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Original poster

7 week old cannot lay on back!

13 replies

Murphy121 · 22/09/2023 06:39

Hoping for some help and other parents in similar situations who have come out the other side of have any advice/recommendations.

my baby is 7 weeks old. He is quite a chilled baby compared to our first. However night time is horrendous. He just will not burp whatever position and length of time we try, he just will not part with it.
after holding for 30-40 minutes and transfer to next to me he is awake instantly or within 5-10 minutes grunting and groaning with wind. When picked up to try shift the wind he still doesn’t. Myself and my husband are absolutely exhausted as having to take shifts in sitting up awake. If we hold him, he is content and wakes just for feeds then straight back to sleep and doesn’t make a noise.

I discussed with HV who said it’s his digestive system adjusting and improving and will be better in time but surely by 7 weeks we would have improvement.

we have tried Infacol and gripe water to help with burping at night however no change!

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DustyLee123 · 22/09/2023 07:19

Sit him on your knee with legs dangling down. Support his chin in one hand, other hand on his back. Now gently lean him down to one side towards his knees, and roll him across to the other side then back up, in a round and round motion. Try that a couple of times, holding the chin up, and see if that helps.

TheBarbieEffect · 22/09/2023 07:41

If you’re waiting till 30-40 minutes before transferring that’s probably why he’s waking.

A baby’s sleep cycle is approx 40 minutes. So their deepest sleep in that cycle is 20 - 30 minutes (this is when you want to transfer).

Between 30 - 40 minutes they start entering their light stage of sleep again, so don’t try transferring then as they’ll almost certainly wake.

Dreamlight · 22/09/2023 07:44

We had a baby who held onto wind, we found holding him over your shoulder and tapping his bottom up quite firmly worked, bit like a coke can!
Also could try lying on back and cycling his legs gently towards his tummy can get wind out.

outerlope · 22/09/2023 07:50

Ours was just like this and he had silent reflux and CMPA. Does he have any other symptoms like diarrhoea/constipation, rash, mucus in poo etc?

None of the bicycle legs or tiger holds or anything worked and we could try and wind him for such a long time and get nothing. Once we switched to CMPA formula and got his reflux under control it helped a lot.

Tiddybiddy247 · 06/10/2023 08:56

I have exactly the same thing happening 😞 he also won't be put down during the day in his moses basket. The wind thing is definitely worse at night. I've ended up co-sleeping with him on advice from my HV but my husband now sleeping in the spare room and the wind attacks make breastfeeding nearly impossible. He's so hungry but can't concentrate on feeding because he grunts in pain and pulls on and off constantly.

Everyone just keeps telling me that he'll grow out of it as his digestive system matured. Went to GP to ask advice on giving him Infacol or gripe water and the GP said they do nothing, they are just placebo. He said it's normal for his age and something you just have to live through. I cried all the way home.

At the moment I'm trying to burp him as much as I can but he HATEs it. Doing over the shoulder, sit up and cradle his chin... lying across lap...he will burp but fights like a wild cat

DustyLee123 · 06/10/2023 09:00

Tiddybiddy247 · 06/10/2023 08:56

I have exactly the same thing happening 😞 he also won't be put down during the day in his moses basket. The wind thing is definitely worse at night. I've ended up co-sleeping with him on advice from my HV but my husband now sleeping in the spare room and the wind attacks make breastfeeding nearly impossible. He's so hungry but can't concentrate on feeding because he grunts in pain and pulls on and off constantly.

Everyone just keeps telling me that he'll grow out of it as his digestive system matured. Went to GP to ask advice on giving him Infacol or gripe water and the GP said they do nothing, they are just placebo. He said it's normal for his age and something you just have to live through. I cried all the way home.

At the moment I'm trying to burp him as much as I can but he HATEs it. Doing over the shoulder, sit up and cradle his chin... lying across lap...he will burp but fights like a wild cat

Rubbish, rubbish rubbish. The infacol does work. You have to give it at every feed, and it does work. Takes a little time to work but stick with it.

Schum · 06/10/2023 09:30

My Ds3&4 were the same, I saw an osteopath with them. It was like a miracle, I remember my youngest came home and slept on his back for 2 hours that afternoon.

ColleenDonaghy · 06/10/2023 10:04

Are you sure it's wind? My first was obviously in pain lying down but content being held upright. In her case it was silent reflux and medication helped enormously. She did outgrow it starting around 3 months.

If you think it might be reflux related, try stopping the infacol etc as they can make wind worse.

QuestionableMouse · 06/10/2023 10:07

DustyLee123 · 06/10/2023 09:00

Rubbish, rubbish rubbish. The infacol does work. You have to give it at every feed, and it does work. Takes a little time to work but stick with it.

Show quote history

What a nasty response! It won't work if baby has reflux or cmpa or some other intolerance.

Original poster
Murphy121 · 06/10/2023 13:15

I feel for you, it’s awful isn’t it.
I don’t think it’s normal and spoke to the HV this week and we discussed silent reflux as I felt my little boy had similar symptoms to this. I spoke to the GP who agreed to try some medication as I said I can’t wait until he gets to 1 to grow out of it on no sleep. With BF it’s just too difficult mixing gaviscon and the common side affect is constipation which he has anyway so they agreed for him to try omeprazole and see how we go! Day 3 and still no change but they said it could take 2 weeks. He is so uncomfortable on his back so I hope it helps !

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Original poster
Murphy121 · 06/10/2023 13:21

Thank you. Yes we stopped them a week or so ago as they weren’t helping. I had been looking into silent reflux and felt his symptoms were similar so saw the GP and we are on day 3 of omeprazole so fingers crossed.. aware it can take a couple of weeks to work so fingers crossed!

OP posts:
Original poster
Murphy121 · 06/10/2023 13:23

There is actually very minimal evidence that these help anyway. Every baby is different and it works for some and not others

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Tiddybiddy247 · 06/10/2023 13:28

I feel like medical professionals have been keen to just fob me off and dismiss my worries and struggles. I have half my contacts saying "you need to teach him to settle, he's been spoilt by you letting him sleep on you and BF" and another lot saying"you cannot spoil a baby and he'll grow out of it. " as a FTM I'm so confused 🤔😕

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