Catnaps, reflux, feeding strike, 3 hours at night

[Panda368]

The boy is nearly 4 months old. He has never slept more than 4 hour at night max. Usually it’s 2.5-3 all night. He cat naps in the day only doing 30min at a time in his cot (or swing) sometimes he will sleep for an hour if held.
He has reflux and I’m giving him renatadine, the dr upped the does last week which seems to have made him more sicky, gaviscon makes him constipated and he was waking up crying and straining so I took him off it.

I’m sure he’s got some kind of milk intolerance as sickness seems worse after I’ve had a lot of dairy but dr says no and won’t refer..

I can’t sleep in the day when he sleeps, I can’t do anything. We are cosleeping as I was falling asleep having to hold him upright for 30min after feeding. I’m just getting so frustrated with the catnaps in the day - any ideas? We haven’t even hit the 4 month regression - I don’t even know how he could regress from this?

I forgot the feeding strike - since Sunday when I try to put him on the boob he starts howling and refusing even though I know he’s hungry. It’s so frustrating. I thought it was because I’d done some excercise and the lactate had affected the taste but it’s just not ended!

IMO Rantidine is shite. Get a prescription for omeprazole (LoSec) - it's the only thing that's worked for either of my nightmare reflux babies.

Reflux or not, lots of babies will only sleep when held for the first few months, so please don't despair. My second was EXTREMELY cuddly (I posted on here while equally exasperated) but I tried a gradual withdrawal method at her nap and bedtimes when she was 6 months old, and she took to it surprisingly well. In fact she's been happily going to sleep on her own ever since, even during tricky teething days/nights. Once you have the reflux under control (and unless you've experienced it, you wouldn't know how bad it can get, so I sympathise) things will start to get easier. Remember also that as their digestive system develops, that in itself will make things easier.

With the dairy thing, it could be an intolerance, or it might not. There are plenty of very well informed people on here who will tell you this was the case with their own baby, but remember it is rare, so don't pin all your hopes there. The first step would be to eliminate dairy from your diet completely, and it can take a couple of weeks to impact on the baby. Definitely give it a try but don't despair if it makes no difference (as was my own experience).

If you do try it and then still believe this is the case, then push, push, push. When I had my first daughter, who used to projectile vomit in her sleep, I was told by the same doctor twice that "all babies vomit" and "maybe your anxiety is the problem". This was until his colleague saw DD1 throwing up in the waiting room afterwards and sent us straight to A&E believing she might have meningitis. Her reflux really was that bad and I didn't feel listened to. So make sure you are.

With the dairy thing I eliminated for 2 weeks before seeing the health visitor and then tested myself before seeing her and he was again really sicky after seeming to improve while I was non dairy, HV agreed with me and told me I needed to see dr and gave me the info for the cmpa pathway.

When I saw dr he said it sounded more like untreated reflux and because he didn’t have anaphylactic symptoms. Then said if it was a suspected dairy problem he’d just prescribe the non dairy formula and I would have to stop breastfeeding. No mention of dietician referral for weaning which hv mentioned.

I’m still dairy free atm along with the addditional renatadine though I slipped up yesterday afternoon and all the acid reflux symptoms returned last night with back arching and fussing then 3 poos already today instead of the usual 1.

I don’t know if it’s the reflux that makes him need to feed every 2 hour day and night or if that’s just him he’s been like this since we bought him back from hospital, I would kill for a 4 hour stretch at night, everyone else seems to be getting 5-6 hours and I’m just dead!