What's normal?

[Charmed86]

My LO is now 6wks old & I am wondering what his behaviour should be right now? He seems to sleep & cry an awful lot. I keep reading advice on how to interact with him, but honestly, I've no idea when I'm supposed to do it? We get maybe 10 minutes of attention from him after his first feed of the morning - once he's finished screaming! Then it's all downhill from there. Constant cycles of sleeping (sometimes for only 30mins), waking & screaming, nappy change, feed (if he needs it) & then more screaming until he falls asleep.

Or GP has diagnosed reflux, but he doesn't really have symptoms other than he screams after eating. But to be fair, he screams when we burp him, change him etc. The screaming has been particularly bad the last 2 nights, it's obvious he is in a lot of pain. The GP prescribed gaviscon, but I'm not entirely sure it's doing anything & I'm very worried it's going to make him constipated & then he'll scream about that too!!

The short periods of time he's awake, he's averting eye contact, yawns a lot.. So he's tired pretty much all the time. Not surprising giving the screaming!

I've been wondering if he has some sort of intolerance to the milk. He's on sma comfort atm, but he was on sma gold to begin with & we tried hipp too. We use infacol for gas, he is a very gassy baby. He is gaining weight, although according to his weight yesterday, he's gone from between 25-50th centile to on the 25th. So that's slowing. But he eats a lot! We did feed on demand, but he was having over a litre of formula a day & was having classic symptoms of lactose overload. Now we give him 90ml (3oz) offer a dummy & if he takes it then we assume he's no longer hungry. Occasionally he'll want the additional 30ml (1oz) so we'll give it to him. That's been working really well & had stopped him spitting up so much.

I'm really at my wits end here. I feel like the dr just fobbed us off with reflux. The HV has even suggested intolerances as well as reflux, despite his weight being normal.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm so tempted to just go to a walk in centre or something and demand for him to be seen by someone. I can't continue like this. It's been 6wks of hell!

 

[londonangel]

Unfortunately some babies are a bit grumpy. I have friends who reported similar things, even without reflux. When mine were tiny I used to put them in the baby gym or lie on the floor and shake rattles and read to them. Mine never cried much, they both only cried when hungry or in pain. It will get better with time, try not to worry. If he seems in pain though or has a fever perhaps take him to the GP again.

 

[MindUtopia]

I would say that to a certain extent this all sounds pretty normal, though there is definitely normal sort of 'witching hours' (times when babies tend to be particularly difficult to soothe) and then there is screaming in pain that's not normal. There is definitely a difference, but it takes a while to work out how to tell between the two. My daughter definitely slept most of the time up til about that age and later. We didn't do much other than sit and hold her. There wasn't a whole lot of interaction in the way that you would expect with an older baby who plays and interacts. They can't actually see that well at that age still, so toys aren't that much interest. Basically, it was just sitting and holding her all the time, interspersed with changing and feeds, then she'd fall asleep and I'd sit and hold her. She couldn't be put down and would definitely get upset if she wasn't on me. There were definitely times of the day that were particularly rough, especially late afternoon and into the evening. Putting her in the wrap and walking around the garden helped a lot during those times. But I'd say nothing that you're describing necessarily sounds unusual, particularly as you're still getting used to each other and learning her cues, but trust your gut. Screaming from a grizzly, tired or hungry baby is different than screaming from one that is in pain, so if you think it's pain or there are other signs of something going on, get it checked out.

 

[Linnypops]

The sleeping isn't surprising, that's very typical for a young baby. The screaming could be a number of things. Are you nursing? Might be - reflux meds need to be changed or dosage upped. May be that you have oversupply of foremilk and could benefit from block feeding. may be intolerance to something you're eating or drinking. Could simply be a high needs baby - you can google that along with 'Dr Sears'. Really, only time and testing things out will give you the answers. The thing I can say right now is that this is a really difficult time, I went through the same thing with my own daughter. It was so hard. I thought it would never end (She had nothing 'wrong' with her per se, she was just high needs). But, it did end. it does end. Meantime you would probably benefit from someone lending a hand so you can go and get a walk or relax. If you ever need to talk you can pm me any time x

 

[_Meep_]

To be honest, I'd say everything you've written sounds normal. Mine barely opened her eyes for the first 4-6 weeks, cried plenty, and had all sorts of gastric discomfort and weird nappies as her digestive system matured.

She's now a healthy, wonderful 16-month-old.

Give it time amd probably it will gradually improve, but as always, trust your instinct and if something truly feels off, then push for a paediatric evaluation.