Baby 11 weeks with trapped gas at night & silent reflux

[Talatorres]

Hi everyone, FTM here. I have an 11 week old baby (soon to be 12 weeks) and since 6 weeks she’s had excessive trapped gas at night - by this I mean struggling to fart!

She usually sleeps a long stretch to begin with (3-4 hours) & when she wakes I nurse her to bed. Then when we hit the 3/4am mark it’s downhill from there. The time between gets shorter & shorter before she starts squirming, arching her back, stretching her legs straight again, clearly struggling in pain. Each time I pick her up, cuddle her, nurse her which seems to relax her, try to burp her (although she doesn’t really burp as she already falls asleep) keep her upright for 10 minutes and put her back down. We also co-sleep together as she’s never settled in her basket or cotbed from day 1.

At first, bicycle kicks & bringing her legs to her chest helped to relieve some gas but the past few nights it doesn’t seem to help release any gas & it’s getting more difficult to bend her legs and help her. Ive tried regular massages in the daytime and a bath before bed. I’m at my wits end here, apparently it’s all normal and should get better but it really doesn’t feel like it has?

She’s EBF, has been making a clicking sound & I can hear large gulps taken echoing into her stomach. We had her TT snipped almost 3 weeks ago and I’ve seen the HV for latch techniques but she still makes the same sounds & seems to continue having a shallow latch. Each time I try to get a deeper latch it feels like she pushes herself off slightly to have a shallow latch again or would yank on and off me. She’s clearly gulping so much air.

I’ve tried Infacol, dentinox, gripe water, colief - all barely made a difference. I keep her upright most of the day as she hates being on her back & always wants to be held. I suspect she has silent reflux as I can hear wet burps, constant swallowing between feeds in the day. I’m just about to try gaviscon for this. She also has regular poo’s daily in the day.

I should also add that as soon as she’s fully awake for the day (usually we stay in bed until 9am just to get sufficient sleep in) she is completely happy, chirpy and it’s almost like the gas has disappeared.

My questions are:

• has anyone experienced similar? Does it really get better as their digestive system matures, even when there is excessive gas and when did it get better for your LO?
• Each time she wakes I nurse her. I’m sure it’s for comfort but I can hear her taking in milk too. It’s the only thing to relax her and get her back to sleep but is this helping at all or just a vicious cycle of giving her more air?
• Is excessive trapped gas and silent reflux related to each other or are they separate issues?
• Any suggestions for anything I haven’t yet tried?

Thanks!

The tongue tie has probably reattached- the clicking sound is a dead giveaway

Hi @Talatorres I'm just wondering how this resolved for you and your daughter? I have almost word for word the same issue with my son, he's 7 weeks now, the only difference is he doesn't have tongue tie, I do have an over supply though which I know is giving him a lot of extra gas, silent reflux and same with you, nursing results in him taking in more milk. Did anything help or was it just a waiting game in the end? If so, how many weeks until it settled? Thanks so much

Hi @fcb2930

with the trapped gas it was a waiting game. It settled around 13/14 weeks and she no longer struggled passing wind.

It didn’t stop us from having sleepless nights though. I think she started associating nursing with sleep so our sleep actually got worse where she would nurse to sleep what felt like every hour of the night. I stopped tracking her night feeds on my phone and checking the time for my own sanity.

I’m probably going to be chastised on here but we decided to sleep train her at 4.5 months using the Ferber method. She got it within 1 night and learnt to self soothe and ever since has slept through the night 10-12 hours with only 1-2 night feeds.

My LO wasn’t gaining enough weight for months on end with BM so after trying everything I finally resulted in combi feeding, around the same time as sleep training. I continued to pump and realised I had very little BM so baby was always really hungry! Now she’s mainly on formula and I pump enough to give one BM feed. I also used gaviscon at 4.5 months to help with silent reflux. No longer using but I did notice without medication, she keeps formula down better than she does BM for some reason.

it’s like I have a new baby - she went from non stop nursing, extreme fussiness, held vertically all the time, would not settle in pram, car seat or unless being held to the complete opposite. I do think it’s a combination of the above and waiting for them to be developmentally ready. But I’m so much happier for it and feel I can be fully present to look after my LO and raise her to the best of my abilities. I felt a lot of pressure to do or not do certain things and I wish I had listened to my gut feeling and my babies needs rather than what the book says much earlier in the journey

I hope this helps! The newborn phase is so difficult and I admire all mums going through it, but I promise u it gets better and I’m finally at a stage where I enjoy motherhood! Good luck x