4mo waking through night: food intolerance/gassy, invisible reflux, or not burping correctly?

[TallisSch]

Hello, I’m a first time mum and really hoping to find people with a similar experience to help narrow down what the issue is so we can get baby on the mend.
A few weeks ago he was sleeping really well- still waking to feed through the night, but progressing to 4+hrs between feeds, and going down to sleep really well. He then started to get very bad gas in the middle of the night and mornings- I cut out onions and garlic in the last two weeks and this seems to have helped. Now the issue has changed again: he wakes nearly every hour or more and just will not let me put him down. When he wakes he isn’t screaming like he did when he was exposed to the onions/garlic in my milk (he’s 100% bf), but he’s obviously in discomfort and passes some wind. He falls asleep again when feeding (lying on his side) but wakes as soon as I put him down on his back- Google tells me this could be invisible reflux? However he rarely throws up during the night.
I was sure the issue was dietary- that something was causing a certain amount of gas that wasn’t noticeable when he’s active during the day, but builds up at night. Could this be the issue?
Another problem is that I rarely burp him- especially at night as it just wakes him. Could this be causing enough of an issue that it comes out as painful gas at night?
Ive started to restrict my diet in order to eliminate intolerances… but I’m just stabbing in the dark and would really appreciate some suggestions & other peoples experience.
Thank you!!

Sounds more like the 4 month sleep regression to me to be honest?

Thanks, I thought the same but he’s definitely in discomfort and gassy when he wakes. Would that be the case with sleep regression?

I agree with pp about possibly being 4 month sleep regression? My formula fed baby had horrendous reflux for the first few months (vomiting up to 2 hours after a feed) and trapped wind would cause him to wake every morning at 5am squirming in pain. The reflux was eventually sorted with gaviscon and the trapped wind sorted itself out pretty much bang on at 3 months. Everything I’d read seemed to suggest that 12 weeks is a big turning point in their digestive systems, so I’d be surprised if baby was suddenly having issues at 4 months. That said though I have no experience of bf.

I do think winding makes a big difference. My baby is now 6 months and even now if I don’t wind him after his bedtime bottle, he’ll be restless after being put down.

Maybe worth asking your health visitor? I know how tempting it is to start eliminating things from your diet but if you do too many at once then you won’t know what’s causing the issue (if anything). I know dairy is a popular one to cut out though and it can have a big impact. I’m lactose intolerant and I almost switched my baby onto a soy based formula because I was convinced he was dairy intolerant like me. But when I ran it past my HV she suggested it sounded more like reflux and we went down that route instead. It’s so frustrating and miserable when you can see they’re uncomfortable and can’t figure out why 😢

You could try something like Infacol. However I'd say it's the 4 month sleep regression to be honest . I would also leave him where he is when he feeds with you laying down - but I realise many would want to tip him onto his back. I would just let him latch on and then fall asleep myself but I'm lazy 😆

Hi @TallisSch did you find the issue in the end? I am having this problem - for the first 3 months my baby was a good sleeper but at 4 and 5 months is waking all the time with bad gas, and will only sleep on his side.

@Lily1990 sorry to hear, I remember this being a difficult stage. Replying publicly as I’ve had a few questions on this over the years-

This feels like a very long time ago now, so maybe don’t count on my answer too much incase I’m forgetting something crucial.
In the end I found that it was a dairy intolerance. It took a long time to self diagnose through an elimination diet. I cut out gluten, dairy, eggs… maybe some other allergens but I can’t 100% remember, for 2-3 weeks for a total blank slate. I then introduced each item back into my diet one at a time (eg. After two weeks I’d start eating gluten again, if that didn’t affect baby then I’d give it at least a week before introducing the next item… and repeat). Through this I found that he had an issue with dairy, and then I consulted with my health visitor who put me in touch with a dietitian. I had to be dairy free whilst breastfeeding, and he was dairy free until he was past the age of one. He’s nearly two and a half now and we’ve managed to eliminate the intolerance with the dairy ladder technique and he can eat all dairy again.

However in hindsight, and now that I’m out of that stressful & sleep deprived period, I wish I had consulted with a breastfeeding specialist for support/advice. My understanding is that it can be normal for babies to go through this kind of fussy period, and they aren’t necessarily in discomfort or pain, as I throughly my baby was at the time. He did have the intolerance, but I think my experience could have been a lot less stressful with some professional support, plus there are other reasons that a baby may be going through these motions which a professional could help with.
And as a final note re previous comments saying it’s just the sleep regression - for me, it absolutely was not. Now that I’ve been through two years of sleep regressions, I know the difference. If you feel something is off with your baby, and everyone is telling you it’s just a regression, listen to your intuition.

Good luck, I really hope you find the issue and your baby settles, soon.

@TallisSch thank you so much for your reply 2 years after you posted this thread! Really appreciate it. Well done for trusting your gut and finding the reason for your baby’s wind and sleep problems, it can’t have been easy to cut all of those foods out and introduce them again.

I had actually decided before reading your message to try cutting out dairy and knowing this was the reason for you has made me trust my intuition more. If my baby was just being fussy I’d be inclined to think it’s a sleep regression, but he’s clearly got terrible wind which is the reason for the bad sleep. Plus he also has eczema, itchy eyes etc.

Thanks for the suggestion to consult with a breastfeeding specialist, I’ll consider doing this, although keen to avoid spending more money (I’ve bought about every product going claiming to reduce wind, as well as osteopath visits etc). My GP fobbed me off when I visited so I’m going to take matters into my own hands and trial cutting out dairy before going back.

thank you again for your response, really helpful! X

I had a super fussy baby who wouldn't sleep too. For her it turned out to be reflux and a lot of food allergies.
When removing dairy it's important in the first few weeks to not use soya dairy and meat replacements. Half of babies are allergic to both dairy and soya and if you cut out dairy but increase the amount of soya you eat it can make it look like the dairy free diet isn't making a difference. Usually you wouldn't cut all soya out just the higher levels - e.g. soya flour/lectins are fine but avoid soya milk/yoghurt.
If you see an improvement with being dairy free you can then try some of the soya based dairy replacements.

@Lily1990 Very welcome!

As someone above has already pointed out, it’s a good idea to cut out all allergens to give it a clean trial. And yes, Soya is one of the others I cut out that I couldn’t remember. Having at least a week, if not more, of cutting everything out before reintroducing them or having a reliable idea of whether it’s made a difference is also important. I read somewhere that dairy can stay in the gut for a long time, and you want to detox so that you can rely on your findings.
If you use Instagram, I also highly recommend following Lucy Webber (handle: Lucy Webber feeding support ibclc). She has definitely made a post about fussiness at night being mistaken for wind, which made me question my entire experience way after we were past it, and which I wish I had seen at the time. It’s worth a good trawl of her page, she is so so helpful and often does Q&A’s which have been so informative but also answered some of my much needed questions.
I have question marks over my dairy-intolerant experience, it did make a difference to cut it out but I’m still not sure that was the full picture. But as you may know, when your baby is in pain, you’re sleep deprived, and still in those easily stages of motherhood, it’s all so overwhelming and I was just stabbing in the dark to an extent. I wish I’d sought further help, despite the monetary cost,
Good luck again x

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences @TallisSch and @Superscientist, and yes I was planning to cut out soy for the reasons you highlighted. Health professionals seem to say it’s unlikely to be a dairy intolerance if the baby’s poo is normal, but anecdotally I’ve heard of cases where an intolerance was still found after cutting dairy. It is a minefield though and I agree I’m partially stabbing in the dark! I follow Lucy Webber already actually but I’ll have a look for that post, thanks for the tip! I’ve also been recommended to start solids incase my baby is getting wind due to being hungry, but if anything starting solids seems to be linked to worse wind so I’m a bit way of doing that. Very confusing! But thanks again x

@Lily1990 at the point of diagnosis my daughter didn't have problematic poos. It was only after removing allergens and seeing her poos change and improve that I realised how bad they were. No one ever asked what her poos were like just if they were "normal". They were normal for her but that turned out later to be abnormal!