Im a new parent that needs help!

vanilla

Big hugs, my wee man is now 5 months and for the first 8 weeks he was just a grumpy old man. He'd feed abit then fall asleep then want a bit more an hour later. What a nightmare....

I found the same as you, at night full feeds but during the day snacking. He constantly cried that everyone thought he had colic.

I decided to change his milk and tried the cow and gate for hungrier babies as he had been on the SMA, what a difference it made. I did tell the health vistor once i changed his milk and she said to try different ones and see what worked best. Thankfully it did the trick after a week or so of being on it. After two weeks he was sleeping through the night. How long did you change his milk for?

JBD

As far as settling your baby have you tried noise, the hoover or the tumble drier are especially good for this. To me though the best thing to get them settled is to put them in the pram and take them out for a good walk, about 20 minutes at least, then leave them in the pram when you get in. I think the fresh air knocks them out especially in the winter.
Lastly don't worry, things will improve, most babies get over colic at around 3 months and once they go onto solids they are not so hungry.
best of luck.

JBD

Vanilla, that is the same milk I fed my babies on. I did hear that SMA is too rich for some babies, also Aptamil can block the teats up.

lolababy

Hi my son was just like yours small amounts of feed taken and then awake and winging. It took time but I had to encourage him to take more of the bottle each time. He would doze off
Try feeding him less ie dont give a feed straight after his last one. He will cry but it may encourage him to take more of the next feed. Build this up until he is on a full feed. As you have said he takes a full feed after his night time sleep.
If his crying is getting you down try putting on some music. As long as you can see him he will be fine. Dont pick him up every time he cries .
If your stressed the baby will pick this up. Try walking into another room and counting to ten before going back in.
One thing that I found to work for a crying baby was a baby carrier. The motion soothed the baby and it meant I could get some housework done.
Try to sleep when you can. One of you go to bed early whilst the other stays up for his next feed. If you can do this its a great help.
Things do get better and the baby will settle into a better routine.

**Patty**

djdymond wrote: »

thanks but yes ive read on a few different colic drops and gripe water boxes that it can be added to feeds. i did try with a spoon the first time and it was a bit of a nightmare, what with him moving about and crying!!! x

Honey, you can buy a 5ml syringe over the counter at Boots........WAY easier than trying a wriggly baby & spoon combo:D

That way, you can just drip it into his mouth a bit at a time.

vanilla

JBD wrote: »

Vanilla, that is the same milk I fed my babies on. I did hear that SMA is too rich for some babies, also Aptamil can block the teats up.

My wee man hated SMA, he was never content on it. The only reason i tried cow and gate was because my mum said i hated SMA and once i got onto cow and gate i was flying. Only wish i had changed the rest of my lot over.

The hoover is a great thing only time my wee man would shut up.:rotfl:

Things will get better, i remember it taking 3 days to get a food shop in. Everytime i walked into tesco's Rhys would just cry so i'd grab abit to do and then have to go back the next day and do it all over again. :rolleyes::o

snowmaid

I found allowing them to kick their legs freely in a warm bath helpful. When we have period pain, a nice warm bath helps to relieve. The warm bath also helps to soothe them.

djdymond

morning everyone

i cant thank you enough for all your posts.. alot of things had struck a cord with me!

im actually getting a sling on friday as someone has one to give away so i shall try that.. yes he loves being in the bath having a kick about although sometimes he then continues to cry after!!

yes Oli is on aptamil, so to read they could be blocking the teats makes sense! funnily enough i have bought a cow and gate one too this week, as boots only had one aptamil and i like to get 2 at a time, so i shall be trying that

i also have a srirynge (sorry my spelling is terrible!) so perhaps ill use that before his feed instead of adding to it

he does like the hoover, he doesnt sleep but e does go quiet! sadly, washing mashing doesnt seem to have the same effect!

to be honest, i dont mind the crying too much and i know babies cry, it was the "snacking" during the day WITH crying that worried me. but as i have read many of you had the same thing, im not too bothered. He was weighed on friday when he had his first set of injections and has put on weight! i realise babies can be ratty after injections? he had them friday morning, fell asleep within minutes and slept for about 4 hours so i assumed he wouldnt be ratty?? it probably contributed though?

and as for his milk, he was on the normal aptamil when he was born that was already made in cartons, no real problem. then we changed to formula and the trouble started (so maybe it IS blocking it up, i do find you can see "bits" in the bottle no matter how much i would shake it!) assuming, the crying was because he wasnt getting enough we changed to the hungrier babies stuff, probably after 3 or so weeks. then the crying got worse. we chaned the teats to ones with a slight bigger hole although using them meant he would either gasp and choke (we thought he was getting too much!) and the original ones we thought were too small as he would suck suck suck and the milk wouldnt go down. if you use one were he has to suck and nothing changes, someimes i change the teat to a bigger one and bingo! other times he chokes so i change it to a smaller one and bingo again!! im guessing its all trial and error..

anyway so he was on the hungrier baby forumla again about three weeks, maybe a week more. we found he was crying, going red, bringing up the knees soon after feeds as well as bringing it up during winding (we do wind him every 30 mls or so) so the last few weeks, hes now been on the easier diegestion formula... im a bit concerned chopping and changing formula probably isnt helping his digestion?

the other day we went to bluewater and took a small carton of the hungrier baby formula as i didnt have a normal one on me, and they dont do easy digestions in cartons. anyway i gave it to him (on and off!) and after he screamed like he haddnt done in ages so i winded him over the sholder and i got burp burp burp sick! again, he doesnt seem to bring up milk on the easier stuff so im def taking it as red the hungrier stuff he cant be ready for?

this all def seems to be falling into place and am sooooo greatful that so many of you lovely people have replied and given me ideas!!

oh, he eventually fell asleep about half 10 last night, woke at 2am and took about 160mls from 180mls and then slept till about 7am when he then took another 160mls! he then had about an hours activity and is now asleep! no real crying! still we shall see what happens come next feed which is normally when the fun starts!!
xxx

JBD

Hi djdymond, glad to hear things are picking up a little. Yes I would keep to the normal formula if you are going to change brands then you can always change up to hungry baby if you need to. Is your little one a big baby? This could explain him being hungrier. It sounds to me as if baby is nearly ready to sleep through the night, if I was you I would keep his bedtime at the same time and let him wake up gradually later. Also remember as he gets older he will need less sleep during the day so will probably enjoy more playtimes and longer between feeds. Lastly do you think he is happy with the bottles you are using? my babies seemed to get on best with the chunky Avent bottles ,nice and easy to suck from, nice and easy for Mum to wash up too. Anyway will keep my fingers crossed that you have a happy day with your baby.

vanilla

I had the same problems with the teats, but my lot would only take the Nuk ones, it's the same with the dummies and there a nightmare to get round here. I found the smaller ones didn't give enough and the bigger ones gave him to much so on the smaller ones i put a pin through to make a slightly bigger hole and that seemed to work.