My newborn is one month old and i cannot settle him at night. During the day he feeds every 4 hours however at night time from approx 8.30pm he wont settle. He will scream until early hours of the morning. During this time he has alot of farts/gas. I have tried to feed it out of him, just makes the situation worse. He wont take a dummy. Does this sound like colic? Does anyone have anything that has worked for them? Im desperate. The hours of screaming is heart breaking.
6 Replies
Firstly take your baby to the GP. Have you tried him sleeping on a slope? So head up slightly higher than feet.
What about going to the pharmacy for gas drops? They have some that can be used at that age. I used them on one of my boys and it helped, as did pushing his legs around in a bicycle motion to help get the gas out
You don't say whether your bub is breastfed or formula fed.
A few things to consider if breastfed:
# are you consuming something that may be affecting bubs? (Dairy, cabbage, onions, garlic, chocolate, coffee)
# 4 hourly feeds at that age seems a bit too infrequent, are you demand feeding or doing it by your own schedule?
# it is considered normal for a baby aged 4 weeks to display the symptoms you say - TO A DEGREE
# are you burping bub sufficiently after each feed?
The bottom 2 points apply to formula fed also. Have you tried different formulas?
Its so hard at that stage and is pretty much a guessing game. My bub was like what you described until 13 weeks then she just magically got better!
Every 4 hrs is not infrequent. U have to remember that all babies r different and want different amount of food. A baby won't starve themselves. I have 2 kids and the first 2 from day one only wanted to b fed every 4 hrs on the dot, even during the night. But my third baby has slept through the night from a week old but during the day from day 3 if I didn't keep an eye on the time she would go 5-6 hrs during the day without being fed. We would have to wake her during the day if she slept too long. She's always been a very happy and content baby
When my youngest was about 2-4 weeks old she wouldn't settle at certain times (she normally sleeps through the night and is a very content baby). I had noticed that she wasn't doing a poo very often and was very farty. I googled how to help a constipated baby. They suggested massaging gently around the lower abdomin about a 2 finger widths above the pelvic bone and moving their legs in a bicycle motion. And if they were formula fed to swap formulas. She was formula fed so I swapped from S26 to NAN PRO GOLD. I saw a huge improvement in a few days. So I don't know if ur baby is breast or bottle but if he is bottle I'd suggest swapping formula and perhaps even get different bottles as he could be sucking in alot of air (u cn get really good anticolic bottles). But try the massaging thing if u think he could be constipated. Good luck
Breathe. You are doing everything you possibly can for your little man.
I think as parents we've all been there - feeling desperate wanting to help our babies, feeling beyond exhausted and wanting to know what on earth is going on. This too will pass.
Babies are hard work! My little guy is 4 months old now and he was doing exactly what you described at one month old. It was astounding to me how much he changed between one and two months old, it will happen for you too.
Some of the things that worked for me, but keeping in mind all babies are different are-
Visited the GP to rule out reflux
The tick tock method of burping (look on YouTube)
Carrying him with his belly laying down on my arm and limbs on either side whilst my arm was tilted at an upwards angle
Baby hammock
Warm bath with lavender baby wash to help with sleepiness
Gripe water
Learning about wonder weeks and knowing that they will come out the other side
White noise (my little guy loved the hair dryer, we even used it to dry him after he had a bath, he'd always stop crying)
And when all else failed and he was fed and clean and loved I would just sit in the rocking chair and ride it out with him