Night / sleep crying 6 week old

[SR00]

My 6 week old son has started crying very frequently in the night. Typically goes to sleep about 10pm and is relatively settled. He then wakes for a feed about 1am. When I put him down after this he is either asleep or falls asleep quickly but then starts crying minutes later. When I check on him he seems to be asleep and will calm down again after ten to fifteen minutes either in his own or with white noise or patting. If I pick him up he still cries. This cycle repeats every hour or so until 7am (has another feed approx 4am). I do wonder if it is gas as he often passes wind during this time. I’ve also noted that during his evening feeds (formula fed) he will often start crying, aching his back and struggle to drink but is then distressed and still appears to be hungry - he often passes wind or opens his bowels during these feeds and that seems to help. I have tried swaddling, dummy, cuddles, infacol, white noise and rocking and he sleeps in a next to me crib but nothing has really helped. It rarely happens during daytime naps.

Is this normal or should I be worried?
I’m concerned that he maybe getting poor quality sleep (I certainly am!) .
Anything else I could try?

Congrats on your new baby!

What's his nappies like with his bowel movements? Skin ok? How is he during the day

Mines was like this and had reflux and cows milk intolerance so was put on prescribed milk. Some babies cant digest cows milk very well.

My baby was very colicky at that age so I sympathise! Are you using anti colic bottles? We found the Mam ones really helped his wind, but I think he just grew out of it by about 10/12 weeks. He used to work really hard at his bowel movements (they were always soft and normal) and he still is incredibly farty, especially in his sleep. He was a bit refluxy but the puking significantly reduced when I changed him to anti reflux formula without medicating it and he is now 5 months and much more content.

Perhaps try some gripe water? Giving regular doses really helped my windy baby.

Thank you. Yes we’re using anti colic mam bottles. Skin is fine. Bowel movements are soft but does seem to work hard and typically goes 2-5 x day. I don’t think reflux is really an issue as he only vomits very occasionally maybe 5-6 times in his life and this seems to be when he’s eaten too fast or with Tommee Tippee bottles (think flow rate was just too fast though). Will try gripe water and hope he just grows out of it.

Try Colief in his bottles, helps them to digest.
Reflux doesn't always manifest as vomiting though, they can have 'silent' reflux which is basically heartburn. It seems to often coincide with dairy intolerance.

Hi, some of the symptoms, back arching, crying while feeding is signs of reflux, does he do this on all feeds or just the evening one?

He’s mainly distressed at evening and night feeds but can occasionally happen with other ones. During the day he often sleeps on me/ in a sling or in the pram if we’re out so maybe being more upright during the day helps.

I could have written this, but DS is breastfeed (some directly, some expressed). Watching thread with interest for any tips, out just reassurance they'll grow out of it soon!

DS was initially breastfed then had expressed breast milk and formula combination and then gradually weaned of breastmilk which has just made me think the timing of this was around the time he switched to just formula. Not sure if that’s coincidence or not?

My daughter has reflux and is on gaviscon and rinitadine, before the gaviscon she was sick at every feed, once she was on it, it stopped her being sick but was still uncomfortable and had to be upright all the time so they put her on rinitidine as the doctors thought she then had silent reflux which causes burning in the chest. I would mention it to your doctor and see what they think. Unless it is just a build up of wind which does get better around 12 weeks when they start to riggle around more.