Struggling with fussy 6 month old

[Runrun88]

Since his birth, I’ve really struggled with my baby’s fussiness/crying. He had awful screaming fits due to gas in the early months for which he’s under the care of paediatricians who believe he’s physically healthy. It seemed to just be one of those things and has hugely improved.
However, he remains the fussiest baby I know and I don’t think it’s due to teething etc as he has always been like this.
I feel like a terrible mother as I just can’t seem to keep him content or work out what he wants and he’s now 6 months old.
We will have the odd great day where he seems more like the average baby of his age (plenty of smiling, mostly content, some grizzling or crying), but most days at the moment are just torture for me. He whines all the time but I just want him to be happy. He sleeps a perfectly fine amount according to google (although could def benefit from longer naps) but in each wake window we only have about 10 minutes where he is calm and happy to play etc. The rest of it is just about getting through until he’s tired enough for the next nap.
Everything I can see online relates to newborns crying. Has anyone experienced fussiness in older babies and has any tips? Thank you.

DS1 was like this. Classic ‘high needs baby’. He was easily frustrated, difficult to please, needed lots of stimulation and bored easily. Also cried a lot as a newborn. It got better with every developmental milestone towards independence. By the time he could walk and talk he was fine. Get out and about lots. DS1 was much happier out of the house being busy.

Has silent reflux or allergies been ruled out?

My daughter fussed and cried until 8 months when we got her reflux and allergies under better control. We eventually reached free of allergy symptoms at 15 months but her reflux is something we never get until good control so she still fussed and cried due to this overnight aged 3. It's been a very long 3 years!

Oh wow @Superscientist I’m so sorry to hear that. We did consider reflux when the pains/crying seemed to be really bad in the early days and were prescribed various medications. The medications didnt seem to make a difference though so we gave up on that idea in the end, especially when the initial phase of screaming in pain all the time seemed to be over. I might try them again in case he has since developed reflux, thank you. He doesn’t have any allergy symptoms although I guess the fussing in itself could be the only symptom?! Xx

That's was my daughters only symptom that was recognised at the point of diagnosis. It turned out that her stools were loose and more explosive than they should have been but it was only in retrospect that this was identified.

My daughter didn't see a change in her reflux until she was on the maximum dose of omperazole and as much gaviscon as we could fit in her. She still struggled and we added domperidone at 7 months which is when her symptoms first were completely controlled my medication. Unfortunately for us her reflux goes in and out of being managed. Whenever she has a growth spurt her reflux gets worse. Whenever she cut a tooth it got worse. Whenever she had a cold it got worse. She has particularly stubborn reflux which is not managed by as much medication as her paediatrician can prescribe. We are just waiting for an appointment with a more specialist paediatrician.

If there is one thing I want parents to know about a reflux baby or toddler it is that it isn't always a linear path out of reflux. There are lots of variables that can impact it.