Baby making grunting/straining noises

[Danani]

Just wondering if:

a. This is normal things babies do, and
b. Anyone else has gone through it?

My almost 6 week old baby started making these grunting/straining noises a couple of weeks back. It sounds like she is straining to poo, and is constipated. Except she is not constipated, because we get dirty nappies every day, multiple times a day and things are the right color and consistency. Yet the straining and grunting is intense! It’s loud and it feels like it goes on all night long, and sometimes during the day too!

I read online that apparently it’s something babies do, as they learn how to poo, and eventually learn and grow out of it, but just looking for some reassurance here I guess, as it’s driving me mad. I can’t sleep through it and feel bad for her that she’s struggling and straining like that. 😭 Someone please reassure me. Also when does it go away???

Yes it’s absolutely normal. Don’t worry it will eventually pass.

@bb2605 thank you! Any idea when? 👀

Mine does this all night long! Sounds like she's possessed sometimes..!!! She's 9 weeks old but has been doing it for a few weeks.

Mine did this in the early days! Drove me mad at night time. She didn't cry but these weird noises kept me up nonetheless. Happy to say it passed after about 8 weeks.

I think it gradually went away for mine from about 12 weeks

Yes don't worry. We called ours goatboy for a while because of the weird bleaty grunting (hard to describe) which he did all night every night from around 6-12wks. Tiresome but it does pass.

It’s normal. Lasts a few weeks. Either that or you start sleeping through the noises, not sure which.

It definitely passes! We sometimes found it helpful to get the baby out of the basket (if she was awake) and put our hands under her armpits and prop her in a squatting position on our lap. This often helped her pass the poop a little bit easier! It was hard listening to her grunt and strain but I read at the time she wasn’t in true pain or anything (I hope) - there’s nothing that can be done, it’s just the baby learning how to use their muscles to poo and push. You’ll either learn to sleep through it - or before you know it, it’s passed :-)

I can’t remember when it passed but she’s only 4 months now and it feels like that was light years ago! I can barely remember how the noises sounded!! Hang in there 🤞

I've just posted a similar thing today...
My 3 and half month old baby has started making a straining noise when she wees... I'm wondering whether it's because now she is aware of herself going to the toilet now where as she did in involuntary before? I don't know. She's making me think there's something wrong with her too, I took her to the doctors thinking she might have a UTI but it's negative.

@Danani our now 14mo did this, from about 4 weeks until around 4mo. It was awful and I found it so distressing, he would do it all night and a lot in the day too, anytime he was lay on his back. I ended up holding him upright and letting him sleep on me for all naps/sleep, which was really tough but I just didn’t see how he could be sleeping well when he was making so much noise/squirming around so much. It’s hard but it does pass as their systems mature. Hopefully it won’t last too long for you!

@Danani that’s not to say that you should do the same by the way! Just do what feels right. we did end up in a situation where he then wouldn’t sleep in his cot at all, so we continued to hold him for all sleep and slept in shifts for a long time 😖

Hello @MintGreenLife I've come across you I think on a sleep thread at some point. How does your baby sleep now? Mine was waking hourly for a long long time

I've name changed since

@DandelionNumber12 that’s highly likely 😂 forever turning to mumsnet with sleep problems! He’s very up and down! We got to a point that he would go down awake, but after he was unwell we’re back to rocking/feeding (bf) to sleep and can’t seem to move away from it. He has slept through before, but it doesn’t happen often! He’s definitely low sleep needs as only sleeps around 10-11hrs in a 24hr period, but now generally does 1-2 wakeups each night, which feels manageable, just 😅 how are you getting on now?

Ours did this. He sounded so uncomfortable and I really struggled to sleep next to him he was so noisy!

It eased off from around 12 weeks.

Mine sounded like a warthog in those first few weeks - grunting, snorting and farting away happily!

Now she's a raspberry blowing 6 mo! 😂

Well. Hit and miss. He's 13m now. His usual wake time is around 5.30. Sometimes he sleeps through, sometimes he is up repeatedly. He had 3 nights this week where he was awake between 12-1am for no apparent reason. But he slept through last night. He sleeps in his own bed now, rather than co-sleeping, including for naps.

Last winter was horrific, we coslept but he still woke repeatedly through the night and he woke up at 5am for the day. So he'd wake at say 9, 9.30, 10.15, come into our bed, 12, 1.30, 3, 4 and then DP and I took it in turns to get up with him at 5.

Lying on my side made my hip really sore.

Seems bonkers now!

Because he'd only contact nap I'd have to sit on the sofa holding him and fighting sleep myself. Sometimes I'd fall asleep and drop my phone and that would wake me again. Other times I did just fall asleep holding him. I remember doing that thing where you drift off while sitting up, but your head nods and you jerk awake... except my eyes were open while I was doing it.

We haven't got him to fall asleep independently yet, we still rock him. Out of interest, how did you get your DS to fall asleep by himself?

Apologies @Danani I know this isn't what your thread was about

Thank you all for sharing your experiences, it makes me feel less alone and helps it not feel so overwhelming and never-ending! 🙏🏼

on a separate note…is it normal for a baby to fart a lot? It seems our little one is farting all the time, no matter how much we burp her…it also doesn’t seem to make any difference whether she’s been BF or bottle fed. I’m sorry if I’m being ridiculous, just not been around small babies and for every single thing I keep wondering “is something off with my baby or is this how babies are when new?!”

I was even wondering if it’s possible she has some intolerance or allergy towards something in formula/breastmilk? Like, if it was an adult experiencing this, I’d say “lactose intolerant!”.
Just to clarify (not sure if relevant), she has no constipation; she’s steadily gaining weight on her centile; getting multiple dirty/wet nappies every day. But God, her little butt is working overtime, it seems she can’t make a poo without significant amount of farting beforehand/during.
Again, apologies if I’m being absolutely ridiculous, just finding it hard to distinguish between normal baby behavior/bodily functions and “maybe I should bring this up to GP / HV and ask them to investigate”..

Don’t worry ours farted SO MUCH. My mum, who had 4 kids and was a nurse, said she’d never met a baby who farted so much 😆 Proper adult sized farts.

It tailed off around 12 weeks when the grunting did so we just put it down to his little digestive system developing and maturing.

It’s normal,
don’t worry.

Ahhh thanks so much! Again, makes me feel so much better! ❤️

Hi @Danani @kisaki

We have exactly the same with our baby currently. He's just over 2 weeks old and strains, grunts and screams all night. It's so scary as he sounds so unhappy and uncomfortable. We've been to a&e, seen a specialist chiropractor, everyone seems to think it's normal.....but it's can't be normal to strain and make these horrible noises all night.

Did anything work for you in the end? Anything help? I'd try anything to help him out

In our case, it turned out to be silent reflux (fixed with omeprazole) and CMPA ( fixed by avoiding all cow milk products - including prescription formula)
Took us 4 months to figure it out as everyone ignored ua/said it was colic/normal. One of my biggest regrets is that i didn't push harder/go private sooner. Hope your little one will be better soon!

Ours is a happy 1 year old now. We stopped the omeprazole about a month ago. And we are in the process of doing the milk ladder. I think she's outgrown both issues she had.

My grandchild was like this. after cutting out dairy he’s like a different baby.