Newborn screams through night with trapped wind.

[Summersun91]

Since night 2 my baby screams, wriggles, grunts with trapped wind all night long. She’s now 2 weeks old and it’s the same every night. She is EBF. My husband and I are sleeping in shifts to try and comfort her whilst the other sleeps, but he is back at work soon so I’m worried how we will cope.
She sleeps fine during the day.
At night we even struggle to get her comfortable when sleeping on us, so the cot is out of the question and I can’t see how co-sleeping could work either since she still can’t sleep on us.
We also have another DS who is 2 and is up at 6am so we both have to be up then.
We’ve tried bicycle legs and massage. Sometimes they help but even when she releases wind it only relieves her for a few mins before she starts screaming again.
I’m going to get some Infacol but I think I’ll struggle with that for every feed as often I put her on the boob quickly to stop her crying, and she falls asleep on it after 5min so I end up feeding her about 10x per night during my shifts.

Midwives and HV just say it’s normal but that’s not helping me to cope.

Any suggestions of anything I could try?

Thanks

I’m so sorry to hear you are going through this, it’s utterly exhausting and EBF is tough on the best days. We had similar when my 3rd was premature. She was so settled in the day, but the nights we were up all night with wind. I would see a lactation consultation if you have the means but in the short term my advice would be

• after every proper feed, have baby upright on top of you you for at least 30mins. so tricky in the dead of night but i found this helped and i would listen to an audiobook and set a timer.
• Try fennel tea and reducing dairy
• Warm bath prior to the night to settle baby tummy
• slightly tilt moses basket
• tbh there isn’t much more you can do. I tried infacol it did nothing. Get as much help as you can with partner taking baby between feeds and in the day take as many shortcuts and help as you can. All I can say is this will pass!

My first born was like this - severe reflux - dr gave gaviscon but that then bunged her up and caused more problems. Ended up being a lactose intolerance but worked that out myself before any help arrived. Infacol helped for a short time, it’s horrible and draining, I feel your pain. It’s early days so hang in there. She was still up 6 times a night at 13 months but weirdly I adapted.

Ooh also look up “tiger in the tree” hold (some really useful YouTube videos) seemed to really help with the gas and was a life saver during the nights to settle. Good luck!

This stage didn’t last long with my son and then he really settled. You can give just a little cooled boiled water on a teaspoon and this often helps to bring up any wind. Water that has been boiled and then sat until cool. Wind for quite a good amount of time and try different positions to bring up the wind. Keep going it hopefully won’t last much longer xxx

So sorry op, my little boy was the same and it was exhausting.
Getting my boys tongue tie sorted was a massive help. I also bought a ‘tummy tub’ (basically a baby bath in the shape of a bucket). As soon as his little tummy was in the warm water, his wailing would stop- it was miraculous for us.
Also connect with your local BF support group. Sending love and solidarity xx

I sympathise so much!! i have a 4m old baby and he was soo bad with trapped wind, He would scream and scream with it, even whilst passing the wind ( bottom end!) Things that helped us was the ‘water wheel’ belly massage - this was the only one that helped up, always did it after a bath. Gripe water after his last 2 feeds of the day. Feeding in a virtually sat up position, and always ALWAYS making sure we got atleast one burp out of him per feed. It was awful seeing him in pain but i would say around 10 weeks he was so much better! He was also combi fed at this point too.

I sympathise so much!! i have a 4m old baby and he was soo bad with trapped wind, He would scream and scream with it, even whilst passing the wind ( bottom end!) Things that helped us was the ‘water wheel’ belly massage - this was the only one that helped up, always did it after a bath. Gripe water after his last 2 feeds of the day. Feeding in a virtually sat up position, and always ALWAYS making sure we got atleast one burp out of him per feed. It was awful seeing him in pain but i would say around 10 weeks he was so much better! He was also combi fed at this point too.

Can you give up dairy for a week or two to see if dairy is going through to the breast milk and they are allergic?

Upright on you shoulder for 20 minutes after each feed.
i know it’s long!

My youngest was like this and cutting out dairy for me made a big difference, he wasn't CMPA but until he grew a bit and his gut matured he just couldn't tolerate dairy. Even now if he ever gets a bug we have to cut out dairy to get his tummy back to normal.

This is caused by immature gut and/or infant dyschezia. All babies have it to some extent, but some worse than others.

Having her sleep on her front may make her less grunty, but obviously this is very inadvisable due to the risk of smothering, especially at her age.

Basically, nothing will help except time. I’m sorry - the HV is right! I know it’s absolutely awful, and really affects your sleep (she probably is getting enough sleep despite appearances) but you just have to wait it out.

My first born had it very badly and got over it aged 10 weeks. My second born has it less badly and I’m still waiting it out at 6 weeks at the moment.

I found I had a bit of a fast let down which contributed to DDs wind, I used to lay down on my back to feed her which helped, and then I'd keep her upright for a good 30 mins after a feed, I know this is less than ideal when tired but it helped. We also raised her crib at one end, she was in the next to me and it was designed to do that, if you don't have that, raising one end on books is good. With my DD it turned out to be reflux, so we were prescribed gaviscon. She was also CMPA, but that was her nappies that pointed to that mainly.

Silent reflux and its absolutely horrendous ! Ask the doctor for lanzoprazole or omeprazole I had to fight for it but it really did make a difference for us he's still sick alot but cries way less making it manageable

I’ve been there. A lot of good advice already in the replies, but one thing I wanted to add is that grunting and wriggling doesn’t necessarily mean that a baby is in a bunch of discomfort or even awake. In my experience infants can be really loud sleepers, and sometimes I found it was best just to try to ignore the sleep sounds unless the baby is actually crying.

Sounds alot like reflux

Try infacol!! My baby was exactly the same and we discovered infacol at 6 weeks (6 weeks too late!) and it did the trick!

My first had classic colic. Three weeks to 12 weeks, three hours screaming at night every night. It was heartbreaking and hell. I'm sorry you're going through similar.

With my second i knew more and gave up dairy while EBF. She didnt scream each night, she just wouldn't go to sleep. Just wanted to be held upright. So still exhausting but better.

My second daughter has now been diagnosed as gluten intolerant, as am I. (Suspect first daughter is as well but she doesn't want to check.) If i had them again, I'd have given up gluten instead while BF. I was desperate but didnt know enough.

Basically, keep pushing for answer with medics. There will be a reason, whether it's colic or tongue tie or one of the other suggestions here.

If you want try out diet changes, the low FODMAP elimination diet is annoying but will get to the bottom of it if this is the issue. It took about 6 weeks for my second daughter to get relief, so you need to persist.

It was very tough and felt like forever, but it did stop and they slept through eventually. Hang on in there.

My daughter was like this, we tried everything a d the HV was useless. I went to see my GP and they suspected silent reflux and she was prescribed baby gaviscon and it worked for her. I'd see the GP and ask about silent reflux and baby gaviscon.

Windi pipes helped us a lot

I had similar with my first, tried all the treatments for colic, baby gaviscon, dairy free diet and none of it worked. All that did work was giving it time and things improved from week 8 (as everything I read suggested it would). Looking back I don't think anything was 'wrong' I was desperate to find something but in reality her digestive system just needed time to develop. I know it's so, so hard, it left me feeling utterly broken but time was the crucial element.

It sounds like infant dyschezia, which is terribly difficult to deal with, but entirely normal.

I hate this ‘professional’ response! It isn't ‘normal’. As adult we don’t scream with wind and clear discomfort and just tolerate it, why should babies? Of course we can ease that pain. However often there is a cause they’re being too lazy to consider.

My son was the same.

Turned out he had CMPA (exceptionally common). Our bodies aren’t really designed to break down the proteins from the milk of another animal and therefore it’s quite harsh on the digestive system.

Also consider silent reflux if baby isn’t bringing milk up. Silent reflux is just as much a symptom of CMPA as actual projection reflux.

All too often GPs and MW’s ignore silent reflux as the baby isn’t still gaining weight. Therefore they dismiss CMPA as a possibility. It is a possibility so ignore them if they say otherwise. My son was a chunk and 95% percentile and had projectile vomiting. He was like the exorcist. As he got older it was silent and his nappies after dairy were like mustard newborn poo but runny and mucus like.

As you are EBF try restricting all dairy from your diet. It takes about 6 weeks for the gut to recover if this is the cause, but you’ll notice improvements in babies discomfort relatively quickly.

Worth trying as easy to do do as not requiring specialist milk as breast feeding.

Thank you for all the replies. There are a lot of great suggestions here, now I’m trying to work out which I should follow up on first!

Another frustrating evening here. Fed and winded her about 6pm and put her down and she went straight to sleep in the Moses basket. Did exactly the same at 9pm and I got into bed and literally 10 seconds later the screaming started. I just don’t understand how she’s fine during the day but when I put her down and I try to sleep she starts with the screaming!

It sounds like trying to give up dairy is a popular suggestion. I may have to try this although the thought overwhelms me as I already find it difficult enough keeping on top of meal planning and cooking without adding extra restrictions in.

I mentioned I had already tried Infacol (she was sick), I’ve also tried propping up the next to me, and I do all the winding, holding upright etc after each feed. Thanks to the people who mentioned the weeble technique for burping, that has got a few more out! She’s not a Velcro baby and will be put down fine during the day so I don’t think it’s a comfort thing, and it’s definitely not just the usual grunting in her sleep (she does that as well) - she’s in pain and I can see the release and comfort when she does manage to get a trump out.

I tried gripe water and infant gaviscon with my other daughter for different symptoms, and honestly the practicalities of doing this whilst breastfeeding also overwhelm me.

I realise I probably come across as lazy to try things, it’s just when I’m already pushed to my limit I find it difficult to contemplate adding more layers of complexity into my life, with hope that it may (but also may not) be of benefit.

I wonder if seeing a lactation consultant that somebody mentioned may be the best option then, to try and narrow down what would be the best things to try.

Thanks again, it has given me a lot to think about.

If you do try gripe water it can just be ‘as and when’ there is no set time or amount to give, so it’s more relaxed than trying infacol or coilef. So you could just draw up a sringe of 5ml and leave it in the living room or something, then as and when you can just give little bits at a time after her tea time feed so this might help with wind before bed, just a suggestion as i know you said you don’t want to add extra stressful layers which i totally get!

Echoing this and also, what is your let down like? Mine was so forceful my newborn was gulping air trying to keep up. The midwife suggested hand expressing initially before latching and also using one of these on the main culprit - not actively pumping but just sort of suckering it on and leaving it to collect the let down while he fed on the other less gushy side initially.