Wind advice and newborn not sleeping

[MillyStar9]

Hi everyone
My 2 week old is very unhappy from about 4pm all throughout the night. The HV has said she has bad wind and recommended infacol which I've got and given her 2 doses. She has also advised keeping her upright as much as possible. Does anyone have any other advice for relieving the wind? I don't think I was winding her for long enough after BF so I am spending longer on that now.
She also won't let us put her down at all and we are absolutely exhausted as she is sleeping on me at night so I'm barely sleeping as I'm worried.
Can anyone offer any tips?

Infacol at every single feed - very important. In these early weeks me and DP took shifts holding the baby until he could be put down without waking at night (daytime still an issue at 11 weeks). For us it was just as I thought I absolutely couldn't cope a second longer that he suddenly got better and last night he slept SIX HOURS in his Moses basket without waking up!!

Oh and when you can put him down raise the top end of his Moses basket on a big book or something - that helps so he's not totally flat.

Look at your own diet and see if anything makes the wind worse. I BF all 4 of mine but only with number 4 did my food seem to influence his wind. Garlic, onions, tomatoes were all culprits for me/him. Tummy massage (look up baby stomach massage for directions) cycling his legs and slings wearing in the evening when he was grumpy seemed to help. It got better round the 7/8 weeks anyway- he didn’t get distressed about farting after that!

Make sure you get as much wind up after a feed as possible. Have a look into gentle massaging to help relieve the wind. I believe we used to do clockwise circles on ds' stomach and then raise his legs into his stomach.

There’s a lot of evidence that infacol, dentinox etc have absolutely no effect sadly. I walked this path with colicky daughter, tried every snake oil around. Save your money.

Are you happy with the latch? Worth checking if there’s a mechanical reason why she’s swallowing extra air. If you’re happy her latch is good - deep, jaw by her ears moving, no sucking noises, no clicking noises - then look at your milk supply.

Do you have an over-supply of milk? Do you think she’s absolutely 100% draining your breast after a feed? If not, then oversupply can lead to her only having the watery, sugary “fore milk”. This makes babies more gassy. If this is a possibility (providing she definitely doesn’t have any issues with regaining her birth weight), then try “block feeding” - same breast for 2 feeds so she is reaching the fatty “hind milk” and not having so much lactose.

Hang on in there. It’s fucking hard having a colicky baby, but they come through it xxx

The infacol needs to be given before every single feed and will take a few days to be effective.

Unfortunately the rest of it is really normal for a two week old baby. Some babies are just more colicky than others.

As other posters have suggested there are some other things you can try like cycling her legs and I found the 'tiger in the tree' hold particularly effective for bringing up wind. At 4 weeks you can start giving gripe water which I found much more instantly effective than infacol.

Look at planning on co-sleeping safely so you an catch a few hours, either that or at some point in the next few days get someone else to hold the baby for a bit so you can have a nap. Everything is much more manageable when you have had a bit of sleep.

Finally, try a sling if you haven't got one already. It won't help the sleeping at night but it will keep her upright and on you during the day so you can get other stuff done.

Do you have a partner? What are they doing?

Thanks so much everyone. We have seen an improvement already trying lots of these things. She loves the sling so I've had her in that a lot of the day. She hasn't regained all her birth weight so perhaps the latch isn't right. Our morning feeds are much calmer. Unfortunately this evening she has started her frenzied feeding again. I will have to persist with all the tips and hopefully we'll get through it. My husband is brilliant he does everything except the actual BF but he has gone back to work today.

The frenzy in the evening really isn't anything you are doing/not doing so don't expend too much energy trying to fix it. It's something a lot of (all?) babies do to differing extents for a few weeks and then it usually just sorts itself out.

I can't remember the reason why it's evenings but I remember calling it the witching hour more like 3 hours, at least and not being able to have an uninterrupted hot meal in the evening for weeks and weeks.

I think it's something to do with it being prime cluster feeding time or similar?

Oh thank you that is reassuring. She didn't do it last night so I had my hopes up it was over!

She also won't let us put her down at all and we are absolutely exhausted as she is sleeping on me at night so I'm barely sleeping as I'm worried

Utterly normal. Read up on the fourth trimester and safe Co sleeping.

Ds was relentless from 5pm - midnight at that age. Cluster feeding with only tiny cat naps in between sessions.

He also didn't like to be put down, so we didn't. He was in the sling or held all the time. The world is a scary, big and cold place with strange smells and sounds and light. Safer to be cuddled up to mum or dad.