Waves of stomach pain? And other issues.

[Luckyelephant1]

My 9 week old is struggling with her stomach but it doesn't seem like standard stuff like colic; however I know infant digestion can present with a number of different issues so I'm wondering if the following is normal:

She's EBF, 9 weeks old, generally a very happy baby. Lots of wet and dirty nappies. She was initially very hard to burp and just wouldn't, therefore would get very bloated. However miraculously in the last couple of week's she is now burping pretty well and is definitely a lot less bloated. However she seems to get these waves of pain where she's almost shrieking in pain and all tense and rigid, almost as if constipated or having some sort of contraction or straining to poo. She's not constipated though, she poos 4 to 5 times a day and it's loose(ish) and yellow the way breastfeeding poo should be. Often she'll be happily smiling or falling asleep then this pain wave hits and all I can do is hold her. Rocking her/bouncing on my birth ball seems to help and strangely this issue never seems to happen when she's being stimulated with visitors and noise, I guess because she's distracted. If she falls into a deep enough sleep then she's ok then too.

Also she's not an especially sicky baby but recently has started making sounds as if puking but nothing tends to come up, or very rarely a tiny bit of milk. She also makes faces as if she can taste something funny. Could this be silent reflux? Would this be the cause of the stomach issues?

Also when she's having these episodes or sometimes randomly she'll act quite strange on my boob, like manically trying to feed as if starving but then constantly unlatching and sort of bouncing her head around on my boob clearly in discomfort. But it doesn't always happen, I'd say maybe 30% of the time.

I'm just not sure of these things are a phase, or colic, silent reflux, or how worried I should be. I mentioned this to the GP at the 6 week check and she actually saw DD strain a little (although since then the pain waves seem to be worse) and she barely batted an eyelid and said its all quite common.

Any advice? Have tried infacol and gripe water which don't seem to do much at all.

Hopeful bump. Anyone?

It could absolutely be silent reflux, my son had this and I had such a hard time getting the Dr on board! He ended up on omeprazole but when he was weaned off the breast we found her was intolerant to cows milk. He's 7 years now and has only recently come off the omeprazole. The Dr's don't like giving omeprazole as for babies it's liquid and it's expensive and has to be kept chilled from being made.

Thank you for replying. I definitely think there is a degree of silent reflux but does this explain the waves of stomach pain? I can't find anything that explains these symptoms, usually colic is described as continuous pain and crying for hours which she definitely doesn't do.

I think the pain can come and go, and a baby isn't used to any sort of pain so it will seem intense. With reflux the pain can be worse on empty stomach or after feeding, but often the baby will continuously comfort nurse as the milk will soothe the pain. I definitely think you should take baby to the gp and get some help, just to put your mind at rest and hopefully they can support you.

I know this is an old post, but my baby is experiencing same thing :( did you find out what it was and was there anything to do to calm her down eventually?

Gosh this seems so long ago! I forgot it happened to her as early as 9 weeks but rereading my OP brings it all back! To be honest we had ongoing low level issues with colicky symptoms until she was about 6 months old. I don't really remember this 'waves of pain' phase that well but later we had other things like her not pooing for ages, then having huge vinegary poo explosions, then an occasional episode of blood streaks in her poo, etc. Nothing was ever formally diagnosed but I did give up dairy for a good few months.

It is hard to tell whether that helped or whether she was overcoming the colic anyway but things did gradually improve. She's now over 2.5 years old and definitely not allergic to dairy! I think unfortunately it's just something to ride out. Gripe water was definitely more useful than infacol and once she was sitting up/more mobile that definitely helped. Hope things improve for you soon, I remember that helpless feeling of seeing them in pain and not knowing how to help 😔