Please help - 4 month old cries all the time

[dcmum25]

Hey! I've got an almost 4 month old daughter. She was diagnosed with CMPA at about 8 weeks so had a really tough first few months, shes on nutramigen. Things got a little better but from about 12 weeks she's been constantly upset and I'm really struggling.

She screams until she loses her voice almost every single day. Nothing works, sometimes taking her into the bathroom and running the shower gives us a momentary break but then she'll start again.

Im not convinced its due to the CMPA as all her other symptoms have gone and she takes a bottle well. Im also not convinced its reflux as we can lie her down after feeding, shes not fussy whilst eating or immediately after, no spit up etc.

She really struggles to sleep during the day (often won't sleep in the pram, car or even contact nap). Her max tends to be around 3 hours (we only get this if I dont leave the house) but we've had days where we struggle to get 2 hours. Im sure part of it is overtiredness but shes slept well today and has still screamed for over an hour.

Im so exhausted, we do get smiles here and there and shes so alert / aware when shes awake but most of the time just whinging or screaming. Please tell me it gets better, everyone said things would improve at 12 weeks!

Hmm. I’d be asking for Neocate (or another formula that’s more hypoallergenic than Nutramigen) as a first step. Sympathy to you, OP – my DD was like this and it was soul-destroying (hers was silent reflux caused by CMPA – once we got it sorted she was a different baby).

I'd first look at whether a fully dairy free milk would help nutramigen still is dairy based but broken down. What can happen is it's partially tolerated so some symptoms resolve but there's still something not quite right and you find that an amino acid formula is needed such as neocate or alfamino.

The other thing to investigate is silent reflux. My daughter has both severe silent reflux and multiple food allergies and needed high dose reflux treatment as well as me removing her allergens from my diet to stop her continuous screaming. For her it can be quite a while after eating that she starts refluxing and can continue refluxing for hours after having a drink. We can hear her bringing up drinks and swallowing it again

I dont really have any suggestions but BIG HUGS because the 12 to 13 week mark was my lowest point when I was ready to change my name and run away! My son did NOT sleep, wouldn't be put down etc. The only thing that really helped at all was putting bear baby sensory on the telly . It did slowly improve from there though.

https://www.cry-sis.org.uk/
Give these a look, maybe they can help? I hope things get better for you guys.

Thank you everyone! She does sleep really well during the night, which im eternally grateful for. Terrified for the 4 month regression...

@peachgreen do you think just the screaming alone could be linked to the dairy? I mentioned it to the doctor a while back and they just said colic and its normal so I ignored any doubts I had about the milk (especially because there's no real other symptoms). She doesn't drink loads of oz's per day (under the guidance but she is gaining weight and staying in her percentile).

@Superscientist could I ask what symptoms did your daughter have? I will mention to the doctor and see what they say.

@OhMaria2 thank you 💗

At the point of diagnosis at 18 weeks screaming all day every day to the point she was developmentally delayed . She was ok overnight. As she improved we realised she had other symptoms like loose mucus poos and slower weight growth. She had been following the 9th percentile happily but moved up to the 25th-50th once allergens were removed from her diet

The pain was DD’s only real symptom, other than a slightly odd feeding pattern (she’d gobble it down, then scream / refuse the bottle, then gobble it down again — she was in a cycle of drinking to soothe the pain but then that making it worse). It is not normal for a baby to scream all day. Don’t let them fob you off.