Hoping someone might be able to help...

My DS has never slept particularly well. When we hit 10 weeks he slept for 5 hours one night out of the blue. This continued for two more nights and I thought we were finally getting somewhere. Since then his sleeping has gotten worse, with me getting up every 2 hours or more overnight. He sleeps about three times during the day but only for 30-45 minutes. An hour sleep in the day happens occasionally but is rare.

Every time I've gotten up to him in the last 2 weeks at night has been due to gas. As soon as it passes he's fine and feeds straight back to sleep. During the day he'll often go down to sleep but pop his eyes open after 10 minutes. When I pick him up he always needs to burp.


Whilst the solution sounds like burping him more I don't know that this is possible, or the answer. He is burped regularly throughout all feeds, and I didn't burp differently on the nights he slept through v the nights he didn't.

In desperation 2 days ago I cut out eggs, fish and nuts to see if that was affecting him. (I'm already gluten free as I'm a coeliac). Last night he slept for 8 hours!

I've seen the gp today (appt was already booked) and they have no suggestions. I've called the ABA and they have no suggestions. Both think it would be rare for what I'm eating to affect him but I am seriously desperate. I don't have an oversupply according to the ABA counsellor.

Does anyone have any ideas, or info on food intolerances in fully bf babies?

I need help and need to know where to go next.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for any typos - I'm on the iPhone.

Hi, my little man was waking often as well and I know that he had some issues with gas. I started sleeping him on his tummy and this seemed to give some relief - he had bum up and legs up to tummy and slept a lot better. I know that this is not the right advice according to the medical people, but it worked for us. Good luck

So if you feed him to sleep, no burping after the feed? That could be part of the issue? If he's feeding, but not burping afterwards before laying down, it could cause some discomfort. I have nothing against feeding to sleep if it works for you, but is that a possibility of what might be happening?

Try some infants friend before each feed, really helps with my DD's gas pain!

Infacol solved this problem for me

I wish I was kidding. It's my gut feel (given the family history of coeliac) which is why I sought them out for professional advice.

How do I find out more about this? Do dietitians help with this? Lactation consultants? Another GP?

I've kept dairy in for now as I'm certain I've been having that on our successful days but the fish/nuts/eggs are not daily foods and are easy for me to eliminate. I'll cut dairy though if that's what it takes.

I wasnt able to tolerate cooked salmon whilst pregnant. Could this impact bub after he's born? Ie could he have been sensitive to seafood all along?

Sorry I sound so stupid - I really thought I'd asked the medical professionals who coudld help.

How about a Paed to discuss possible causes after she/he has done a thorough history and examination.
Or even a different GP who has a lot of experience with bfed babies.
If it could be allergy/intolerance then if you can get some guidance.
A LC may be able to help but possibly not all, you could try and find one with experience with food intolerances and bfing.
I don't know much about intolerances but could you cut things out one at a time rather than too many together, it certainly could get confusing.
And some guidance on how to challenge with the foods would be great.
I could imagine a Paed Dietician could help but I'd be making sure that she/he was experienced with and very supportive of bfing.
I hope you can get some help, it would be like stabbing around in the dark.


Risky advice to suggest something that can increase the chances of sudden death.

I found that lightly stroking around the child's belly button, in a clockwise direction (though I went every which way!) helped. Also moving the child's legs up and down in a cycling motion. Both were done as they were bottle feeding.

Hi, I can't comment on the food intolerances side of things, but DD also had bad wind up until about week 12. In addition to burping, we did:
- bicyling her legs on the change table;
- keeping her upright after a feed when I could, (I often fed her to sleep) so I changed her feeding position from the 'approved ABA' type one to make sure her chest was higher than her tummy. ie often feeding sitting up or with a cushion propped under my elbow;
- propped up the bassinette with books;
- frequent breaks for burping during a feed;
- discovered that a combination of Infacol before a feed and Infants Friend during worked best on DD where only one of them didn't really do that much. I think one of them is designed to produce a burp and the other is designed for the wind to pass either from a burp or to make it pass through more quickly as poo?

These things helped reduce her bad wind and tummy pains and helped her not wake up screaming 10mins after going down. She occassionally woke herself up by doing monster loud farts though but was easier to resettle after those.

A friend of mine often put her bub into the bouncer for some naps due to their bad wind.

You're probably doing some/most of these already in addition to burping but I thought I'd cover that ground just in case.

I hope that your bub's gas issues are alleviated somewhat as they get older and that it doesn't turn out to be a food intolerance. Good luck to you both.

PS. Annoyingly, I did find that DD slept longer on the nights I made sure that chocolate was excluded. I'd switched to decaf or to chicory/dandelion root substitute once I started bf'ing (and I so MISS caffeine) so the only caffeine she'd have been getting would have been from my treats. Darn.

My 5 month old is bottle fed but she also has terrible wind problems. We have had periods where she having to be burped 4-6 times during a feed. And she might wake up needing to be burped as well.

It affects her sleeping- today I had trouble getting her down for every nap because she had wind which I couldn't bring up. She quite often wakes up needing a burped but that's getting less now and she usually goes back to sleep.

It also affects her feeding (she often struggles with feeds). Night time is the worse and we went though stages of it taking 2-3 hours to get her down for the night..

DR and MCHN said to give her Infacol with every feed and that dose help. She dose burp a lot less with it because it helps to bring up the wind. We also found that if she is gently bounced up and down it brings bubbles up to the top of the tummy (you can actually feel them coming up) and she is much easier to burp. The deeper the bubbles the harder it is to bring the wind up.

I would try Infacol or Infants Friend first and see if it helps. How are you burping him? Baby needs to be really straight so the wind can come up. Bouncing DD up and down then patting her back is the only way we can get her to bring up wind.

We think that DD's wind problems are because of the way she is sucking. We are going back next week to see the speech therapist to check her feeding. The ST has been a big help. Solids seem to be helping a bit as well.

Good luck. I know how frustrating it is!

my son used to wake with gas every morning at 4am, the doctor said ipossibly wasnt burping him well enough at his 9.30pm and 12.30am feeds so told me i had to burp him for at least 20min even if i wanted to go back to sleep. Some nights this helped other nights it didnt, i tried infacol, infants friend, gripe water and Brauers colic drops, i don't think any of them really worked all that well, the only thing that worked was time, he grew out of it eventually and now we have no gas problems

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I've got a lovely experienced LC coming tomorrow who I know will listen to me even if she can't help. I've also got a pead appt for 21st Feb to talk it over, and just in case a GP appt for 1st March with our preferred GP. I had to see a junior GP at the clinic yesterday as our chosen GP is extremely difficult to get in to see.

We have been burping every few minutes of feeding, doing baby massage (Pinky McKay's one), doing bicycle legs etc without much joy, although I will keep it up.

Bub sleeps on his back and will stay that way until he rolls himself over in his sleep. It's a risk I personally cannot take.

I haven't used infacol etc yet as I'm hoping to find the source of the problem (if there is one). Will give them a go though if all other options fail.

FW I'm in NSW but thanks for the offer of contacts. The Pead is the one we saw in hospital and I felt reassured by him at the time so will see if he can help us.

Thanks again for reassuring me I'm not crazy or unrealistic in my expectations.

Hi

I also found Infacol worked a treat, plus staying away from the chocolate (bummer!)