Unhappy baby

[bunnymum96]

My dd is now almost 7 months old and we’ve had a very rough start with her. She was such an unhappy baby (but always thriving) and eventually at about 4 months diagnosed with CMPA (had tongue tie cut, lots of osteopath work). Since been on prescription formula she’s been happier, but never an easy baby. But she’s 7 months now and still just SO HARD. She’s only just learnt to sit and weaning isn’t going well at all, she doesn’t wave or crawl like I see other babies her age do. She will cry at food and spit most of it out, some days she won’t even try any of it. I’ve done purées and finger foods and lots of variety. I’ve noticed her milk intake has also about halved (to about 26oz a day). She’s still putting on weight. She seems overtired constantly and can only manage about 1 hour 15 before needing to sleep, but she doesn’t sleep long maybe 30 mins. She wakes up unhappy and crying. Has anyone experienced similar, what’s going on? I’ve spoken to health visitor loads (they say go to docs) and docs have put in a paed referral but say she seems fine.

Obviously continue with the paed referral just to get it all checked out but it could be completely normal. I'm sure wake windows should be roughly double their nap time? So if she's napping 30 minutes an hour wake time could be fine.
My DS is 6 months and nowhere near crawling and can't sit unaided. In my baby group there's a 9 month old that's only just started crawling
I'm assuming she's only been weaning a month? (Maybe more if she had cmpa) but if you started at 6 months spitting most her food out is also normal. Its a big skill to learn and takes months.

7 months is very early for waving and crawling - waving I'd usually between 8-12 months and many babies don't crawl till 10 or 11 months.

That sounds like a pretty common weaning experience and not concerning. Some babies take to it right away, others don't.

How does she sleep at night? If not very well that could explain why she sleeps a lot in the day.

Have a word with yr HV so she can tell u wot to expect and when, as u seem to be a bit confused.

All sounds normal but very tiring and characteristic of a high needs baby.
my ds (now 13 months) was the most miserable baby I’d ever come across. Also cmpa, he screamed and cried for months. Never content and would get particularly frustrated whenever close to a milestone like sitting/crawling etc.
waving and clapping and pointing are more like 10 months plus. I worried about the same thing and then just a few weeks ago he started clapping and pointing and never stops.
like pp have said, crawling is usually much later than 7 months and your daughter sounds right on track.
our baby has got better the more mobile he has become but still needs a lot of interaction and entertainment.
If he hasn’t napped well he will also scream bloody murder and has never been one of those babies you see calmly falling asleep in the high chair. Some babies are just a little more demanding than others.

Some babies need more sleep than others. It's not unusual not to be able to link sleep cycles at 7 months, so many babies have only 3 minute naps as they wake after the first sleep cycle. Sometimes you can get them to continue - mine would nod back off again if we walked the pram for 45 mins after they fell asleep. Some just won't through. That means wake Windows might only be an hour in the morning (maybe 2 hours by evening).

Sounds typical for sitting. Crawling is commonly around 9 months - not that any of mine did it by then! Eldest was a stationary blob till she walked just before a year and my DSs were at 10 and 11 months for crawling. Perfectly well coordinated and active now!

Is she soothed by motion e.g. in carrier? As she has CMPA I'm wondering if there's some domestic discomfort that might be eased by being carried and agravated by being laid down (which would scupper deep sleep and lead to over tiredness).

Keep trying different things. If you have the energy, keep a note of days that are particularly bad/easier than others. You may be able to spot a pattern.

One of my boys was always quite high needs. He still is - he has a few food i ntolerances, has had some asthma symptoms and his eczema really bothers him sometimes. You just have to do your best to help them through the rough patches and remember it's going to get easier. When they can communicate it's a while different situation. We didn't twig my eldest was intolerant to egg until she was 4 and announced that it always made her tummy really sore. She just never said anything before that point.

*DIGESTIVE discomfort, not domestic! Autocorrect

Ds is 2 now and was a very high needs baby - my god he was EXHAUSTING. he's still not easy by any stretch of the imagination but we're getting there slowly.

At 14m he was still sleeping like a newborn. Couldn't be awake more than an hour and half before needing a nap and constantly appeared overtired. Now he's happily down to one 1 hour nap in the afternoon.

Weaning - it's a mess. Go with it and she'll get there.

Waving - still on the early side so don't worry.

Crawling - definitely on the early side.