Grunting and agitated

[bby2024]

Have a newborn who is 2 weeks old and he has recently started grunting and becoming agitated during the whole night.
He is being fed hip organic formula since birth and burps well but recently he has started grunting every 5 minutes and when I pick him up he seems very agitated and tenses body up kicks legs out straight and then eventually cries.
Have tried to comfort him or burp him again but nothing seems to work. The crying does stop after a while and manage to get him down but this takes around 1-3 hours and then it starts again.

Have tried to give him infacol and colief on separate occasions but I am not sure if it is even colic.
Help!

Firstly,
Congratulations! I have a 6 month old and we experienced similar from the beginning,
There was a lot of grunting, agitation, pulling legs up etc. does your baby have any sort of spots? I'm thinking milk allergy? You mentioned what formula you are using but I've never heard of it so I'm not sure on the ingredients.y daughter was on aptamil and similar to your baby, I spoke with health visitor who got the gp to prescribe a formula for milk alllergy, this did not agree with her at all so I went to cow and gate still the same issues, in the end it turns out she has cows milk protein allergy and the new milk she has works wonders, completely different baby and I wish I had of had it from the early days. Definitely worth speaking to gp or health visitor - they were very helpful with me and listened immediately, I did have the same issues myself when I was a baby so may be why. I know other mums had real issues getting them to listen, prescribe the milk just keep pushing

Ashton and parsons powders will soothe him.

Thank you! Its been a big learning curve and the sleep struggle is hard but when you see his little face you forget all the worries.

We are using Hip Organic formula 1st infant formula. He has baby acne spots at the moment but they are clearing, have not noticed any other spots.

Interesting to know in regards to the milk allergy. Thing is he has been fine for a week and a half on this formula, I am now on the second box and the issues have only just started so not quite sure.

I wouldn’t want to be giving sugar to a tiny baby. Although sugar does temperorily reduce pain.

@bby2024 it gets easier I promise, just keep an eye and don't be afraid to call your health visitor for advice x

Thanks, which formula did you change to?

If he is grunting that is not normal ? Does he have a fever ? Is he breathing quickly.
i think your baby needs a check with a doctor quickly to assess pneumonia ( from a GP)

@bby2024 we are using sma alfamino why is a hypo allergenic formula, it's expensive but ours is prescribed by gp. I was researching months ago I found out that Kendamil is supposed to have broken down lactose or something so may be worth a try,
Also there are some drops I think it's Coleif that is supposed to break down lactose too

I've been told by health visitor and paramedics (not called for this reason) grunting is normal in newborns

Why are you giving false advice. Alot of posts here and doctors have said grunting is normal.
his breathing is fine nothing to do with pneumonia!

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24109-dyschezia

My baby grunted SO much in her sleep at that age. No allergies; just totally normal grunting newborn behaviour! Like having a little gremlin in the room...

I am so sorry OP.
I did not want to cause you upset.
Babies do make funny noises but it was the grunting along with baby being agitated that made me worried… that’s why I asked about breathing rate and fever.
I can ask for my reply to be delayed if you would like that.

Sounds like the same symptoms my baby is having. How did you resolve this, he seems in so much pain. Has not slept the whole night and I am so tired.

It depends what you mean by grunting. In maternity and paediatric care grunting is a specific term describing an expiratory grunt that can indicate breathing problems. It was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. Obviously the thread is about a different kind of grunt. Given that we are in RSV season it was a reasonable misunderstanding IMO.

Its more him making noise struggling to push a poo out or struggling with something as he goes red and gets agitated

Yes, I realised that, but I was just explaining that the pp who took the word "grunting" to mean the medical term was offering advice on that basis.
(If I was at work and a colleague said "baby x is grunting", in that setting that would mean breathing difficulty).
The pp was not giving false advice. It was a misunderstanding of words.
I hope you get to the bottom of what is causing your baby's discomfort.

I would recommend starting with the most likely cause, trapped wind. Wind,wind and wind him some more.

Lots of advice on a variety of techniques, use at least three was the advice given to me a long time ago.

Mine always grunted but I did feel a little more relaxed knowing they hadn't trapped wind. By all means check in with HV. GP. But I know the advice my sister gave, no natal nurse was a lot of the time it's wind and as they age it can become uncomfortable.

I think constipation can happen in formula fed babies & it seems like you can ask your health visitor for advice, from what this page says. The HV might recommend something to soften the baby's poo IF that's the problem https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/feeding-your-baby/bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding-challenges/constipation-and-bottle-feeding/

But with my LO, at that point she was 90% breastfed and STILL made these noises and just pooed after every feed... That didn't change until she reached six weeks. I don't know what's normal for your baby, but the health visitor will have loads of experience so I think they would be my first port of call.

It might also/instead be wind as other people say. I didn't put the baby down after a feed until she had done at least one good burp. It didn't stop the grunting and active sleep (Google it - little thrashing sleeping newborn babies!), but it did reduce the crying and spitting up.