. They might scream while in because so little but it definitely settles them.

Try comfort milk. YouTube baby massage for colic. Wind baby well, look up the scandi method of winding a baby its knees up, rolling and it expells trapped wind. Also consider different holds such as tiger in a tree etc. Research the use of fennel tea for colic babies.

These all helped us but you will need a tick list and what works one day won't work the next. Just work through this list.