5 month old crying out all night

[BySunnyWriter]

Looking for some kind of advice or explanation or help please!

My LO is 5 1/2 months. Naps around 4 times a day, nap total of 2 1/2 hours in total yesterday. happy and smiling in day. Bedtime comes and it changes.

we have a good routine of bottle/bath/cuddles/story/bed. They’re down by 8.30 in bed.

Alllllll night last night, they were crying out, and nothing could be done to settle apart from cuddling. It’s really sad to see and hear.

I totally get this is what being a parent is all about, but really tried everything to understand what the crying part was for! We had a bottle, nappy change, teeth check, temperature check, comfort check, reassurance, physical touch and nothing settled them for more than maybe 45 minutes?! We had a wake window of nearly 3 hours in the night :(

Any advice would be really helpful.

from one tired mumma!

Could they have silent reflux. When my daughters silent reflux is bad she wakes every 40 minutes and has to be held or be touching me all night. Once her meds are increased she goes to her more typical sleeping pattern. She's nearly 4 now and this is one of our biggest red flags that she needs her meds reviewed

Ah okay thanks! Did your LO give you signs of reflux? How did you know?

She had physical and silent reflux as a newborn but outgrew the physical reflux. The silent reflux at the time was diagnosed based on her general unhappiness, being unable to be flat and hiccups. As we have gotten more intune with her we can now hear her bringing up a feed and swallowing it again - especially at night.

Thanks, we did have reflux and were prescribed baby Gaviscon, but recently were taken off as sickness has subsided. So I do wonder if this may be the issue. I’ll have a chat with the doctors.

I'd say not enough day sleep.

Total day sleep of 2.5 hours isn't enough for a 5 month old.

I read somewhere that if you sort the day sleep, the night sleep follows suit.

Try to make sure bubba gets at least 3-4 hours during the day over the 4 naps (last nap can be a catnap) and see if that helps.

I did wonder this, but not physically possible unfortunately. Tried everything to resettle day time naps for several months and really won’t have any of it.

How do you mean not physically possible? Will baby not sleep long or is it because you're out and about etc?

Is he hungry? Mine were weaned well before this (as was the advice then) and would have been starving on just milk.

Is baby pooping ok? Are you winding enough regularly through the day?

Dont underestimate the pain caused by trapped wind.

You can offer some boiled but let it cool to warm water in a syringe to help ease the wind or even some in a bottle if baby will take it

give away signs of reflux are being comfortable when upright but not lying down, however if fine during the day then I think a build up 🆙 f wind

there are massages you can do also - have a look on YouTube they’re really easy

and if not wind then you can eliminate - if you start the massages today and more regular burping you’ll be able to judge tonight if it’s worked

good luck

He won’t sleep that long, we follow sleep routines and nap suggestions through huckleberry and I’ve tried for months to extend his naps by resettling and it’s not physically possible for him

Not yet, he has some porridge in the day but we’re waiting until 6 months as his gut won’t be ready I don’t think. I don’t think he’s hungry either isn’t giving me any signs (lip smacking/hungry cry etc)

Thanks :) we do massages every night but I agree these are really helpful! We do regular burps throughout night feeds. I don’t think it’s wind but agree this can be so uncomfortable for babies!

In that case I would definitely ask to restart the gaviscon to see if that has an improvement and if not ask to try omperazole as well.

Also since my daughter could sit up she had only had reflux at night and only when it is very out of control does she have symptoms during the day

Thanks, that’s really helpful to know! I’ll see what they say

Did you ever use infacol? Did you find it made it worse?

Why are you giving porridge? You’re not “waiting”, you’re messing with the gut and your baby’s hunger/nutrition.

Could it be teething? My DD had 2 teeth though by 5 months.

It was recommended by my doctor.

We used infacol around 3-6 weeks. It definitely helped her break wind when she was very small but didn't help with any of the symptoms we now know to be reflux and allergies. She started reflux treatment at 7 weeks ish and allergies were diagnosed at 17 weeks. It can make reflux worse as it's slightly acidic

Milk has waaaaay more calories than food so weaning early will make them more hungry…….

I co slept with my baby who was like this only way she would sleep longer. She grew up and I discovered a gluten intolerance when we weaned her. Cut the gluten slept much better. She was breastfeeding so was getting gluten from my milk before I knew

That’s interesting to know thank you! We do tend to co sleep in the mornings to try and stretch an extra hour too :)

Probably just wanting cuddles.

Hi, my daughter was the same.
she was a very colicky baby and had really bad reflux. Both things started to fade away around 5/6 months old. It was rough. was advised to not try to change it so hard because it’s natural for some babies until they’re organism get stronger. I tried to cut dairy as well but didn’t make a difference. Just lots of cuddles and headphones on for the cry lol! It will pass

on top of this she has always been a bad sleeper. Between 4 and 8 months old she used to stay awake for about 2/3 hours almost every night. I’m not going to lie, I wanted to be dead sometimes, I have never felt worse in my life. Sometimes I would feel sick from tiredness. I only spoke with my Health Visitor who simply said that my daughter was nocturnal. I didn’t do anything in particular to change it, tried a few things but I simply survived and comforted my baby until she finally got over it. Stopped screaming about 5/6 months old and then simply stayed awake during those hours. If you’re concerned that your baby has something then go talk to gp otherwise just help him/her get through this. Try to look after yourself as well. I recommend putting baby in a carrier, I remember sitting on pillows on the bed at five in the morning with one hour sleep thinking I was going to die haha

Oh I forgot to mention that eventually my daughter stopped staying awake at night at 8 months old! It happened only three times in two weeks and then no more! Magic haha