Hi everyone, I’m hoping to hear from anyone whose baby has had similar gastro issues because I’m struggling to work out what is normal baby digestive stuff and what isn’t.
My little boy is 4.5 months old and, essentially, has had stomach/digestive issues for most of his life. He’s otherwise doing really well and is thriving – he was very small at birth (around 2nd centile) and is now around the 50th centile, so weight gain definitely isn’t a concern.
However, he seems to be uncomfortable a lot. His main symptoms are:
- An enormous amount of wind – genuinely all day long, both burping and farting, and often seeming uncomfortable even when he is managing to pass it.
- Reflux – not necessarily huge amounts of vomiting, but lots of signs of reflux/discomfort.
- Frequently crying/fussing during feeds, sometimes seeming hungry but then becoming uncomfortable while drinking.
- Very loose/liquidy and sometimes explosive poos, which can occasionally contain mucus.
- Generally seeming like his stomach is bothering him a lot of the time.
- He also often sneezes after feeds, although I have no idea if that is relevant!
He’s always been a fairly big-volume formula drinker and continues to gain weight really well, which I think has partly made me dismiss the possibility of CMPA because I assumed a baby with an allergy would struggle to gain weight.
We’ve tried things like Infacol, different winding techniques/positions and comfort formula without any meaningful improvement.
I finally spoke to the GP about it and we’re now doing a
4-week cow’s milk protein exclusion trial with Aptamil Pepti 1, followed by a reintroduction/challenge to see whether his symptoms return. We’re only a few days into Pepti so obviously far too early to judge it properly, but so far I haven’t noticed much difference in his discomfort. He also hasn’t pooed since starting it, whereas previously he was doing very loose poos.
I’d really love to hear from anyone whose baby had a similar presentation, particularly babies who were
gaining weight really well despite having CMPA or another gastro issue.
If Pepti worked for your baby, how long did it take before you noticed a genuine difference? Was it gradual or quite dramatic? Which symptoms improved first?
And if you went down the CMPA route and it
wasn’t the answer, did you ever work out what was causing the constant wind/reflux/discomfort?
I know babies can simply be windy and refluxy, but after 4.5 months of watching him seem uncomfortable so much of the time, I’m starting to feel there must be more to it. I’d be really interested to hear other people’s experiences.