baby cries all.the.time

[Kazy]

My lo is 3 weeks old. If she's awake and not nursing she's crying. Anyone else?? I mean literally all the time. She is my 4th so I know babies have different temperments but this is crazy. Any tips?
Lactation suggested a dairy issue so I'm cutting that out if my diet. I've tried a swing, bouncer, white noise, music, quiet, fan, swaddle and nothing works.

 

[Button#]

Mine's the same, I know she has reflux though so keeping her upright helps. She has started to get better the last couple of days and will actually be awake and happy for a bit.

 

[luna_19]

My lo was.like this until about 2 months old, I think some babies just have a really hard time transitioning to the outside world

 

[myra]

My son was like this...doctors initially just said he's colicky and he'll get over it in 2-3 months. There was no way hubby and I could keep our sanity just waiting it out. He'd cry for hours at a time, slept little and it got to the point he couldn't even ride in the car without screaming. Fortunately someone gave me a copy of the book Colic Solved- I hit a lot of support from there and we found a good pediatrician and gastrointestinal doc who helped us diagnose reflux and dairy allergies (still required lots of advocating on our part)- we ended up switching him off breadt milk (too many allergies) and also put him on reflux meds. Made a big difference...didn't solve it complety but helped a lot.

 

[Kazy]

Thanks everyone. My lo too screams in the car. I am convinced nothing is wrong. She stops instantly when we get her out. I'm on day 4 of no dairy and really hoping it helps. She actually does well at night so I guess I should be thankful I'm at least getting rest.

 

[myra]

Thanks everyone. My lo too screams in the car. I am convinced nothing is wrong. She stops instantly when we get her out. I'm on day 4 of no dairy and really hoping it helps. She actually does well at night so I guess I should be thankful I'm at least getting rest.

Keep in mind that I look at things through the lens of a mom who had a baby with reflux, worsened by milk allergies...so maybe I'm putting assumptions on you LO based on my experience and they don't apply to her.

But my son would also stop crying when we took him out of car seat. The way the infant seats are designed, sitting in them caused the reflux to come up and be much worse.

Fingers crossed that eliminating dairy helps your LO

 

[Kazy]

Thanks Myra. I appreciate you saying that. It helps me while I'm trying to determine what's going on. She doesn't spit up much but I've heard some reflux babies don't. So how do they determine if that's it? I know since she's gaining weight well I'll have to really advocate as well.
I'm on day 4 of no dairy and I think it may be helping a bit.
Did you.find switching to formula was a lot better? I assumed it would be worse

 

[staralfur]

My LO was very much like this, there was absolutely nothing wrong with her, it was just her temperament. High needs baby to the core. Nursing was the only thing that calmed her down and she nursed literally all day and all night.

It got better... eventually... but hopefully your LO does better without the dairy as that's a quicker fix than just waiting it out!

It must be super tough with three other kids to look after as well. Good luck, hope things improve for you soon.

 

[myra]

Thanks Myra. I appreciate you saying that. It helps me while I'm trying to determine what's going on. She doesn't spit up much but I've heard some reflux babies don't. So how do they determine if that's it? I know since she's gaining weight well I'll have to really advocate as well.
I'm on day 4 of no dairy and I think it may be helping a bit.
Did you.find switching to formula was a lot better? I assumed it would be worse

If you do a search for silent reflux symptoms you can see if some apply to your daughter. My son fell into that category (not the projectile vomiting often associated with reflux). He wanted to feed all the time, since then something soothing was going down vs acid coming up from his stomach. At 8 months old, he was 30 pounds. Switching to formula helped- he was onSimilac Alimentum, specifically for LOs with milk allergies. Doc diagnosed milk allergy with a sample of his poop (they look for evidence of blood in poop...too little for us to see but she put a tiny bit on a card and then tested it with a chemical, which showed micro amounts of blood).

As for diagnosing reflux, there's no definitive test (that I know of) like the dairy allergy. I'd advise you make a list of symptoms (after looking up silent reflux) and take it with you to her pediatrician if you suspect reflux. In my personal opinion, there's no reason for a baby who is comfortable to cry for hours at a time. We thought it temperament at first until we tried him on meds...we quickly saw a very different side of him. He started to smile again and began to relax. Meds didn't solve everything since he got flare ups but they went s long way towards making him more comfortable and all of our lives a bit calmer. My son had a very extreme case if reflux so he was on both Zantac and Prilosec...and as hard as it initially was to contemplate putting my little baby on meds, when we saw the difference we knew it was the right choice for him.

 

[noon_child]

Thanks everyone. My lo too screams in the car. I am convinced nothing is wrong. She stops instantly when we get her out. I'm on day 4 of no dairy and really hoping it helps. She actually does well at night so I guess I should be thankful I'm at least getting rest.

Keep in mind that I look at things through the lens of a mom who had a baby with reflux, worsened by milk allergies...so maybe I'm putting assumptions on you LO based on my experience and they don't apply to her.

Also bear in mind that in the car seat your LO can't see you, smell you and, even if you talk, she cant hear you as well over the sound of the engine. Young babies want to be held and genuinely are not designed to be along - she may just be saying "You dropped me/left me behind. If you are looking for me I'm here, I'm over here! I need you! Don't go without me!"

I hope you get some relief from the "Colic". I never figured out what was wrong with my LO during the 3 weeks to 9 weeks period although lots of things made it worse (overtired, overstimulated, not a great latch so over hungry, awareness of needing to poo, developing itchy eczema).

 

[Kazy]

Day 7 of no dairy and I think we may be on to something. She is a little better. Only now she has green poop now. And cries when she goes. I read that green poop can be over supply but I know for sure I don't have that. I also read a tongue tie can tire baby nf keep them from getting hind milk. It can cause a belly ache and green poop. My lo has a tongue tie but Dr said she's gaining weight fine so there's no need to cut it. Maybe I should get a second opinion? That could be the culprit of crying too I guess.

 

[noon_child]

Green poo is a concern when a baby has never had a yellow poo, as it shows poor milk transfer or occasionally severe oversupply. The occasional few days of green poo is very normal for babies and can be due to getting a cold, or other virus and is nothing to worry about. I do think it can be a sign of dairy intolerance as the bowel is irritated and moves the milk through faster without digesting it fully but those Mums with intolerant babies would be better sources of info about that.

Re the tongue tie: if your baby is unsettled then maybe they aren't getting quite as much milk as they want? How are your nipples? Do you have pain or cracks? Some tt LOs do not seem bothered by it, they stretch it quickly and get good latches but most have some feeding issues for a while at least, if not severe issues.

 

[Kazy]

Green poo is a concern when a baby has never had a yellow poo, as it shows poor milk transfer or occasionally severe oversupply. The occasional few days of green poo is very normal for babies and can be due to getting a cold, or other virus and is nothing to worry about. I do think it can be a sign of dairy intolerance as the bowel is irritated and moves the milk through faster without digesting it fully but those Mums with intolerant babies would be better sources of info about that.

Re the tongue tie: if your baby is unsettled then maybe they aren't getting quite as much milk as they want? How are your nipples? Do you have pain or cracks? Some tt LOs do not seem bothered by it, they stretch it quickly and get good latches but most have some feeding issues for a while at least, if not severe issues.

That makes me feel better about the green poo. She has always had yellow until recently. I actually have a very sore throat so maybe she has something minor too.

I had latch issues but with the help of the lactation consultants those have been fixed. She said her tongue can go over the gun line when she was sucking on her finger. Lo has a check up with ped Monday so I'll update him on symptoms and see whst he says.

She has been soooo gassy today and in much pain ( or appears that way). So I'm not sure what's up with that.

 

[Kazy]

Just wanted to update in case someone finds this down the road. I hate it when I am searching threads and never see the end result!

I am on day day 12 of no dairy and I think day 4 or 5 of no eggs. I have a completely different baby. She is still picky about how she's held and gets over stimulated easily but I am able to comfort her ( before I couldn't even do that) and she has tomes of independent sitting and being happy.

I also know that babies tend to be awake longer and sometimes happier around 4 weeks so it could be a coincidence.

Dr said green poo was more than likely a bug in her system because it wasn't constantly that color and I don't have an over supply. Her poo is still completely liquid but he said that can be normal and she's gained exactly 1 lb on 10 days.

Anyway, just wanted to update.

 

[myra]

Glad you came back to update and very happy to hear that the dairy/egg elimination seems to be working so well- hope you can enjoy the happier side of your little one now!