Baby crying and straining when feeding

[huggybear]

have originally posted this in the baby forum but am popping in here too in the hope someone can shed some light on this.....

Hey ladies,

i dont post here alot but am in dire need of some advise, have googled, been to docs etc but no one can shed any light, my six week old little man for the past 5 days has been straining, thrashing around and crying when having certain bottles, he is hungry (he is a 13lbs hungry baby anyway) we give him doctor brown bottles and he is on Cow and Gate Comfort milk and has been on this for 5 weeks and was combined fed until last weekend, is this something to do with him whinging, he crys out in pain then i pop the bottle back in his mouth and he screams, strains etc again, he is pooing so not constipated... has anyone else had this problem.... worse case scenario will ring my dopey HV but suspect she will be her usual useless self and but it down to him not being breastfed!!! HELP!!!

Thanks girls.

 

[sapphire20]

I dont know the answer to this question, but Iv just started with a similar problem, Olivias last bottle before bedtime she will cry cause shes hungry so she will start to suck for her feed and then shes gets really annoyed and starts kicking and screaming but the bottle is still in her mouth so it makes no sense, but I tend to find soon afterwards she does end up pooping in her nappy! Its only with her last bottle at night though, thought it may be she needs to change to a medium teat but cause its only 1 bottle i just let her have a wee cry and she then takes the bottle again!

 

[gigglinggirls]

hi

just came across your messages. i'm not sure if it will be any help to you as my LO is breastfed but some of the symptoms sound similar to what we had at around 5 weeks.

My dr diagnosed reflux. My LO had not been sick a huge amount but apparently had silent reflux so the milk was coming up but going back down again. This used to cause her to pull off the breast quickly, arch her back, scream, thrash around often and generally get quite distressed. What we knew after was it was the stomach acid coming back up. She has been on baby gaviscon since and having to give her little milk often. Weaning her now as she is 24 weeks but still on gaviscon for the milk feeds.

She also suffered from colic where she would just scream for hours for the first 13 weeks of her life and then overnight just stopped. Is your LO starting to cry at any other times? not sure but could be colic but if it just when he feeds then maybe not.

 

[Hiding]

hi

just came across your messages. i'm not sure if it will be any help to you as my LO is breastfed but some of the symptoms sound similar to what we had at around 5 weeks.

My dr diagnosed reflux. My LO had not been sick a huge amount but apparently had silent reflux so the milk was coming up but going back down again. This used to cause her to pull off the breast quickly, arch her back, scream, thrash around often and generally get quite distressed. What we knew after was it was the stomach acid coming back up. She has been on baby gaviscon since and having to give her little milk often. Weaning her now as she is 24 weeks but still on gaviscon for the milk feeds.

She also suffered from colic where she would just scream for hours for the first 13 weeks of her life and then overnight just stopped. Is your LO starting to cry at any other times? not sure but could be colic but if it just when he feeds then maybe not.

Sorry to gatecrash but I have the exact same problems with my LO as the original poster has with her baby - can I ask you Giggling girls, did your baby have this with all bottles? My baby has the same symptoms as all of yours, but not at night. He has about 3 feeds through the night and is fine with all of them.

We're really stressed with how often this happens.

 

[wilkitea]

Hi there, not sure if this helps but thought I would give you my experience so far, maybe it will strike a chord and therefore be of help. My 5 month old baby girl had colic from 2 weeks old to about 15 weeks, (lots of trapped wind and crying, always worse in the evening, going stiff, throwing head back etc), but has always got aggetated during the latter part of her bottle since birth - and still does. She does bring back quite a bit of milk but this varies daily, (sometimes is sick 25 times a day, sometimes only 5, so the GP said it was colic not reflux). She was on colief drops until about 2 weeks ago. She is bottle fed and likes the ready made SMA gold milk, GP has tried aptimil easy digest/comfort milk, (made no difference) neocate hypoallergenic milk, (again no difference), she also had her stools tested for allergies and it came back clear. However last week my friend who is a consultant/doctor witnessed baby arching her back, going stiff and getting cross and upset whilst feeding, (and after her bottle it carries on, usually ending up in her bringing some milk back) she said straight away it's reflux. I have been back to the GP and she is on baby gaviscon, however this has now caused constipation so she is still straining, going stiff and getting upset but not vommitting as much. Last evening feed is never a problem and I think it's purely because she is relaxed and tired and falls asleep shortly after. One thing we noticed is that her dirty nappies often smell a bit like vinegar - and can only put this down to the acidic tummy. The symptoms for colic and reflux can present very similar, the arching back is one the most telling reflux symptoms whereas the evening crying and trapped wind - tends to be colic related. Have been assured that as the valve strengthens over time thats letting the acid and milk back up, (can take up to 1 year old), the reflux will get better.

 

[AP]

It very much sounds like Alex, who has reflux. Its started as silent reflux and we were given gaviscon. It persisted and we now have further medication, which has really helped.

 

[DizzyMoo]

Joining in too . My Jax is like this & he has reflux hun . He struggles & thrashes about, arches his back & goes bright red like he's straining. Even though he's not pooing or needs to go, I started on infacol thinking it was wind but its not changed, We're going docs to get the gaviscon for him. So i'd say head there hun as it defo sounds the same x

 

[porkypig]

my lo used to do this and it was because the teats were too small. Have you changed your teats? once i did that, he was fine again. xx

 

[Fluxuspoem]

Could be reflux or you need to change teats to bigger size hon x

 

[puppycat]

Laura always wriggles when she has wind. You need to burp her when she wriggles and have you tried using infacol or some such colic relief?