5 week old - help!

[maldivemoment]

Hi all

I'm a first time Mum to a 5 week old beautiful boy and I need your advice!

He rarely settles between feeds (breastfeeding every 2-3 hours). He will be fairly calm for about half an hour after a feed then the crying begins and there is often little to comfort him. We've tried it all and a dummy will work for a little while but then he's upset again. I suspect he may have trapped wind as he clenches his fists and arches his back/pulls his legs up when crying. Got him on Infacol at the moment. I also suspect he's a very hungry baby and am doing my best with breastfeeding but feel he's not being satisfied, despite feeding for what feels like hours sometimes. Occasionally we give him a top up of formula (1 1/2 oz) if he appears really hungry.

Furthermore, despite being exhausted because he has not really settled during the day, he will not settle down at night. Last night it took us until about 1am - I went to bed with him at 8 and he was latched on almost the whole time!- to get him to sleep. His eyes were sooooo heavy but he was fighting sleep the whole time and crying constantly. As soon as I thought he was sleeping and put him down he would wake up distressed, and his eyes are soooo huge at this time - is this a sign of an over tired baby?

Please share your advice with me and tell me what I'm doing right or not doing right!!!

Thanks in advance

This website is a great resource generally for breast feeding and the page I link to mentions dairy intolerance.

www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html

hello maldivemoment congrats on your lovely boy and glad to hear it's not been so bad the last couple of nights.
I just wanted to add my penny's worth - i think there's been some great points made here and i'm sure you'll get round to trying them all out at some point!!
firstly - he's only 5 weeks and you are both working it all out, including his little digestive system - and trapped wind is NOT NOT NOT fun, no wonder they cry so much about it

• lying him on his back and cycling his legs might work (been various suggestions like this too)
• gripe water worked SO much better than infacol etc for us, it says from 6 weeks - anyone else got any strong feelings about why you couldn't use it now instead? (i think i might try it if it were me but that's just me)
• really doing some good burping and winding after and during his feeds, just to get any air out.

and finally, swaddling/slinging it might also get him settled once the wind has passed? (plus the usual dark dark room, etc etc) I can't remember but someone did say it - try and think it's just a phase, it probably is. bless him and his poorly tummy!

With all respect to Beachcomber's hard work, I wouldn't start worry too much about dairy intolerance and other dark news until you've tried the usual physical stuff to release wind. It could be all manner of awful things (and no, I am not going to list any of them...), but remember, it probably isn't.

Tiny babies have trouble burping and farting. And just like us, they get sore tummies if they have eaten too much, or got wind.

But unlike us, they scream the house down when it happens to them!

I am sooooo glad those days are behind me with my son at the grand old age of 20 weeks... ;)

Just to clarify in case it wasn't clear in my previous post.

Avoiding dairy can also help babies who are not actually allergic/intolerant and who go on to manage dairy in their mother's diet very well as they get older.

Even if avoiding dairy does reduce wind it does not necessarily mean the baby has an allergy.

I know plenty of mums who tried this and saw a dramatic reduction in wind/colic/fusiness but whose children ate dairy with no problem when they were weaned/got older.

Lots of bad wind is not normal and it can be prevented in some cases by adjusting the mother's diet.

Hi there - this sounds similar to my DS who's now happy healthy 20 months. This behaviour is not uncommon, particularly early evening fussiness (and what is so frustratingly termed genrally as 'colic'). I found that it was trapped wind with DS. He was a very frequent and constant and slow feeder. (for an hour at a time with a 20 minute break between day and perhaps 1 hour between art night for about the first 12 weeks or more) Because of this he was taking in a lot of air throughout the day, so by evening he was fit to bust and we all know how painful trapped wind is.

I started to worry if I had enough milk which was why he wasn't satisfied for very long, so I made sure I drank lots of water and ate well and dozed my way through the first few weeks while he nuzzled. I would say not to worry and to try and embrace these early heady days of non-stop feeding and cocoon yourselves in a soft milky world for as long as you both enjoy it.

Infacol did work for us, but you do have to do it have every feed. Cycling his legs may also help. This all stopped for us quite suddenly at around 12 weeks and

I would say that you are doing absolutely marvellously already.

HTH x