baby can't go longer than 45-mins....advice?

[ali23]

DD2 has been waking every 45 min for exactly a week. During the day if i walk with him in the pram he'll stir and go back over, but nightime is just hellish. He's 21 weeks, ebf and wants to feed back to sleep at every wakening. I'm so tired that i do it and the times i've attempted to rock him to sleep he has yelled the place down. Would a-wake-to-sleep plan work? Anyone else got through this?

How many sides do you feed from with each feed?

he has reflux, so usually only one. The problem is he feeds and is then sick, largely because ithink he's overfeeding. was a big baby 9lb 4oz - and has had a steady weight gain. He is now just uner 17lb. sorry for poor grammer, going at it with one hand!

I had this with one of mine. It didn't stop until I tried mashed potato during weaning. I mentioned this to the paed and he said 'oh yeah, potato milk would of probably have helped.' I wanted to punch him in the face.

Try potato milk. No idea how you get it though.

er, that should read DS [bush]. sleep deprivation and all that!

Is he on medication for his reflux?

I wouldn't worry about the day naps. That's normal. For night sleep see if you can get medication to neutralise the acid. Also have you considered a dummy and putting him down on his left hand side at night to help keep his food down? Also wind by rubbing not patting as burps can make him sick up.

DS had reflux and it was a special kind of hell. At night he'd get bum wind and would want feeding to soothe him. From 5.5 months he slept on his front (he could roll by then) which made a huge difference - legs tucked under so bum in air, slightly folded. Can you try putting him down like that if he can roll?

and

he's on gaviscon, but it hasn't been a huge help to be honest and gp has told me to stick with it. he can roll over but wary of putting him to sleep any way other than on his back.

Scrap the gaviscon and ask for something else. Ranitidne and domperidone are options.

I can understand your reluctance not to put on his back. Can you put his cot on an angle instead - use a couple of bricks? What about putting him on his left hand side, with this left arm stretched out to stop him rolling on his face. That's what we did with DS then one night he flipped onto his front and slept until 3am without waking so from then we put him on his front.

You might want to think about early weaning too - just a few spoons of baby rice if you think he's ready? Sitting up, grabbing, losing tongue thrust?

Can you see in my window, Iggly?!
Just started baby rice on Sunday. DS currently asleep now on propped up crib with a cuddly toy under him. He is slightly on his left and teddy is stoppong him roll right over. Fingers crossed.
On the medication front, my GP was very particular about nothing other than Gaviscon - and I had to be a pest just to get that. Because DS is 'thriving' they have dismissed need for meds. To me, however, he is a happy baby until he is fed and then he cries after every sinly feed and is always, always sick. To me it's the acid that is probably causing the pain. Doc disagrees and thinks it is nothing more than an immature stomach. Also advised me not to wean prematurely. Ooops, DS awake....

Can you try a different GP? that's what we did. Three in fact! The ranitidine was what made the difference.

The other thing to do is try a dummy for after day feeds, wind wind wind loads. I had to do it for twenty minutes after night feeds. Also no trousers and very loose nappies to keep the pressure off of his stomach.

Are you having dairy? It's worth trying to cut it out for a couple of weeks (and soya). Some reflux babies are intolerant to dairy and soya even via BM. I had to cut it out - had oat or rice milk as substitutes plus plenty of ovaltine to get calcium!

Other thing to be careful of - we found DS's reflux flared up if we gave formula, anything acidic (tomatoes, citrus fruits, pineapples) and foods like broccoli, leeks, green peas gave him wind. So be careful with solids in terms of what you try.

Thanks, Iggly.

You're welcome. It will get better - for us it was around 6 months that it did although blips inbetween. Now he's 15 months and things are alot easier.

Try and get regular breaks - someone take him for an hour while you lie down at the weekend for example. It helps.