Painful wind? - a farting question

[gillhowe]

Any advice gratefully recieved!

Ds is nearly 15 months, he's always been a dreadful sleeper.

Over the past few weeks I've noticed that from about 2am he will occaisionally squirm and cry, fart and then settle for a bit. Sometimes he will cry quite hard and wake up, clearly in some distress sometimes it will only take a few seconds.

It definitely seems like something is hurting him and farting seems to relieve it a bit. I've tried watching what he eats but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

The last thing he has at night is about 7oz of cows milk, I'm not sure if that could be the problem - he doesn't have any other signs of a lactose problem.

Anybody else have a distressed farting baby?

I wish i could offer advice instead of merely sympathy. My ten-week old is exactly the same. With him it all rests on when he last managed to poo so i'd love to know if anyone knows how to make a (breast-fed) baby get his bowels moving..?

My 2 1/2 year-old was just the same and if it helps i should say that she grew out of it in spite of cow's milk before bed.

Good luck.

Hi - I'm new to all this and the wee man is only 5 weeks - but so far it seems the only way to guarantee a bowel movement is to put a clean nappy on him - little so-and-so!! He does have a lot of trouble with wind travelling downwards and regularly squirms and grunts around for a while in his bed before dropping back to sleep - sometimes gets upset and has to be picked up and waggled around 'til we find a position that works, then conks out immediately. Genuinely seem to find sucking things gets things moving, so if asking for more milk but spitting it back we sometimes just give him a finger to suck but am loathe to go the dummy route - by all accounts it's an option not to be completely dismissed tho'. Avoid spicy parsnip soup - def a bad idea!
Moominmum.

Thanks guys, I guess we will carry on and hope he grows out of it!

Agatharose, you could try massage lots of people swear by that and bicycling his legs..

An old midwife told me to drink pineapple juice when bf a constipated baby.
It is a mild laxitive and worked when my ds was doing the same straining/being upset.
Now that he is older I swear by Woodwards gripe water.

Hi all, Thanks Gill, My poor DS has had his little legs nearly bicycled out of their sockets. -I agree that it works or at least that it relieves his discomfort.

Having looked on the brilliant Kellymom website since last posting, i see that there is no evidence for the mother's diet having any effect on the child's digestion (seems it's an idea that's based on a misunderstanding of the mechanics of milk-production and B.F.ing.)-A bit disappointing as it means there are less things we can do to help matters.

Oh and by the way Moomin, can i put in a cheer for dummies. Seems to be a weird snobbery that hangs around the idea of them, but they were a godsend for us with DD. -We spent months unable to do anything bc we had to have a little finger wedged in her mouth at all times. Suddenly occured to us that we could simply buy a handy little dummy to do the job for us. =Freedom! For sucky babies i think they are the way to go...

We still have this problem with DD (8mo) but I have found the massage and nurse harvey's gripe water are very good. When she is teething she is even more farty. We've found that Nelson's Teetha helps at those moments and some people think that it helps the baby to sleep as well (basically it is chamomile so helps sleep and a sore tummy).

I have a 15 week old who has terrible wind, she often wakes up early hours of the morning every 20 mins or so seemingly in pain. I have started using gripe water so hopefully it will help. I also think she is teething which doesnt help!!! the joys of parenthood

i have a 4 month old girl who had painful farting for months and I had a similar prob. She would wake up prematuly crying and then fart like an old sailor . She is br/fed still so i thought by fixing me i might help her. My mum had told me a story about this baby goat we had when i was a child who had bad wind because he didnt get enough of the gut bacteria from his mum and I thought if it happens to a goat why not a human. I started taking a natural IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) support which contains the bacteria needed by the digestive system and a soluble fibre drink and the results have been swift and a welcome relief. Both of us have stopped having the painful wind and my baby is alot less upset and squirmy. Another product we used was INFANTS FRIEND found at the chemist. good luck

Niteowl- what was the name of the stuff you were taking for wind problems with your child?

ANother vote for bicycling legs. Also pushing both thighs up at the same time as high as they'll go, so they're in a sitting sort of position although lying down. Also kind of crossing them at the thigh by pulling on ankles, r over l, then l over r, then pulling legs wide apart. Then again, my DS loves this anyway, so that may be what cheers him up.

I have a 12 week old, she was only 5lb 11oz when she was born although not early and now weighs over 10.5 lb. I expressed for the first 3 weeks as her mouth was too small to latch on, unfortunatly my milk then dried up and started on the formula, since then she has had major trapped wind problems. I have tried colif& infactol (which made little differnce), gripe water (she spits out), changed the bottles, formula (currently on Cow&gate comfort first). The only time she does not suffer is at night (usually as she is practically asleep when she is fed) but from her second feed at 8am until about 7pm its bad.

It usually starts after she has taken only about 1-2 oz of her bottle, she starts squirming and then screaming in pain and arching her back, the only thing that relieves it is bouncing her on my knee with my hands under her armpits or rocking her quite high up in the air. (both of these I can only do for a short while) and once you stop unless she is fast asleep the pain comes straight back.

During the day it takes about an hour and a half to feed her 4-6oz constantly warming up the bottle as she will only take it warm. Then you have to help her get rid of the trapped wind for the next hour or so until she wants her next feed or she is totally exhausted, then the whole process starts again.

I have tried massage and moving her legs round when she is in pain but this just makes her more irritated. Distraction sometimes works but once again if you move her position she screams in pain again. I have often given the bottle to her standing up and rocking her at the same time, while she is falling asleep. (very uncomfortable).

It doesn't seem to make any diffence even when she lets out big burps after her bottle it still gets trapped a little while later, If I move her when she is happy - The trapped wind often rears its ugly head again.

Does anyone else have the same problem or any more suggestions?

I took my little one to the doctor last week as she started to refuse her bottles or only have one or two oz. It turns out she has reflux, although she has only ever been sick 3 times after a feed. She is now on medication, so fingers crossed it will make a difference, and I will get my happy pain free baby back again.

My baby girl had this and we changed her to lactose free milk. Well, what a difference, wind totally disappeared! She is 2.5 years old now and just got her to have normal cow's milk again and no problems any more. We actually tried her on lactose free to help a skin condition originally, it did nothing for the skin but I noticed the nightime painful wind vanished so we kept her on it. Good luck 😀