Windy baby doesn't sleep day and night

[NanaJoy]

Hi,

I am new to Mumsnet. I read all the threads about windy babies and I am glad I am not alone, struggling with a very windy 7 month old baby. Everyone around me says it should have cleared by now and here we are to prove them all wrong.

My DS wakes up a few times during each nap and a few times at night, bringing his feet up, arching his back and screaming and the only things that seem to help are bouncing him on the yoga ball and bringing his feet up to release the wind and then he usually resettles after around 15-30min. We give gripe water and probiotics and I tried drinking loads of fennel tea and excluding many foods from my diet (he is BF) but nothing seems to do the magic.

I am really exhausted and it feels quite liberating to just admit it. I have 2 questions on which I would appreciate some insight:

1. Any chance swapping BF for formula would make him produce less wind in his intestines? This is probably the only thing I haven't tried
2. Do you think he is actually getting used to relying on me to help release his wind? Can babies pass wind and fart in their sleep?

I am not prepared to leave him to cry but I also don't want to create a habit of needing me to resettle instead of helping him pass wind on his own.

Thanks,

He sounds in lots of discomfort - warm bath and winding thoroughly (burp and cycling legs) may help in evenings. I'd also suggest checking him out with a cranial osteopath - helped massively with DS2 when he had similar issues at 3 months.

Have you tried cutting dairy & soya out your diet? DS has a cows milk protein problem which causes wind issues & general tummy discomfort. It seems to be quite common. If this were the case, formula would make it much worse as it's made from cows milk.

I found once DS could move around more the wind eased & he could get it out himself. He will wake up at night to have a good fart Not sure they can become reliant on you. How are you helping him?

Thanks!

Seriouslysleepdeprived - how did you know it is a dairy thing? I have excluded dairy for a week awhile ago but that didnt seem to make much of a difference. I do eat quite a bit of dairy though... might try excluding again...

as for becoming reliant - I hold him in an upright cradle position and bring his legs up and bounce him on the yoga ball so it seems its easier for him to expel the wind...

yea.. probably just gotta hold it together and wait and wait and wait for him to stop farting like crazy :-)

At what age did your DS get better?

DS is under the care of a gastro paediatrician for his reflux. He advised me to eliminate dairy & soya as suspected he may have problems with it.

I was a bit sceptical tbh but did it anyway for 4.5 months. A couple of weeks ago he said to reintroduce soy for a week, then dairy to see how he was. DS had a reaction to the soy & was very unsettled after two days so I stopped again.

If your LO if having lots of issues at 7 months, it may well be something dietary. If you do cut it out, it takes 4 weeks to see results. Two weeks for it to leave your body & two weeks for theirs.

The arching & screaming sound refluxy to me. Does he have reflux?

Sounds like reflux - poor kid and poor you!