2week old baby settling problems

jemb

I know there's been alot of people with really helpful replies, but just wanted to stick my ore in.
Our little girl was born last Jan and started pretty windy. We started her on infacol on every feed which seemed to bring it up, by 5 weeks we'd gone from an hour sleeping and an hour not sleeping to a 9 hour a night baby. Just a thought. It may not be 'full on colic' (Colic is however a sweeping statement for trapped wind - I tried to be knowledgeable when our Nurse asked who said there is no such thing as Colic in a medicinal term, it is wind) but may be wind stopping her settling. Hope you get some rest x

FBaby

Really, a professional said it was 'wind'. I am amazed by the lack of understanding of colic amongst professionals. I face that same problem with my DD. The HV was so unhelpful, it is me who did research to find out about lactose intolerance and a remedy for it. When she saw the difference in my DD, she was amazed and when I told her about lactose intolerance, she actually asked me to email her the link to the remedy (which at that time was only available online, a few years before it was sold at boots).

I agree that colic is a general term that is given to babies who are unsettled and can't be appeased with normal smoothing method, but it certainly can be for other reasons than just 'wind'.

Kynthia

A lot of people use colic as a term when they mean wind, especially companies when they sell anti-colic bottles. Technically colic is unexplained crying and is diagnosed when there is at least three hours of unexplained crying a day at least three times a week for at least three weeks in a baby between two weeks and four months old. This is incredibly stressful and usually takes place in the evening for some reason, which is hard as you are even more tired then. Wind is a very common problem though and there's lots of advice online on various winding techniques.


Back to the original post, my daughter was only taking about 50ml on demand at two weeks so that's not unheard of as babies differ on how much and often they want to feed. I fed on demand and let her find her own routine which wasn't easy but she got there after a couple of months. The thing is to ensure that you aren't rushing to feed with every whimper as it might be for something else rather than hunger, then the baby is snacking all the time and never getting hungry enough for a meal. However you're probably still too early for that so it's just something to bare in mind.


Looking after a two week old can be hard as they are very new. Read a little about the fourth trimester. Also newborns are nocturnal as they were rocked to sleep while the mother walked around all day and then played around while the mother was still at night. It takes a while to get them used to day and night and I read that babies who get the most exposure to daylight between 11am and 4pm eventually slept better at night. Also daytime feeds should be lively and night-time feeds should be quiet in low light. I think many of my friends began trying a bedtime routine at 3-4 months, so at the moment don't stress about it and nap whenever you can. Before that they wake too often and tend to be unsettled in the early evening, which is why many people end up taking them for a drive to settle them or I used to walk up and down the stairs with her in a carrier or wander around the kitchen with her in 'tiger in a tree' position which often stopped her crying.

holgate79

Just wanted to mention colief. We used it with our son from being four weeks old to 17 weeks old. He started with colic at about 3 weeks old - I tried gripe water, dentinox and infacol- none of them worked. His wind was trapped in the bottom end not the top! A tell tale sign was the amount of trumping he did and the fermented smell to his nappies.

Colief was difficult to use because I was breast feeding but we ended up giving a 1oz bottle with the drops in And then me feeding until he was full. It was a faff but it worked the little bottle of drops went with me everywhere and I never missed adding them to a feed. It was also horrendously expensive £11 for a bottle that lasted 4-5 days.

Do you know about 'cluster' feeds? My son would feed for what felt like days on end? There were days when we didn't leave the house because he just wanted to feed. I watched 4-5 hours of telly most mornings in my pjs because he seemed to need to fill up. There were days I felt very isolated/ restricted. There were days when I took him to his grandmas and gave him to her to nurse for a few hours to give me my sanity back.

Lastly, my son would not lie flat on his back for the first 4 months - he woke if you tried to put him down - when things were really bad I put him to sleep in his bouncy chair. Colic was exhausting but it has given us a really strong bond with our son - we have spent hours singing nursery rhymes, rocking and nursing our son.

please contact your health visitor - there is another condition that has symptoms that are very similar to colic called reflux - if your little one has this - vigorous attempts to wind are actually painful and will not do any good.

gayleygoo

Your post sounds very normal OP, but of course it's not easy.

In the early weeks, often up to 6 weeks if not more, babies can seem unsettled and want to cry a lot. My baby is about 11 weeks now, but it was only around the 5 or 6 week mark that I felt I was holding my head above water.

Newborns can take some time to adjust from the wonderful snuggly world of The Womb, where they didn't have to make any effort to meet their needs, and everything was peaceful. Now your baby has to deal with being hungry, and everything is so strange and new and probably quite scary. Some babies seem to cope fine (my DD took it in her stride from birth), but my boys needed almost constant cuddling.

50ml sounds like plenty for a 2 weeks old, their belly is probably about the size on a hen's egg and can't hold much more than that, so will be hungry very often. A young baby will not really wake for the sake of it, only to eat. Feed baby when they start shuffling about and rooting for their milk - if they're crying by the time milk gets to them, they might be too tired to eat. Or they'll gulp it madly and take in too much wind.

Our lifesaver was the tumbledryer aka WombNoise. Even in summer, to heck with the environment, it made the baby sleep!! You can also get loads of white noise on youtube etc.

I'm not a fan of strict routines anyway, but they are unlikely to work for another month or two at least. Modern midwives seem to advise against the likes of Gina Ford et al, as the routines go against the actual needs of the baby to suit the parents.

It seems like hell now, I know. So take lots of photos because you won't remember it! And in a couple of weeks your baby will smile, and you will crumble to its beauty and all will be right with the world for a while at least, but it does help to know that your baby is happy. Right now, baby can't tell you that, but you are doing just fine xx

woohoo

I agree wholeheartedly with Bluemeanie! Gina Ford - The contented little baby book!! I did the same as Bluemeanie and stuck to feed and sleep times. Not all the 'let baby kick on mat' blah blah. It worked for me. Both mine were soon sleeping through. My sister used it for all 3 of hers,and my friend for both of hers. I know the current thinking is demand feed, follow the baby etc. My experience of this was a nightmare. As soon as I discovered Gina Ford things were so much better. (and those naps in the day are excellent for getting stuff done!!!). Good luck. The early days are hard, but it will get better whatever you choose to do!

Re: above post - don't knock until you have tried it! It does not go against what baby naturally needs at all. If you do it, you will see the signs your baby is ready for a nap, feed etc and they are always when Gina says they will be! It is actually quite hard work for the parents at first until you get into it - then it is great. The routines change according to the age of your baby.

Lunar_Eclipse

FBaby wrote: »

really? Well both mine did, diagnosed as such by a GP both times when they were less than 3 weeks and it gone on since they were 10 days old.

Well, I'm fairly certain that's what I was told. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. But also I do believe there are several different expert opinions when it comes to babies/children. Thankfully she grew out of it. :rotfl:

FBaby

Just wanted to mention colief.

That's the treatment I was referring too in my earlier post that my HV knew nothing about. It had just came out when I used in 2000, I had to order it from Ireland! I wasn't sure you could mention brand.

The difference in my DD was day and night, she went from a miserable baby to a delight and I was gutted that it took 9 weeks to find out about the treatment. I was very confident when DS showed the same distress that he was suffering from lactose intolerance too, but in his case, it wasn't that and the treatment made no difference. Definitely worth trying though OP.

jetplane

If your baby has not settled and is not responding to colic medicine I agree with the poster who said reflux. Colic is frequently the assumption while reflux is often not considered. Your health visitor can show you colic massage, although this is impossible when your baby won't lie on its back because of reflux.

Does your baby bring up small amounts of milk?
Does you baby arch its back?
Does your baby sleep better on its side or on a sloped chair, pram etc?

If your baby is still crying for hours don't just accept that it is normal or colic, the treatments given to ease colic can make reflux worse. Your baby can be given medication for reflux and you will know immediately if this is the problem.

lollyb84

Bluemeanie wrote: »

I second the poster that said about routine. I am a regimented structured person and after 6 weeks of being all over the place I couldn't take it anymore and started Gina Ford.

I didn't do all the "have a piece of toast" mambo jumbo at 8.05am. I just stuck to feeding and sleeping times (but kept it a bit flexible.) the result was a settled baby who went to bed at 7.30pm, had a dream feed at 10pm and slept through the until7am at 7 weeks old. It was the best thing I ever did.

This. I also did what was referred to in our family as 'Gina Lite'. I started it at 4 weeks when I began to feel like I was losing the plot because I'd been allowing him to sleep and feed on demand, and our little one was sleeping from 7 - 10, waking him up and feeding him, then sleeping 11 - 7 by 7 weeks, and he slept 7 - 7 at 6 months (only not before because we kept dream feeding him).

I know Gina Ford has it's critics and there are lots of people who don't like her methods (I had a stand up row with a health visitor who basically told me I was a terrible mother because they don't like it. She hadn't read it, but was repeating hearsay), but they worked for me, and a number of my friends. As with bluemeanie, I largely stuck to the baby feed and sleep times, with some flexibility for ease. As a result, I had a settled baby, and a happy toddler who likes routine, but manages change with no ill effects.