20 week old DD screaming, I'm struggling

[Shmerlock]

After a bit of a hand hold and support as I'm really struggling with my little girl. For the past week she has been a hysterical, screaming terror from about 2pm onwards. From morning up until about 1pm she is so happy and chatty, but as soon as the afternoon hits she becomes miserable, clingy and constantly screaming/crying. It is exhausting and making it impossible to do anything.

To put in to context, she's currently on Omeprazole for silent reflux but this high-pitched screaming is a fairly recent development. It seems as though she is in pain and nothing I do seems to settle her once it starts.

I've just got back from trying to settle her in the pram, she screamed and started choking she was that worked up. I ended up carrying her home whilst pushing the pram, and even then she was still screaming on and off!!

She is a terrible napper, so far today she has napped for 20 minutes and that's it - I've tried following our nighttime routine, taking her in the pram, using our electric bouncer for movement and none of it has worked.

I can't tell anymore if it's reflux, wind, teething of overtiredness. She screams and sort of scrunches up her body whilst pulling on her ear. She's always messing with her ears and rubbing her eyes - last week I went to the GP who checked her over and said all was fine! We're back next week for a catch up and she has suggested she may get me to cut out dairy and see if that helps (she is EBF). Her nappies have been very smelly the last couple of weeks, and green.

I don't know what I'm looking for but I'm feeling so upset today, it's incredibly difficult and I wish I could make her better 😔 I just end up in tears with her most afternoons! Thank you for reading, and I hope this makes sense!!

Could she be teething?
That can change nappy contents (number 2’s).

@BingBongToTheMoon potentially, she's always got her hands in her mouth and wants to chew everything - but would she be screaming hysterically? And it's always around the same time each day. Does teething create smelly nappies? I feel like a clueless Mum at the moment 😫

Bad luck. Dd1 screamed for months around this age. I used to walk round the streets trying to settle her and builders would shout out suggestions of what to do. I saw 3 separate gps who did all the checks. One was a mother of 5 herself and said “sometimes they just cry!”. It was a tough time but it passed. My second barely cried at all! Dd1 is now a super sensible calm 15 year old who barely cries! Stay strong.

When I read, “ She screams and sort of scrunches up her body whilst pulling on her ear. She's always messing with her ears and rubbing her eyes” I immediately thought cpma. Definitely go dairy free and see how she gets on.

@MsTSwift this feels like there's an underlying issue though, it's always around the same time each day and it's more than crying - she screams as though in pain or discomfort. I'm sure it could burst ear drums!! It's so tough, thank you for your reply - it's good to know there's an end point!!!

@Etinoxaurus

@Etinoxaurus oops sorry, hit reply too soon!! Is that what they do? I hadn't realised ear pulling and eye rubbing was a sign - thank you for replying! Can CMPA start quite late? It's only been in the last couple of weeks she's started these symptoms.

I know very little about CMPA allergy, in fact as I answered I almost put woo alert- I thought cmpa before I saw your drs suggestion. It has to be worth a try.

@Etinoxaurus thanks for getting back to me, I know you're right - just don't want to alter my diet too much in case it's something else. But I guess the only way to know is to cut the dairy out!

Honestly it a joy not drinking milk- it’s so heavy, it goes off, it’s ethically dubious. I’m an accidental non milk drinker due to family veganism and lactose intolerances. I miss cheese and will have some at Christmas, but honestly it’s no hardship.

Do let the go you’re doing it though, as you ween dd you’ll need to ensure she gets calcium and vitamin d

To me she sounds really really overtired. I feel your pain as I have a 5.5mo who gets overtired easily. When he gets overtired he does the eye rubbing, pulling on his ears and high pitched screaming/crying. Could you work on daytime naps by any means and see if it makes a difference?

My dd is 18 weeks and has started doing this.
Sky high shrieks which I can't work out if happy or sad, moans as if in pain, screaming etc all afternoon and yesterday until 11pm.
She's biting anything she can and gumming my fingers, toys, her fingers, nips, etc.
Hv says teething. I've started giving calpol today at lunch and before bed to see if it helps and she's screamed less so far.
I'm gonna see if a tooth comes through in next week, or will go docs if it doesn't get better.

Gonna get teething gel too n see if it helps.

I think it sounds far more like witching hour(s) secondary to overtiredness then an allergy. My DS was the same at that age and did all the same things you describe. I had to work very, very hard to get him to nap at that age - talking sat in a dark room for hours bouncing on a ball or walking miles with him in the sling. Before cutting out an entire food group I’d try and lengthen your naps any way possible.

Sounds like overtiredness to me and I’d maybe suspect the start of some teething. You have my sympathies, trying to get a tired baby to sleep is like a special hell challenge.

Thank you all for your comments, honestly the overtiredness is killing me.

@AliceW89 I'm going to try and persevere with the day time naps, she really is so hard to settle in the day. I just wish she could understand that sleeping would make it all better!! I'm lucky if I get longer than 30mins from her!!

I think we'll stick to trying the naps for now before cutting anything out - really hesitant to do that as I'm breastfeeding and need all I can get!!

@sinkorsplash we gave her some calpol this evening as we suspected teething and it seemed to calm her slightly - definitely less painful screams, just more playful ones that she seems to do at her toys all the time at the moment 🙈

@clatterclatter honestly it is like a form of torture getting an overtired baby to sleep!!!

Unfortunately she hates the sling, has done since she turned 3 months, and only goes I'm the carrier facing forward so she can stare at everything! The pram she is picky with, I have to have white noise blaring in there and power walk around the streets otherwise she whinges (or in today's case - screamed!). It is so frustrating!!

I remember power walking up and down a gravel path in my local park to get DD to sleep. When she was feeling difficult a normal path was not enough to send her off! Got a lot of sympathetic looks from other parents.

Try some colief drops maybe? Might help you rule in or out the diary issue.

I agree with others who have mentioned overtiredness. My girl was the same and it was honestly draining. However it did pass, hang in there 💐

Sounds exactly like my dds cmpa. The reflux meds you've been giving have probably masked the symptoms so far and now it's getting worse. You need to cut out dairy and soya if bf, dairy free formula if FF and then get rid of the reflux meds because you'll hopefully have solved the cause.

Honestly op, cut out milk, it's really doable.

My DD was exactly the same as that age, I’m pretty sure it’s overtiredness. She also had awful reflux and hated the pram, I’d end up carrying her too until I raised it so she wasn’t completely flat.

As for sleeping, I used to swaddle her, dummy, white noise in a dark room and rock her to sleep. She’d only nap for 30 minutes (unless held). I believe wake windows around that age should be double the previous nap length so asleep for 30 mins, awake for 60 mins then to sleep again and so on. Try persevere with the naps and if that doesn’t work then I’d look into CMPA.

It sounds like teething to me, I would try calpol, especially as it settled her before and can't be a placebo as she's too little.

I appreciate you have around three different things to try based on this thread though! Maybe give them a go one at a time. Apparently with milk you will start to see an improvement within 48 hours if it's right so shouldn't be too much of a problem to try. It can take up to 2 weeks to fully get out of your system but you would see a change in those first two days if it's going to help so you don't need to trial for the full two weeks.

Sounds like teething to me especially with the nappies.
Awful for you though.