Is prolonged evening crying at six weeks normal or worth investigating?

[ProudSeal]

My 6 week old has always been fussy in the evenings but for the last week she has screamed inconsolably from about 7pm for hours to the point where her voice goes hoarse. She eventually falls asleep at about 11 and is relaxed through the night, waking every 2-3 hours for a feed and then going back to sleep. She sleeps fine in her next to me.

I have read about purple crying but still don’t know if I think crying for no reason is normal. Everything I read on online forums says milk allergy, but surely she would be like this during the day too?

I guess I would just like to know if this is normal or if I should be pushing for a diagnosis of something. My nervous system is shot come 7pm.

We have tried:

• pram walks
• carrying her in sling
• swaddling
• white noise
• dark room with running tap/bouncing ball
• infacol
• gripe water
• bicycle legs
• gentle hair stroking and shushing
• changing room
• feeding (she ends up screaming on the breast)

My first baby was like this until about 4 months , you have every sympathy !
I would contact the health visitor as a first step and see what they say .

Thank you. I forgot to mention that as she’s gaining weight, they’re not concerned. Glad your little one grew out of it eventually - it’s such hard work

Our middle dc did this, from
about 6 weeks. We put it down to colic and she did eventually grow out of it at about 4 months or so.
Nothing reallly helped from memory though. Dc1 was 18 months, dh and I would take it in turns to be up and mostly walk her (we lived in a tiny 1 bed flat and didn’t want to wake dc1 or our below neighbours!), I remember being very tired as she would eventually drop off about 5am and dc1 would be awake from 6 and dh off to work at 7.
It was short lived in relative terms but Jesus they were a long couple of months 🥴
sorry!

I have six kids. and one of them did this. Hospital said colic (was in for something else). I spent weeks basically walking round and round the downstairs every evening, with her pressed against my shoulder or laying against my forearm for gentle pressure on her belly. Baths, massage, dancing to lively music, drinks of boiled water, it all helped a little but it was an exhausting stage. Try to sleep when you can during day, and if possible get your partner or a granny etc to help.

i couldn’t even imagine dealing with the screaming while also having a toddler! Sounds byond exhausting although it’s reassuring it didn’t stop you from having another baby. Currently feel like I couldn’t go through this again

Colic ime

Thank you. My partner is much better able to deal with the screaming than I am and is really good at settling her which I’m grateful for

I had two that did this. Cows milk protein allergy. I cut out dairy and they were completely different babies.

I had this with my first. He had a gluten and dairy allergy but it took months to sort out but IME, they just need to sleep and can’t manage it.

my advice, put the baby down and sit outside in the cool air whenever you need to.

it’s mental torture and you need to look after yourself and your husband.

my colicky baby is a strapping boy now, and there’s no long term harm from leaving him in his safe crib to rest whilst I calmed my own nerves. He sometimes fell asleep.

Thank you. Did they have symptoms during the day too? Mine is generally quite relaxed during the day and becomes feral once the clock hits 7

Thank you. Did he have symptoms during the day too?

yeah that's the commonality with colic. It's only in the evenings when you want to sit down and watch telly. My children are in their 20s now but I used cranial osteopathy and it was miraculous. I'm very dubious about this kind of thing normally.

Normalish, sorry. A yoga ball worked best for us

Surely that’s the six week growth spurt?

My DD did this for a few weeks about that age. It was total hell she just stopped doing it at a certain point. It was also around that stage where I was feeling chaotic and I then got her into a routine which helped. I think she had been overtired before and not sleeping enough during the day. She was breastfeed.

My nephew, he was bottle-fed, was also screaming. However, it turned out he had an undiagnosed milk allergy. He lost a lot of weight and I think it has caused ongoing neurological damage. If your daughter is being breastfed, you shouldn’t have this issue at all.

Yes mine did this from 3 weeks until about 8 weeks, screaming from about 6pm till 10pm every night.

lots of walking around shushing, walking around the garden (luckily it was summer).

I found holding him in a kind of sitting/squat position with his back against my front helped get gas out.

no allergies for us - I’m convinced his gut just needed time to mature a bit and once he could basically fart at will it seemed to stop.

I had to wear ear defenders (the kind they have at airports to block the noise of jet engines!) so I could keep cuddling and singing and rocking through the howling.

GP and see your health visitor or GP, but it can be totally normal.

I agree this helped

No. Only evenings, that’s why my view is overtired/overstimulated but their little body won’t allow them to sleep for whatever reason.

My son did this, it didn't occur to me that it was anything other than normal. It would be for about 3 hours from 7pm to 10pm. I would just carry him (cuddle upright position) and walk around the living room until he calmed down. And feed intermittently. It was definitely for a few weeks.

We had this with DD, she had reflux but no allergy. During the day she would have reflux symptoms but the evening was just hours and hours of screaming and throwing up. Nothing really worked to calm it, I would just do an hour, then my husband would just do an hour although as it went further into the evening we’d probably only do half an hour each before needing to swap. She grew out of it by about 4 months and was able to go down to sleep in the evening.

You’re in the really hard bit because the baby still isn’t really doing much. You’re close to the first real smile, that’ll help. Then you’ll get a chuckle and that’ll help again. They start to get more interactive from about this stage and it feels like a little human rather than the most demanding giant potato.

It is cluster feed time or witching hour as it’s sometimes known but I’d definitely get your latch checked, see hv or gp to rule out reflux/cmpa . Is there signs of straining/ wind?

My two did this - witching hours. Very normal, very developmental, it will pass at about 3/4 months.

i found knowing it would come and knowing it would end helped. I ate before it started. Had water and snacks to hand. Something good on the TV and just breastfed through it.

Both of mine did this - witching hour. Used to watch the TV with subtitles on and play pass the baby while are dinner in shifts. It does end.

Book a cranial osteopath. It can work wonders!