Baby just cries when awake

[Tiredmumtoboy]

I posted this on the behaviour and development section but didn't receive any advice or response

My 6 week old from birth is a restless baby. Hes never content to just sit and be. He just screams the house down unless he's breastfeeding and even breast feeding he's difficult, constantly pulling my nipple or de latching and latching. The only time I get peace is the rare times he sleeps. As soon as he wakes up he's screaming. He hasn't got tongue tie.

Is there something wrong with this baby. Doctors are saying he's normal no allergies that they can see.

Who has told you he doesn’t have a tongue tie? If it was a midwife/dr then I would ignore and go see a private lactation consultant.

I would double check tongue tie, could it be wind maybe? Although unlikely that would be all day.

It could just be colic OP, that does tend to be at its worst at around 6 weeks but goes away on its own by 3 ish months typically.

Good luck I know it is tough! X

Look into cmpa. Nobody listened to me that something want right until we started weaning at 6 months and it was clearly allergies all along

Does it seem like he's in pain, especially after a feed? Curious how they've ruled out allergies so quick 🤔 does he scream more when lying down because possible reflux maybe?

Mum of 9 breastfed babies here. My immediate thoughts are colic/wind, cows milk protein allergy (if it's this you'd need to go diary free yourself or switch to bottle feeding), reflux. If he were mine I'd just rule all of the ones you can out. So treat for reflux and cmpa and see if things improve and do the things known to help wind/colic. Congratulations on your baby!

Hungry possibly but if gaining unlikely.

colic, reflux or allergy (cmpa) would be my first guesses.

if your baby has a snotty nose, or cradle cap / skin issues they can be secondary signs of cmpa. Poor or slow weight gain is also a sign.

i felt my 2nd child wasn’t right…. He wasn’t happy and Weight gain was happening but slow and with huge effort from me. I was told by at least 4 health care professionals my child absolutely categorically did not have an allergy. At 6 weeks I took him to a private specialist who basically took one look at him and said his had several classic signs of CMPA and within 72 hours on new formula he was a different child.

I would recommend a session with an IBCLC who deals with tongue tie. If it isn’t a tie they can still help with some advice on latch, positioning etc. My first was a really unsettled baby but I believed the health visitor and GPs that told me she didn’t have a tie, until I finally got her diagnosed at 11 months!

Also look for any other symptoms of CMPA and consider cutting dairy from your diet.

My second baby is now 5 months and so much more settled. It is a totally different experience and has made me realise how objectively hard it was first time around.

Sounds like CMPA to me but could be silent reflux (or both as my baby had silent reflux as a result of CMPA)

With the tongue tie I've had three different people shove their fingers in his mouth and fiddle. One was the Peds doctors on discharge after birth. One was a GP and the other was a lactational specialist midwife.

With cows milk. I'll give it a go and see if there is any improvement. I was told by a doctor that with cows milk allergies people are quick to jump to this conclusion. But Im lactose free myself and have only lactose free foods. His cousin's both are fully allergic to cows milk as children and one is deathly allergic to egg.

I'll miss the cheese 😭 however I'm lucky enough to have found a really nice dairy free ice-cream already 👍

You have just described my son to a tee. He was diagnosed with CMPA at skx
weeks old and later, with soya allergy.

The fact that your baby is not settling when feeding is very telling.

I was breastfeeding and cut out dairy…in time we weaned onto a dairy free formula.

But it wasn’t until he had been diagnosed with Gastro Oesophageal Reflux Disease and prescribed medication that we started to see any improvements.

Push your GP for a paediatric appointment and don’t be fobbed off by them telling you they look normal. Unless the proper investigation has been conducted by a specialist paediatrician, how can they know?

My baby was like this. But bottle fed. He had cpma. But I had to sit in the reception of the Dr's with both of us crying before anyone would listen to me.

He was prescribed aptamil pepti and was a totally different baby within 48 hours. Sleeping better, more settled and more than happy to be put down.

Hi! It's been a long time since this post. Lots of stuff has happened. He's currently dairy free. I'm dairy free but we are starting to re introduce dairy into my diet. With success. He's still being sick alot even on dairy free, but not crying all the time.

The dairy free formula (Neocate or tea as I call it) causes him to have extremaly painful gas to the point he's steaming in agony before farting or burping. I don't think it's doing him any good when he has it. So we still have challenges especially seen as I go back to work in 2 weeks and I can't seem to pump enough milk...

Hi, as I said this is an old post now. He was given Neocate as he projectile vomited on pepti stuff. He actually is crap on all formula so is only bfed.

It’s really tough OP… and can be down to a lot of trial and error.
Hope you continue to have success reintroducing dairy. Not sure if you are aware that soya allergy/intolerance is highly prevalent in children with diary intolerance/allergy as they are similar moleculary. My childs paediatrician told us that 50% of kids with diary allergy also had soya allergy.

Hi,

He's doing OK with the reintroduction. The only thing he has is this reflux issue on the bottle and bad wind. It's definitely not a soy thing as he has 0 symptoms other than reflux. Plus neocate is hypoallergenic formula anyway.

I would say it’s reflux/colic and he needs omeprazole. Our son cried from 2 weeks-3 months and it was hell. We got omeprazole half way through and he gradually got better, he was a different baby within a month. He came off it when we started weaning x

Doctor won't give it to us.

They keep giving us baby gavascon but he gets bunged up.

They might when he turns 6 months.

@Tiredmumtoboy you need to insist or ask a different doctor for an opinion. Sorry they are being so difficult! Omeprazole really works but they don’t like to give it because it’s expensive. Gaviscon does naff all in my experience!

if they won’t give it ask them what they want to do to help your baby who is suffering? It’s cruel to deny your baby what it needs because of budgets x

This describes my daughter to a tee. She had multiple allergies including coconut which meant she couldn't have neocate only alfamino.
She also has severe silent reflux that only responds to the highest doses of omperazole and needs gaviscon and domperidone too. She had to lactulose for a while because of the gaviscon constipation. My daughter is 4 now and hasn't outgrown either her reflux or her allergies
Push for reflux treatment, it's not always just due to allergies it can be in addition

I know it's not other allergies as he's now only got reflux.

I will push for more treatment for it though. Thank you for encouraging me