Anyone's LOs have digestion issues?

[harryandme]

My DS was born 10 weeks early and is now 14 weeks (4 weeks corrected). He was on EBM whilst in special care, but is a hungry little lad and slowly we have had to increase the formula. He is now formula fed and on aptamil first milk and aptamil comfort for colic and constipation.

Since changing to formula - he went from pooing every day a yellow colour to only going once every 3-5 days and it is a horrible green colour, runny to toothpaste in texture and smells awful. His wind also smells really bad. The doctors say this colour, texture and smell is normal!

He also struggles with his digestion, even when he was breastfed he was the same. He is really noisy when he sleeps and takes an hour to settle after a feed and then starts stirring/squirming in pain to get rid of the wind an hour before the next - he is fed 3 hourly. Its horrible to watch as he squirms, screams out in pain and is generally just upset for most feeds. We have tried infracol, colief and were thinking of trying gripe water now he is one month corrected, but to be honest, I don't think getting the wind up is the problem (he burps beautifully!), its more how he digests it.

Do I need to change his milk? Could he be intolerant to something? Or is it just a matter of sitting it out and waiting until his digestion system matures? Is there any techniques I can do to help him?

Would love to hear if any of you have been or are going through the same thing.

Thanks in advance.

 

[toothfairyx]

Sounds very familiar! I can relate to everything you say and really the only issues we've had with Jamie being prem is do with his guts! Jamie was breast fed once he came out of hospital having had ebm whilst in hospital. I had to supplement breast feeding with formula as I couldn't keep up and he made dreadful noises when he was sleeping. He has got reflux which is under control with thickened formula, and he is now completely formula fed with the odd ebm feed from the freezer stock. His poos are exactly as you describe only more frequent as he manages once a day. Sometimes if we think he looks like he needs to go we try to help him a little by leaving him with his nappy off.
The sleeping noises I have also been looking into and they can be a sign of reflux which does not always mean vomiting - the lower gastrointestinal sphincters also reflux and this can cause the squirming and grunting.
Other things we have tried to help him with his digestion and bowel movements are giving him water with prune juice through the day to soften them, putting his basket on a small incline and I've just got hm a prince lionheart bear which I read helped grunting babies. That's been sleeping with him for 2 nights now and they have been then best 2 nights we've ever had since he's been home.

 

[harryandme]

Ah thanks for that, not heard about the prince lionheart bear so maybe we will try that. Will look into the reflux from the gastrointestinal sphincters too as he does look like he is in pain and I can feel things moving about too. His little face concentrates so hard on what is going on down there!

What milk is Jamie on and is he quieter baby now?

 

[toothfairyx]

He is on enfamil AR which his consultant prescribed. He goes mad for it too so think he prefers the taste to the SMA we used to give him.