My 10 Week Old Wakes From Naps Screaming!

[AmberLillyxx]

Please send any advice you have as honestly it's getting me down now! 😓

For as long as I can remember my 10 week old always wakes up so unhappy and screaming! I hear of other people's babies "chatting" or "babbling" when they wake up but honestly my little one constantly screams as soon as he wakes up. I try to comfort him and see if he wants to go back to sleep but he refuses. The only thing that will stop him from screaming is a bottle so it makes me think he's hungry, although sometimes it's only been a couple of hours since his last bottle. It's starting to really get to me as it's horrible that he wakes up in such a horrible mood! He takes himself off to sleep so I don't think it's that he wakes up and wonders where I am as he even does it when asleep on me.
Just any advice or parents going through the same thing would be amazing!

I also forgot to add he does have a dummy which he sometimes has for sleep but I try not to always give it to him as when it falls out he can wake up! I try to give him his dummy when he wakes up but he just won't take to it and spits it out screaming.

My older one did that until he was well over two. In his case i think it was his silent reflux that was the cause originally and from that it either just developed into a habit even when his medication was mostly sufficient to reduce the pain or perhaps a fear of having a reflux attack. A feed was the only thing to soothe him as well as it diluted the acid ans reduced the pain.

although sometimes it's only been a couple of hours since his last bottle

At 10 weeks old it should be quite usual to need another bottle after only a couple of hours. Their tummies are tiny so they can't always wait that long.

@Cineraria Thank you so much for your response! The doctor has suspected that my little one has reflux and at the moment he's not having any medication for it, just anti-reflux formula which isn't fully working so this could well be the case!

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz Thank you so much for your response! I thought this as he's generally quite a hungry baby. A lot of people have been telling me he should be going 3-4 hours between bottles but he just can't unless he's sleeping🤦🏻‍♀️

Nikki ggym

My eight month old still does this. I don't know what it means, but will watch this thread with interest! He is generally a very happy and contented little boy, so don't worry too much about it.

DS did this til he was old enough to be in a bed. We didn’t have a video baby monitor so we weren’t sure if perhaps he woke up happy then started yelling for us after he’d been awake for w bit or if he just always woke up angry! He certainly never babbled or gurgled to himself, that’s for sure.

He had reflux and CMPA but outgrew this by the time he was 15 months old, but still woke with a shout even afterwards.

My first dd always woke screaming. She had very bad reflux, eventually corrected with surgery, but i think the habit was ingrained by then and she always cried on waking.
No help from me really, just sympathy - it's horrible, but normal for them. It does eventually pass.
I was always amazed when my second dd could wake up and just gaze round quite contentedly.
I'd got into the habit of instantly reacting to my first dd as the screaming/crying was awful, driven by pain as it was.

My boy always did this, but he catnapped for 30 mins at a time and I’m sure it was because he was still tired. He wouldn’t go back to sleep and once I’d picked him up and wandered about with him for a few minutes he was fine. He naps better nowadays (improved at about 7 months) and generally wakes up fine, aside from the late afternoon catnap if he has one. I’ve not worked that one out yet, I think his natural bedtime is about 5pm but I refuse to put him to bed then!
He also screams blue murder at bedtime for 5 mins before going off to sleep and I have no idea why he does that either. It’s a mystery!!
Anyway it will get better. I’d make sure he has a full tummy before you put him down for a nap.

My son also has silent reflux but even when it was properly medicated he still did this - perhaps it did become habit as PP has said.

If the baby had suspected reflux then I expect that's it. Any of us who were woken at night with bad heartburn during pregnancy will have sympathy for his discomfort!

Fingers crossed he will either get on well with a thickener like Gaviscon or Carobel to reduce emissions or something to reduce his stomach acidity like Omeprazole. I'm not sure if Ranitidine is still unavailable following the recent contamination concerns. We didn't get on with Gaviscon as administering it was too upsetting and putting him off breastfeeding. It's usually better for bottle fed babies though as it goes in their milk, although some do get constipated. For both of mine Omeprazole reduced the pain considerably, although not the actual vomiting with the one who had normal rather than silent reflux. I'm still finding little splashes in odd places two years on! I hope something works soon for you. It's such a shame to see them in pain.

Thank you all so much for your responses! I think it may be down to his reflux and think I'm going to look into getting it medicated because it's making him miserable😫