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???

@kisaki333 thanks so so much for the quick reply on this. We've found the same, seen specialists, drs and paediatricians who all said the same as you've had really, that it'll just go away.

Can I ask where you went private to get your diagnosis of silent reflux / CMPA? I'm thinking it might be worth trying private and the omeprazole as his symptoms sound like they're identical to your little girls. We're not on any cowsmilk products so can thankfully rule that out.

Thanks again for all your help

In my case I had Bupa from work so used one of their doctors. Without it, just find a good paediatrician in your area (maybe even use the BUPA finder function to locate one) and then just pay out of pocket. For example, ours was a fairly experienced doctor, in the SE, and it would have costed about 200gbp for a consult and another 150 for a follow up. Sounds a lot but that was all it took to diagnose her properly.

If you end up with omeprazole: there's two kinds: one that you dissolve in water and a liquid one. The first one is cheap but really hard to give to babies. Second one is super expensive but easy to administer as you can mix in milk. In our case, we managed to convince the GP to prescribe the liquid version after struggling with the cheap version for a few days. But either version works the same as long as you manage to get the baby to take it.