6 month old screaming the house down every evening for hours at a time.

[Astrophe]

I'd love some advice.
DS has had a reasonable dinner (for a 6 month old - finger food and a pot of yughurt), a nice bath, a good breatsfeed, and then went down to sleep fairly quickly. We pat him in his cot until he is calm but ot asleep, them leave the room. Within 1/2 an hour is was awake and SCREAMING, so he picked him up for a burp, calmed him, put back in cot and patted etc. And he went to sleep. But withing 1/2 hour hes' screaming again...and so it goes on. When I say screaming, I mean screaming - hysterical screaming as if he is in terrible pain.Yet, when we pick him up he calms down and is fine. When he finally settles (after many hours) he sleeps for a few hours but is still waking every 2-4 hours all night.

DH has just given him some medised - again - but we can't give it every night and I just don't know what we are doing wrong.

Coul dhe be getting trapped wind from something he's eaten? My dd1 got this really badly, we had to be so careful as to what she had to eat.

I'm an cruel mum and wouldn't pick him up. If you know he's fed well, not in any obvious pain and tired I think I'd stay in the room with him, don't make eye contact and be really boring but don't coo and cuddle him. You could begin with your hand on his chest/back and then each night move further away until you're out of the room. When he wakes in the night do the same thing. He'll cry for maybe an hour but each night it should get less. That's what I think, probably will be shot down in flames by others but it's worked for my two little ones.

It sounds almost certainly like an ear infection to me - get his ears checked out

The fluid builds up in the ear when they lie down, but as soon as they are upright it drains away so the pain goes.

The timing of 30mins is almost exactly what I would expect for fluid to build up and pain to be excruciating

I'm really not sure how anyone could advise you to leave a screaming baby to scream - when you said it sounds like they were in pain! I am flabberghasted!!!!

For tonight I'd give calpol and or neurofen. In most cases the docs won't give anti-bs anyway - so pain killers are pretty much teh way to go!

I hope you get it sorted out soon

Is he hot?

Hes not hot.
I'm not comfortable leaving him to cry, but I would for a short while if I felt he was winding down. But he does no wind down, just gets more and more hysterical as the minutes/hours pass.

I just went up and fed him and he had an ok feed, but was not starving. He fell asleep and now, 5 mins later has woken again screaming, so DH has gone up.

He does not sleep well during the day and could be overtired - has anyone heard of tiredness causing this type of behaviour? He had a sleep from 2-3.30pm this arvo and went to bed at 7ish, and didn't seem over tired at 7.

Also, he was like this for about a month when he was 3 1/2- 4 1/2 months, and it stopped suddenly when we started solids early as we thought it was hunger (but now I think it must have been a coincidence)

Thanks for the advice so far. I will keep an eye on what foods I am giving him, and will take him to the gp for his ears.

Sounds so much like my dd1. Trust your instincts, if you feel you need to go to your baby then do so.

nearlythree, what upset you DD's tummy? My DS had yoghurt at about 4.30 after his nap.

DD1 had a temporary lactose intolerance, which left her very prone to wind from other causes. I would have thought if it were lactose you'd know by now, but if you have been bf it could be cow's milk. Foods that made her windy included baby rice, sweet potato and swede - we didn't even try potato, cauliflower or broccoli until she was 9 mo or more. I found it best to make my own baby rice by boiling white rice until soft and then putting it through a mouli, although by 6 mo you can probably just mash it if it is soft enough. I stuck to veggies like carrot, pear, and butternut squash - all quite watery. HTH

BTW the temporary lactose thing was caused by her getting a cold, which then made her tummy full of snot, which in turn irritated her stomach lining.

thanks nearlythree - will ask the GP about lactoste intolerance and ear infections then. Its just been so awful the last few weeks, he is so sad and somethings just not right, but at the same time he is driving me insane and HV and GP say I have PND, just to top it off

Where else have I seen you recently nearlythree?

Ah nearlythree I remember now How you going then?

Oh, he's screaming again...better go up

My mother died nearly 2 years ago. Recently I found a remarkable and very well written "baby book" about our childhoods in the 1960s. Today I picked it up from the lady who's typed it for me so I can email it to my siblings. What is interesting is nothing changes - same issues, sleep, illness etc. whether then, when I had my first children in the 1980s or now when my siblings are having theirs.

Some chidlren just don't sleep as much as others. My 22 year old never slept much and even now she has insomnia -poor thing.

I'm afraid I'm with flutterbye - If DS is calming down fairly quickly after you pick him up, it sounds very much like a temper cry not an in pain cry.
I'd be letting him cry a little longer - you're just teaching him that if he cries long enough he'll get his 'pick me up' wishes granted. Like flutterbye I must be a 'cruel' mum 'cos I used controlled crying and my 6 1/2 month old ds is now sleeping from 7.10pm - 6.30 am at least (every night!!) Good luck

Oh, I forgot, if you buy a comforter, put it down your shirt and wear it around the house for a couple of hours to get your scent. When you wash it you may need to do this again depending on how F takes it without your scent on it

hiya astrophe - well we also had this with the boy, along with waking every hour and half during the night, for him it turned out to be a combination of teething and wanting more solids in the day. whats DS like during the day? does he eat much/scream etc with napping - this was a key to joey see as he was screaming during his day naps as well.

we did the PUPD as well, not sure if this is something all babaies go thru? at 7 months exactly joey decided to start sleepin thru (after more sollids and more mobility) fingers crossed DS deos the same for you.

This is not a child who is unable to fall asleep by himself, which is where I believe CC might be used (shudder emotion) but a child who is managing to go to sleep by himself but waking up screaming 1/2 an hour into his sleep.

It is not at all the behaviour pattern of a wilful, non-sleeper crying for attention and I think therefore that Astrophe should investigate all possible causes of pain before settling for, what is frankly, the least probable cause!

Hi, Astrophe! Doing well, thanks. How are you -apart from being knackered, obviously.

Some Gps are aware of lactose intolerance but others rubbish the idea. I'd try to eliminate obviously gassy foods first such as brassicas, startchy veg etc and see how you get on. Has your ds had a tummy bug or cold as either could trigger a temporary lactose intolerance (in older babies and toddlers it can cause 'toddler diarrohea'). Another possibility is reflux, this is something that is relieved by being upright. As you've been through this before it does sound as though there is probably something that is causing him some discomfort. Are you bf or formula feeding? If bf then maybe you could try drinking camomile tea or similar to see if that helps, and look at your own diet; if ffeeding then you coudl talk to your hv about changing to a low-lactose milk for a while. HTH!

6 month old babies do not have a temper. They cry for a reason, and if that means they want to be picked up, then they should be picked up. ime/imo.

Anyway, Astrophe. What times does he sleep and what time does he have his dinner, bath etc?

I'm afraid both of mine were like this Astrophe Pretty much up every 30 minutes for the first 3 hours of the night, then up every 2-3 hours. Some nights are better but this is normal for me.

My first improved around 18 months - I don't know what will happen with my second as she is only a year old!

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, I will go to the GP next week. This eveing he has screamed 4 times and put himself back to sleep quite quickly (within about 2 mins) the first 3 times, but right now he is crying and has been for about 5 mins, so I will go up in a minute to help him.

Oh, DH has gone up

I am BF him, so will think about dropping dairy etc (not really sure what???) from my diet if the GP can't find anything else.

He does have a cold at the mo, but nothing major...just a little bit snotty.

He normally only manages one sleep a day, although I think 2 is optimal. I can rarely manage it though as I have a toddler who need to be out and about, and DS is so destractable he wont sleep anywhere but at home in a dark room.

He has tea at about 5.30, bath at about 6.30 and then boob and bed at 7 ish.

I really appreciate you all reading and giving your thoughts as it helps to feel not so alone in this, if nothing else!

Munz (Hi!) - he does the same thing with some day naps, but not all. But he already has three meals a day (but wont eat off a spoon, so not very substantial meals...best I can do though with finger food). He is very mobile and doesn't BF very well either, so ould be hunger but I don't know what to do about it.

Nearlythree - what does camomile tea do?

Camomile tea relaxes both you and ds and helps him with wind.