6 week old is miserable all the time - help?

[squashie34]

Just as the title suggests really, my 6 week old DS just seems to be constantly miserable/ in pain whenever he’s awake :( It’s not a screaming cry but constant grunts and shouts like he’s in discomfort. It’s like the witching hour but it’s every single time he isn’t asleep., I did think reflux as he brings up a bit of milk every feed regardless of how long we hold him upright, but it’s more that it rolls out of the side of his mouth than projectile. He also doesn’t seem any more distressed lying on his back than in any other position and he sleeps well at night, with just one wake up around 2am for milk.

it’s really affecting my mental health as everyone else in my mums group is posting pictures and videos of their happy, smiley babies and I just feel all we have is constant crying and that he’s just not happy and I don’t know what to do. My DD was never like this.

can anyone share any tips/support?? Thanks so much

Sounds like my daughter she had lots of food allergies and reflux. I would definitely be discussing reflux with your GP or HV. Problematic reflux doesn't have to be projectile and actually the silent reflux my daughter had where she wasn't sick at all was worse than her physical reflux. We couldn't move her at all so I breastfed lying down and kept her there. When my daughter was young baby she was much worse with her reflux during the day compared to overnight. Once she was more upright during the day around 8-9 months she was better during the day and much worse at night. She's 3 now and probably 95% of her reflux is overnight fine during the day

I'd say it's silent reflux. My eldest had this and it's miserable, I'm sorry you're going through it atm. Definitely talk to the gp.

The GP has prescribed carobel for reflux but I can’t see how a thickener can help the pain he seems to be in.

@SurelyNot22 @Superscientist did you find anything worked for your little one at the time?

Thickener is the first step.

The idea is that if the milk is thicker it's harder to reflux and that reduces the pain. For mild reflux this is enough to manage the reflux.
Moderate reflux will probably require a ppi such as omperazole. These medications reduce the acidic of the stomach contents so when they are refluxed it's less painful. The combination of a thickener and a ppi can be very effective.

I'm probably not the person to ask as my daughter is an oddity and has very stubborn reflux. She needs high dose omperazole, gaviscon (in the early days a stool softener due to the constipation that gaviscon caused) and domperidone and I had to remove her food allergies from mine and her diets. She is 3.5 now still really struggles with reflux and is under 2 paediatricians for it! Only 10% of babies still have reflux at 1 and I think it's 2-5% aged 2. So she is definitely in the minority to still have reflux and still need heavy duty medication.

Most babies will do lots better on thickener and omperazole. Often there is a reason for the reflux and it's worth exploring them, although some like my daughter it's just the reflux. Things to look at are tongue tie, cows milk protein allergy, fast letdown of breastfeeding/teat flow if bottle feeding. There are possibly others because those are the main ones that spring to mind.

My DD was like this, she had the most miserable look on her face until she was about 12 weeks old lol. She had colic and reflux, a very gassy baby and it was really tough.
one thing I found that really helped was when I got the advanced anti colic bottles which have the tube in the middle - she was so much better after that, are you using a bottle ?