Baby very unsettled - please help

[StarlessSea123]

Hi,
My baby girl is 5 weeks old. Since about week 2 she’s been very unsettled. She shows signs of hunger, we offer her a 4oz bottle (she’s formula fed on Cow & Gate), she’ll take about 2oz then scream in pain. We burp her - sometimes she brings up wind sometimes she doesn’t. Then about an hour later she’ll repeat the same feeding and crying.
I’ve spoken to the GP and health visitor several times on the subject. Initially GP suggested Infacol drops which we tried - saw no change. Then he suggested she has silent reflux and prescribed Carobel to try for a couple of weeks, which we did but again no joy. We then moved on to infant Gaviscon, which just constipated her, and now he has her on omeprazole. But we are at our wits end as to what to do next as nothing is working so I’m not sure if he’s right about reflux. She doesn’t show any of the main signs of milk intolerance or allergy as she has no rash, is gaining weight very well, isn’t having diarrhoea etc. it’s just this cycle of small feed, crying hysterically, on repeat. At night she usually does better and tends to feed around midnight, 3am and 6am with sleeps in between. My husband and I aren’t sure what we’re doing wrong and we’re first time parents, so please be kind. Thank you

Hi OP, sorry your little one is struggling with her milk. Does she vomit at all?

If she’s just crying after milk, but no vomit, could it be colic?

Thanks for your reply. She would vomit occasionally but certainly not after every feed.

Sounds very difficult. I’m not too sure.. is she sleeping enough in the day? Could she be tired rather than hungry? If she’s doing it every hour, it suggests she’s awake a lot?
I remember feeding my first almost every time she cried and she would be sick from over feeding (breast) but I think she was actually tired!

How much does she sleep during the day?

DS was an incredibly unsettled newborn. He was refluxy…but to be honest, the vast majority of it was overtiredness and overstimulation. Omeprazole et al made no difference. He was a total nightmare to get to switch off and sleep. It was a little different as he was breastfeed, but he used to scream for a feed hourly, have a bit and then scream some more in frustration. With hindsight, I think he new he wanted something but couldn’t figure out that it was sleep as opposed to a feed.

I started prioritising getting him to sleep by hook or by crook - first sign of tiredness he’d be in the sling and I’d go for a walk outside to get him to sleep. It got better with time and more sleep. He’s a ridiculously bright toddler now but still a nightmare to switch off!

She would doze off between feeds but she certainly doesn’t go for a good stretch of time to sleep during the day. I’ll try to see if I can encourage that more, thank you.

DD would occasionally throw up milk. She screamed from around 6/11pm every night, we had many appointments with HV, G.P, hospital. It just suddenly stopped, no explanation. It was horrendous though. We were advised to wind properly after each feed, prop cot up on a slight incline so her head was higher than her feet.

As a baby DH was the same, possibly just one of those things. DH was breast fed, DD bottle. DD weight was fine throughout, it was just a terrible time.

Could it be that she's allergic the cows milk in the formula?