Desperate for help, gassy baby

[Newparent2812]

Hi everyone. I’m really struggling and really need some help. My baby is 6 weeks and struggling so bad with gas in an evening. He will scream and scream. He’s breastfed and I get really gassy in an evening/night too but not sure why. I’ve tried cutting out dairy, colief, infacol, dentinox, bicycle legs and twisting his body. Nothing really helps. He finally settles at around 9 and sleeps fine, feeding every few hours until around 5 when he will suddenly get really comfortable. Doesn’t scream like in an evening but grunts and whines, drawing his legs up to his chest and kicking out. I bicycle leg him again but it takes a few hours for him to settle down again. I really don’t know what to do, I hate seeing him upset. Health visitor said ask doctor and Doctor was very dismissive and to review if he’s still like it in a few months.

Does anyone have any ideas/advice? I’m thinking of fasting from late afternoon until morning with just water to see if that helps our gas issue but other than that I really don’t know what else to try. :(

Really *uncomfortable

Poor thing, the only thing that worked for DD was gripe water when she was that age.

If you're willing to stop breastfeeding I found Atapil Comfort an absolute lifesaver. Colic stopped overnight.

Comfort milk as its thick consistency and works wonders

How do you burp him? There are lots of different methods to get the gas up. I found this worked best:

• Me sitting on a chair
• Baby sitting on my right knee, slightly leaning forward onto my left arm which supported his chin and torso
• Jiggling my right leg up and down (top speed, but small motions).

Or just the classic holding him to your chest and patting his back while bouncing slightly?

(Please ignore the person who’s trying to persuade you to stop breadtfeeding, their comment is incredibly ignorant and irresponsible.)

Also, do not eat spicy foods like curry! My breastfed baby had horrible tummy ache whenever I did that.

@Thewindwhispers

How do you burp him? There are lots of different methods to get the gas up. I found this worked best:

• Me sitting on a chair
• Baby sitting on my right knee, slightly leaning forward onto my left arm which supported his chin and torso
• Jiggling my right leg up and down (top speed, but small motions).

Or just the classic holding him to your chest and patting his back while bouncing slightly?

(Please ignore the person who’s trying to persuade you to stop breadtfeeding, their comment is incredibly ignorant and irresponsible.)

Also, do not eat spicy foods like curry! My breastfed baby had horrible tummy ache whenever I did that.

Yeah we burp him sat on knee, over shoulder, colic carry. Nothing really helps. How much he burps or doesn’t burp doesn’t seem to make a difference to how he is in an evening and early morning. :(

Haven’t had anything remotely like a curry I’ve kept it very simple but it doesn’t help. Yeah I don’t want to stop breastfeeding unless I really had to. Hoping there’s another solution.

How do you know it’s gas? Being really unsettled of an evening is quite common (albeit really hard). purplecrying.info/what-is-the-period-of-purple-crying.php. 6-8 weeks is the absolute peak of fussiness in newborns, so you are deep in the thick of it right now. It will get better. Optimise naps throughout the day as overtiredness definitely makes the witching hour(s) worse.

Grunting and crying out in their sleep is also normal. It’s to do with the maturation of their gut and will settle.

Get some Frida windis, use one of an evening when he gets fussy. They willl save your life

Bless him, I went through something similar with my little boy - when I was still breastfeeding we found that infacol really worked for him but it did take a few days of consistently using it before we saw a difference! Our HV advised tummy massage which definitely helped as did baths in the evening, we also find doing tummy time helps with wind. My mum recommended laying baby over my legs on his tummy to wind as well which did help

How long have you cut dairy out for? I found it took 4-6 weeks for eliminating dairy in my diet to help with my ds, but it did eventually help with his colic. I also found soya was a problem, so try something like oat milk. I was sceptical about removing dairy from my diet but it did make a difference to my ds, and I could keep breastfeeding.

Tummy massage worked for my son. The other thing that helped wind him was to lie him on his side and bend his leg up towards his tummy - learnt this when he had to go for a hip scan and he let out a massive room clearing stinky fart!

I agree with @AliceW89. My lo has struggled with gas since birth too but it changes over time, we had grunting, then wriggling, then mosy recently crying, this then went on to lo pooing a lot less and now goes once a day to two days. Their digestive systems are still maturing.

If you think baby is swallowing a lot of air, you can have your latch and positioning looked at. I try and wind my lo while still awake as once he is asleep I can rarely get a burp out.

Good luck, remember, this too shall pass.

Are you on the cmpa Facebook groups? They can offer great advice.

I'd cut dairy and soya and keep a food diary.

Maybe you need to find out what is making you gassy - perhaps you are passing the issue on?
There's the obvious like dairy, fizzy drinks, gluten etc but also look out for acids like tomatoes.

@AliceW89

How do you know it’s gas? Being really unsettled of an evening is quite common (albeit really hard). purplecrying.info/what-is-the-period-of-purple-crying.php. 6-8 weeks is the absolute peak of fussiness in newborns, so you are deep in the thick of it right now. It will get better. Optimise naps throughout the day as overtiredness definitely makes the witching hour(s) worse.

Grunting and crying out in their sleep is also normal. It’s to do with the maturation of their gut and will settle.

We can hear him farting when we bicycle leg and he settles briefly after a big one so figured it’s gas. Looking forward to it being over just wish there was something we could do to make it better in the meantime

I agree with the poster who questioned if it is definitely gas. Babies can be fussy in the evenings. This tends to settle a bit between 8 to 12 weeks. Keep breastfeeding. Do not give it up. Check your latch.
Everything you are describing sounds like fairly normal newborn behaviour to be honest.

Have you checked for tongue tie? We had a similar issue and once the tongue tie was cut they were like a different baby. Ours wasn't picked up until 2 and a half months as it was posterior so couldn't be seen easily.

I found with my second, also an incredibly windy baby that I had to burp, burp, burp and burp some more. If it doesn't come out the top it'll have to come out the bottom. We did all the massages, bicycle legs and the like. I did find after doing bicycle legs bending the knees gently into his stomach could help release the wind.

Also tiger in the tree hold really helped.

As you're breastfeeding, is his latch good? Is he taking in extra air, clicking or squeaking at the breast? Could you have a powerful letdown? Maybe try expressing a small amount of breastmilk before getting him to latch and see if it helps?

Do you have an oversupply issue / fast let down? What’s his latch like? Either could be reasons why he’s swallowing air and you can take steps that should help

I have a fast letdown in the night when he’s feeding less but I don’t feed him till it’s slowed. Daytime/evenings it’s fine. His latch is fine. Done tiger in a tree, all sorts of body twisting, tummy time. :/

My little one was exactly like this at the same age. We thought it was gas and tried all the things you have, until we worked out it was actually the Witching Hour. Every evening he would be unsettled and then wake at 5am farting. It settled at 11 weeks ish.

To rule it out, you could try having quiet time. We put him in the sling with white noise on, turned the lights off and tried to ensure he wasn’t being stimulated. Would be worth a go to see if stimulation is contributing to the fussiness.

@PartyPlan

My little one was exactly like this at the same age. We thought it was gas and tried all the things you have, until we worked out it was actually the Witching Hour. Every evening he would be unsettled and then wake at 5am farting. It settled at 11 weeks ish.

To rule it out, you could try having quiet time. We put him in the sling with white noise on, turned the lights off and tried to ensure he wasn’t being stimulated. Would be worth a go to see if stimulation is contributing to the fussiness.

Ugh praying he settles at 11 weeks too. I don’t want to wish time away but it’s exhausting. The room is really dim, very quiet lullaby or white noise on and that’s it

Sounds normal. Both my babies cried and cried between about 6-9 pm between about 6-8 weeks. There is very little evidence (if any) that mums diet affects breastfed babies behaviour/symptoms, including allergens (I know it goes against everything breastfeeding mums are told but look up actual studies/meta studies, good article in the BMJ) I always held mine upright for at least half an hour after every feed to avoid milk coming back up and I think this allows any gas to come up after each feed. If they won’t settle put them in a sling/carrier. Give it a few weeks and it will probably settle down. Babies change all the time. Sleep with a few feeds between 9- 5am at 6 weeks is very good going!

I would definitely recommend the Frida baby Windis. My baby was the same and everytime he would struggle with gas we would do the frida baby windi and right after he would do a poop and helped alot! What i also did with my baby boy who is now 3 months, I ordered off amazon a heat pad that you put in the microwave and this helps with cramps that they might have in their tummy.

Any other symptoms of CMPA apart from colic? Are there rashes? Soya allergy is really common together with CMPA so that might be why you're not getting any improvement despite cutting out dairy.