Witching hour? Please help

[catlikereaxtions]

8 week old baby seems to have a witching hour at around 5pm for a good couple of hours. He is inconsolable and trying to feed him makes it worse, he’s normally a good feeder and is a really big baby so I don’t think any issues there.

It seems to have just got worse and worse, from some evening fussiness to full on crying to the point I end up crying and scared as the crying intensity makes me so anxious. He pulls his legs to his chest which makes me think something with his stomach? I burp him after every feed and during the day he’s so calm and happy.

i tried giving up dairy and don’t think it made any difference although now not sure but he has no other symptoms..

it’s just making me so anxious when he cries and during the week DH is at work for most of it so I have to deal with it alone which is just horrible

Does anyone have / had anything similar and does this sound like general witching hour or something else? Got the 8 week check on Friday so I’ll mention to GP

Ohhh I'm so sorry, sending you lots of love!! My LO was like this too, it's honestly like they can tell the time isn't it.

I'd possibly check whether there's tongue tie at play (my LO could latch well so it was missed until centiles started dropping) but apart from that there isn't anything I can suggest, I'm really sorry - during witching 'hour' was just horrendous so sending solidarity.

It DOES slowly start to get better I promise, not that it helps you right now - the days will feel SOOO long but you're doing so so well. Really hope you're okay x

Sorry OP, sounds tough. Could he be overtired? A bit later, maybe from 12 weeks, mine went down at 5pm, sometimes even 4:30pm! And she’d sleep all the way through (with dream feeds)

He’s definitely over tired now, having woken up at 4:30pm (and then immediately cried) and still awake, still crying

Yes - we had one of those! It wasn't tongue tie. She has always had a sensitive stomach even now grown up. Things that helped:

• Infacol
• if breast feeding cut down on onions, spicy food, garlic (which I was all very fond of) to reduce windiness
• try a little baby massage after bath time to encourage wind to pass
• if breast feeding cut back on too much cow milk in your diet or try lacto free milk
• laying her over a cushion on your lap or over your arm and carrying her round with her stomach over your palm.

She grew out of the screaming by about 4 months - either that or doing all of the above helped! But she is still lactose intolerant and does much better if she avoids ordinary cows milk.

Both of mine have had witching hour. DS1 full blown screamed from 4:30pm for a few of hours every night - proper colicky newborn. DS2 was generally fussy from about 5pm, wanted to breastfeed then got cross with the boob and absolutely would not be put down. DS2 is 13 weeks and has mostly outgrown it and I think it was probably about the same for DS1. It was definitely gone by circa 4 months with DS1 - basically when they have enough awake time during the day to tolerate a 7pm bedtime and can cope with stimulation during the day. It’s all been overtiredness/overstimulation for my two, most definitely.