Refluxy 6wo sleeps all day then screams all evening until the early hours

[QueenSconetta]

Any ideas on how to keep her awake more in the day so she may sleep better at night?

She is quite difficult to wake in the day time and will quite easily sleep through nappy changes etc.

On occasional nights she is fine but mostly she will scream from about 8pm until 11.30pm then will be settled but awake as soon as I put her in her crib until midnight-2am.

I have a 3.5 year old DD too so we're generally up early and can't sleep when she sleeps during the day.

She is on Gaviscon.

Any ideas?

Get better medication.

Also don't force her awake in the day - this will make it worse.

Are you bf or ff? If bf, get her checked for tongue tie. Also speak to aBF counsellor about over supply (there might be drop in sessions near you?). If FF consider comfort milk or speak to the doctor about dairy intolerance whch will mean trying a different formula.

With my second, I basically made sure she was asleep by 6pm for the night - I made the mistake with my first of thinking he wanted a nap around this time when in fact he wanted to sleep. So I kept trying to put him down too late 8pm ish and he'd scream until the early hours. So putting Dd (my second) down at 6pm was quicker and she didn't do the screaming thing unless she had been awake too long in the day (one 2 hour wake period in the day was all she could take - the other wake times had to be 45 mins max).

I also had dd nap in the sling so she could hear quite a lot going on, would look around and be more disturbed in her sleep. She's a champion cot napper now - so having all naps in the sling didn't do any harm for the first 3 months!
I also managed to get her to take a dummy after trying many varieties...

When he's screaming 8pm - 11.30pm, is it because he wants to clusterfeed?

Thanks for that. I am BF. Oversupply? Is that just what it sounds, too much milk giving them essentially indigestion?

I think they checked her for tongue tie at the hospital when she was born.

I offer her to feed regularly but often she refuses, or she will feed then scream more. From what I've read refluxy babies will often want to feed to soothe the pain but it makes it worse as the stomach is then overfull.

We have our 6 week check on Wednesday so will ask about it then.

She's asleep in her chair just now.

It's when your boobs produce loads of milk and baby takes down loads with big gulps of air - the air gives them discomfort. Do you wind after every feed?

It's worth checking for tongue tie again - symptoms are similar to reflux. If you can have a look in her mouth, see I there's a thin strip of skin under the tongue. Or lift her top lip - is there a sort of strip of skin "tying" her lip to gum? If so, that's a lip tie which means possible tongue tie. These will also cause her to take down a lot of air.

Another option is whether she's reacting to something via your milk eg dairy. But rule out other causes first.

Finally she might just be massively overtired. Some babies get into this state a lot easier than others. They seem fine in the day then come evening it is all a bit too much, they're very unsettled and do not sleep better at night. In the end I had to introduce a loose routine because of this.

this talks about reflux vs overtired

I'm not convinced she's overtired as she sleeps most of the day, only waking for feeds and sometimes going 5 hours at a time.

I think she might have a lip tie as I have noticed a bit of skin there when she has been crying but I thought everyone had those!

I do wind her after every feed, but you can hear her gulping when she feeds. There is a BF support group here so think I will pop along. Thanks for all your help, xx.

No worries. It's worth ruling everything out. Do get her checked for tongue tie - if they seem unsure then it might well be that. Or could be oversupply. Both of which can be tackled.

Also I found waking dd up at the same time every morning helped set her routine and she got days vs nights fairly quickly compared to her brother who I let sleep in!