Please help my exhausted friend & her non-sleeping 6week old

[BobbysBeardOfWonder]

Am posting on behalf of a friend (yet to sign up to MN )

Her DS is 6 weeks old & has had all sorts of problems feeding since birth. Now he's having trouble sleeping anywhere apart from on his mum's chest. Totally normal of course, but my friend is therefore not getting any sleep. At all.

I've suggested things like co-sleeping, sling during the day, but not sure what else to suggest (apart from This Too Shall Pass).

Does anyone have experience of a newborn like this? My DC were/are generally happy to go in their crib once their tummy was full.

Hello!

My 5wo is very similar, in fact I posted something very similar on Sunday night. However we have had some improvement. This is probably frowned on by a lot of peeps but we discovered my DD liked to sleep on her front. So we are now letting her nap on her front next to me during the day and then swaddling her on her back at night.

I have found she is sleeping better and feeding better as she is not as tired (nor am i)

Might be worth trying the swaddle?

Good luck and lovely of you to support your friend,

Thanks for the reply. I think her DS might have silent reflux, it would explain a lot of things. I don't think she's keen on medicating though, so not sure what else she could try. I'll suggest your solution though

To get some sleep she needs a shift system with her partner. It is ridiculous to get zero sleep, nobody can cope with that. Definitely rty swaddling and if reflux is an issue then elevate the head end of the cot, put a couple of books under the legs. If reflux is suggested she does need to take him to the doctors and medication could make a huge difference. Is he seeming in pain after his feeds in the day?

Might be worth trying a combination of swaddling, putting crib / moses at angle (higher at head end) and some quite loud white noise. Google Harvey Karp as he has some good suggestions using these methods.

We had similar issues and had a postnatal doula come and help us. She helped to give us confidence on how to settle him in the day and we also had her stay a couple of nights. She would settle him in the nursery (although in with us usually) and just bring him to me for feeds.

She is already elevating his cot but is reluctant to go down the medication route so soon.
I'll look at the Harvey Karp stuff thanks

Sounds like my 6month old ds, was so exhausting. Then hv recommended taking him to a chiropractor. Not cheap, but worked! Also recommend swaddling

Chiropractor - my children's centre has one who treats for free. Might be worth asking just in case hers does too. I've heard it can work wonders. Not sure it did much for my DD but certainly did no harm!