reasurance needed - 5 wet nappies in an hour and a screaming baby

[loopy_lou]

Hi Guys

Baby has had 2 poo filled nappies today (last one at 2pm) and about 6 wet ones till about 11pm when all hell broke loose.

She had her feed (with infacol) and we winded her which was fine and 5 min after winding she made it known she was still hungry. So having just given her 100ml of formula we gave her 1oz of water thinking this would do the trick.

Having drunk this and when winding promptly threw up a good bit of her milk.

She has had in the last hour 5 wet nappies and is inconsolable nothing will calm her. Her tummy is a little hard and you can feel her straining.

Really worried about this many wet nappies in such a short time and she is still making 'i'm hungry' noises have given her 20ml which she has drunk but should i give her more?

I guess its constipation but i was not expecting it today as we had 2 dirty nappies already (3 yesterday)

Loopy

 

[hivechild]

She could be coming into her 3 week growth spurt maybe?

 

[loopy_lou]

Ah her feeds have gone up quite a bit maybe.. Finaly got her to sleep will measure her in the morning and see how long does this last??

 

[hivechild]

It can be a few days of fussy crankiness before she settles properly if it is actually a growth spurt. It's hard to tell. I hope that's all that it is and things do settle down quickly for you.

 

[loopy_lou]

Thanks it was just all the nappies so odd

 

[Mynx]

It's possible she may have had a bit of a belly ache too. Babies when they're very young get belly pains and hunger confused and will make the "I'm hungry" noises when they have wind/griping pains. Might be why she threw up cos they also throw up any excess milk they dont need.
I wouldnt worry about the wet nappies, it's when they dont have wet nappies that it's a problem! When you say 5 wet nappies in an hour, is that 5 wees in that hour or 5 heavily soaked nappies?

 

[anothersquish]

Giving water can actually cause these problems. Stop giving her water unless you are advised to by a paediatrician for medical reasons.

 

[loopy_lou]

Mw had told me to give 1 oz if she got like this just doing what I was told

 

[anothersquish]

Midwives arent Paediatricians. Giving water to babies can lead to life threatening problems if it is not done with great care. Usually even when water is suggested by paediatricians it is only a couple of teaspoon fulls, not a whole oz. The midwife who suggested it should be complained about, suggesting someone feed a few week old baby water...disgusting.

 

[aimee-lou]

Anothersquish - I was also advised to give water to my LO as I'm FF. It's a common bit of advice to FF Mums as the formula isn't always made up with exactly the same amount of water (unlike BM that is always correct make up) so you sometimes need to give extra to compensate for this and to prevent/ease constipation. I agree with you that 1oz is a little excessive...I only ever let Earl had about 1/4 of an oz at a time taken in sips, as needed if his soft spot was depressed, his lips were dry or if he got bunged up.

Loopy_lou - I agreee with Mynx that it may well be tummy ache. Do you give your LO a dummy? If so, when she has finished a feed and winding, give her her dummy, lay her on her back and rub her tummy or wriggle her legs a little. This will help her milk to digest, any excess wind to escape and for the initial tummy pains caused by the stretching of the tummy by the milk and the wind to disappear. Earl did this a lot and we often had problems before this was suggested to me by another forum member. I hope that your LO is ok. (If you dont want to give a dummy your finger/thumb will work just as well)

Btw - a baby can wee every 10 minutes if well hydrated, as they have no control over it and it will empty when it reaches a critical point. It's too few nappies you need to worry about. The only time you would need to worry is if she was experiencing pain while urinating (urine infection) but these are relatively rare in little ones.

Congratulations on your LO.

 

[Seraphim]

She probably is hungry with a 3 week growth spurt.

The problem isn't giving water per se, it's giving it on bad advice and when people say flimsily 'when baby is like that' - it's easily misconsrude and often far too much. With young babies especially it bloats their stomach and can cause really serious problems.

 

[aimee-lou]

She probably is hungry with a 3 week growth spurt.

The problem isn't giving water per se, it's giving it on bad advice and when people say flimsily 'when baby is like that' - it's easily misconsrude and often far too much. With young babies especially it bloats their stomach and can cause really serious problems.

I actually meant to add 2 things.

If she continues to cry after 10 minutes of trying the things I've suggested, then it is hunger and you should try offering her more food as she is at the righ age for one of the many growth spruts at this time in their life.

Also, that giving a baby water when they're 'like that' probably, in fact, it just isn't, the correct thing to advise as it's just going to make them sick, as the OP's LO did.

Sorry I really should have put those in my original post.

 

[anothersquish]

even FF babies are no more likely to need water in the first six months than BF babies (as per paediatricians not off the top of my head!!) The same advise on not giving water applies to both unless someone is making up formula poorly, inwhich case they need to be educated properly on how to do it not advised to give water.
Water can be damaging to babys health and therefore should only be given if absolutely necessary and then only in very small amounts. Whats annoying is that a HV not only advised to give 1oz of water (excessive) but was advising giving water over offering more formula (WTH?!) and offering because a baby was fussy, crying, displaying colic symptoms when infact water can make colic WORSE not better!

If baby is crying and seems in pain there are things you can do to help, cycling the legs, pushing the legs up and then straightening, using different burping positions..even changing to a different brand of formula to see if this helps (some babies find certain types more difficult to digest than others and switching can help)
It could just be that baby NEEDS more milk, if bouncing, rocking, helping to settle wind/colic etc etc doesnt work then you need to offer FORMULA not water.

 

[Seraphim]

So many people do tell you to give LO water though, so I'm not surprised people end up with an upset baby like the OP

It seems to me to be one of those outdated things which people still say out of context and from habit.

 

[kayleigh&bump]

My HV has advised me to give my lo water whenhes been feeding exesively, to see if it is actually milk he wants or something else x

 

[xpinkness87x]

i was told to give LO water if he feeds to much also... i have been trying to hold of giving it to him. Also i was told baby might just be thirsty and not to give him more milk because it could make him consitpated?

It seems everyone has different advice about the water thing and now im confused... i dont want to be causing LO health problems...

 

[Seraphim]

The advice to give water is given frequently for many different reasons.

To bring down a fever
To relieve constipation
To fill a baby up so they stop crying
To manipulate a baby into not asking for food at night...

I'm sure there's many more. The point is that some of the reasons might not be good ones and might cause LO difficulties.

So it's not that it's absolutely wrong... it's just that often it's wrongly advised, or wrongly applied.

I really can't comment on what 'feed too much' is for FF - but I wonder what 'too much' is when babies are growing and having growth spurts etc?

The HV we saw told us to leave our 2 week old to cry in a room on her own... so I guess I'm not very trusting of their advice across the board.

 

[xpinkness87x]

The advice to give water is given frequently for many different reasons.

To bring down a fever
To relieve constipation
To fill a baby up so they stop crying
To manipulate a baby into not asking for food at night...

I'm sure there's many more. The point is that some of the reasons might not be good ones and might cause LO difficulties.

So it's not that it's absolutely wrong... it's just that often it's wrongly advised, or wrongly applied.

I really can't comment on what 'feed too much' is for FF - but I wonder what 'too much' is when babies are growing and having growth spurts etc?

The HV we saw told us to leave our 2 week old to cry in a room on her own... so I guess I'm not very trusting of their advice across the board.

see i was wondering what feeding too much is? Oliver goes 3 and half to 4 hours between feeds and then 6 from 8pm then back to 3 and half to 4 after that feed. But sometimes he demands food 2 hours after a feed in the evening so we do our check list lol... hugs, change, playtime and then final thing if he doesnt settle give him his bottle. HV told me that the 2 hour gap meant he was feeding too often?

And then another HV has told me to put him on to hungry baby milk for his last feed? lol everyone has different advise!!

 

[MissRhead]

When my LO was 2 days old he was really constipated so when I rang up to ask what to do they told me to give 1oz of cool boiled water! Does that mean I've done something to his health!? I'm actually a little worried now

 

[Mynx]

In response to the water debate, I was told to go only offer Evie water if she gets constipated, has diarrhea, or has a fever and appears to be dehydrated. MW and HV have both said that she shouldnt need any extra water just yet as the formula is made up with water and that should be enough. I would only ever give Evie water for the above reasons, but that's on the advice of my own HV and MW and on my own personal opinion.

As for the "feeding too much", Evie is fed on demand. She demands a feed, I feed her. I would never substitute her bottle for water instead to try and prolong times between feeding. If she wants feeding every hour (and she has done!) then I feed her every hour. I didnt think it was possible to feed a baby too much to be honest They eat cos they're hungry, not cos they're being greedy and if it seems like they are indeed being greedy, then it's usually a growth spurt or a particularly hungry day. Besides, they will sick up what they cant take.