Baby struggling with gas at night

[Motherhippo]

I feel like I'm at my wits end. I've yet to sleep more than a couple of hours and this has been going on for weeks.
My DD is nearly 21 weeks and is suffering really badly with gas at night. I can hear it bubbling round in her little belly. As a result she is thrashing around and crying in her sleep. The only thing that will soothe her is to pick her up and hold her at my shoulder. As soon as I put her down she starts her sleep crying. This now means I'm getting no sleep. She is very heavy and it's killing my back. She's a poor napper so I'm not getting a chance to sleep during the day. It's really getting me down. She's exclusively BF and I'm trying to burp her as best I can but clearly I'm doing something wrong

My baby had bad gas too I tried bf with baby held in a practically vertical position but made no difference.

Have you tried taking her to the gp. They can prescribe a baby antacid to help with the gas. This is what worked for us.

I'm sure you're doing a great job x

I burped dd best on my shoulder but dh burped her best by lying her face down diagonally across his thigh, supporting her head with one hand and rubbing her back in circles with his other hand.

Have you done any baby massage classes? There's some that are specifically to aid digestion. There might be something on YouTube.

Have you tried Infracol or Gripe Water? Infracol did nothing for my dd but Gripe Water helped a lot - she'd do a huge burp or fart a little while after having it and then relax! Friends' children have only responded well to Infracol.

We put blocks under the head end of dd's cot too, to keep her head higher than her tummy too.

Thanks for the advice. I was militant with burping and keeping her upright for 30 minutes after every feed. Much better night last night I'm going to get some gripe water today just in case.

Came here to post this exact query- DS is 6 weeks old and struggles with farts from about 5am.... writhing, screeching in pain, doesn’t want to feed but only sleep on me. I must not have been burping him well enough... Will be starting a strong routine of burping and using Infacol, and switch to Gripe Water if it doesn’t help. Very tired.

Goostacean. 6 weeks old baby think my LO was still struggling with burping when awake too. Try the bicycle legs they really helped. Also I've been religiously keeping her upright for 30 minutes after every feed (even at night) It's really worked, I haven't had to use Infacol or gripe water.

My 15 week old suffered with bad trapped wind when he was around 8 weeks old. Infacol before every feed really helped.. gas came up quicker and after a week of continued use it seemed to get much better.

That’s really good to know; I’ve adopted a regime of Infacol before each feed, rigorous burping, and keeping him upright. Just now he lay flat in the carrycot for about 45mins whilst we had dinner, awake, without a peep. Unheard of so far in his life, so it seems to be working miraculously quickly! I really hope we have a good night as a result.

I’m back again, unfortunately.

Baby did have two better nights with a 4-5h stretch, then another nightmare with hourly wakings and gassy straining from 4am, and last night was 2.5h wakings on the dot. I’m utterly miserable and fighting a cold.

What’s next? Bottle of formula before bed, see if that helps him sleep longer?

@Goostacean - I'm not sure formula will help, could even cause more problems as it's harder to digest. My DD has always been gassy/refluxy and she used to be combination fed (formula in the evening with DH while I got some sleep), then switched to EBF when she started refusing the bottle - the change didn't seem to make a difference one way or the other. Either way, your DS is sleeping better than DD ever did at that age!

A thought I don't think others have mentioned - have you had baby's latch checked? If it's not great he could be taking in some air while feeding which won't help with the gas. Most areas have 'baby cafes' where you can see a lactation consultant for advice - ask your health visitor.

Wow, poor you... I’m really not enjoying the nighttime challenge, especially with a toddler to handle too. Urgh.

Funny you mention the latch- he was born 10lbs6 and is continuing to track at 98th percentile or so, but he died sometimes seem to have a less solid latch than DS1. Worth investigating.

Baby probiotics (Biogaia) really made a difference to my son was a baby. He would scream and bring his knees up to his chest like he was in pain for the first 6 weeks. I think his digestive system needed to mature.

Goostacean I started with formula with DD whilst I was waiting for my milk to come in. Her gas was actually worse when bottle fed as their is a lot more air in a bottle than your breasts. Your baby and mine must be in sync as literally mine was fussing (without waking) constantly throughout the night. I felt like death warmed up this morning!!! She’s hardcore teething right now so her daytime naps are not happening. ThePurpleMoose makes a good point about the latch. 5 months in and I still have to correct my LO sometimes. Hang in there you’re doing great!! I don’t know if others would think this is the best idea but sleeping with LO at my shoulder have me a bit of respite. Not the comfiest sleep I’ve had, but I did sort of nap with less fussing with her on my shoulder.