Baby just will not settle

dexterwolf

Our 5 week and 5 day old baby just will not settle at night. We never are able to get her off to sleep until the early hours . By this time we are both shattered plus I have to go to work at 7 am in the mornings. We have tried infacol, cow and gate comfort and gaviscon infant but it is not working. Also we have tried gripe water and colief . Has anyone got any ideas as I am really starting to get concerned about what we can do .

2gorgeousgirls

My daughter was awful at night for over 7 months - never slept more than a couple of hours and cried constantly when awake. Took her to gp, had tests and turned out she had silent reflux.

She was put on zantac which helped a bit. We also raised her head by placing a pillow under her mattress.

I would suggest speaking to gp to check if there is a medical reason. If there isn't then speak to your health visitor or nurse at the baby clinic - they will have come across this issue many times and hopefully have good advice.

betterlife

With my 4th baby, he started crying from about a week old, i thought it was colic, as my other babies had, had it, but nothing helped and at 5 months old he was still the same, i`d spend hours rocking him in the kitchen as the extractor fan noise seemed to help him sleep lol, the doctors eventually said it was acid reflux and put him on medication (that hadnt been tested in this country, but was used in new zealand) any how, this didnt help either, i kept on saying to the doctor, could it be his milk? (he was on farleys) as i had bottle fed from birth, the doctor said because he was a healthy weight gaining baby, it couldnt be his milk or allergy, but my baby kept on crying! i was referred to the hospital, but in the mean time i took it on myslf to try baby soya formula milk, and within an hour the crying stopped! just like that, i had a happy baby, i continued with this milk, and it was like i had a different baby altogether. when i eventually saw a specialist at the hospital, they said it must of been a dairy allergy, and that my baby was comfort eating , thats why he put on weight, the sucking/feeding helped ease the pain, but once he stopped the gripping tummy pains would start. because both my mum and sister had breast cancer, i asked the doctor for a different milk and was prescribed a hypo-allergenic formula milk (although my doctor would begrudgingly give due to cost!) fortunately, as i weaned my baby from 6mths, i slowly introduced dairy and by 12mths he was eating it fine. the thing that really annoyed me during this process was the doctor was so quick to give me drugs for acid reflux that hadnt been tested for babies in this country at the time, but wouldnt consider a not dairy formula as he was a good weight and feed well!

betterlife

Also my youngest is 7yrs old now, and i no they change what you are suppose to do all the time, but try a bedtime routine, they are never to young. maybe a warm bath with johnsons baby lavender bath helps then sleep, then there bedtime feed, if your bottle feeding try giving a couple extra ounzes to help them go longer between feed, then maybe a lullaby as you put them in there crib. hth xx

Flybaby

try an iced teething ring, even if they are not teething yet, sometimes it can be sore or irritated gums and this can sooth, worth a try, he will soon throw it away if it is not the issue. Good luck.X

ViolaLass

I know I will get flamed by some for this suggestion but have you tried/considered co-sleeping? We did it for a while and still do occasionally if our daughter is unsettled. When she was tiny, she would sleep on our chests. While not ideal because the adult can't move, it did allow everyone to rest.

arbrighton

She is still very young and it sounds like you are expecting far too much. You were given good advice on your previous thread about her not settling at 2 weeks old...

meer53

dexterwolf wrote: »

Our 5 week and 5 day old baby just will not settle at night. We never are able to get her off to sleep until the early hours . By this time we are both shattered plus I have to go to work at 7 am in the mornings. We have tried infacol, cow and gate comfort and gaviscon infant but it is not working. Also we have tried gripe water and colief . Has anyone got any ideas as I am really starting to get concerned about what we can do .

My daughter never slept more than 4 hours at a time until she was 2. Stick with it, your baby will sort herself out when she's ready. You aren't in control here, she is.

ashtray_heart

Little babies just like Mummy and Daddy cuddles. It usually inproves eventually. Ours is 10 weeks old and at 6 weeks I felt like it would never get better. I bought a baby moov and put that in the moses basket and put a tshirt I had worn as a sheet so she could smell us. She eventually slept in there although not for long. Turns out out DD had tongue tie which meant she wasnt feeding properly and once that was sorted she slept for much longer. If she is bote fed though it is unlikely to be the problem. In the short term rather than you both being tired can you share the load by doing shifts during the night or taking it in turns to stay up with the baby?

SmlSave

She's only five weeks, if you look up day/night confusion they give a rough age of six weeks at least to start realizing the difference.

Co sleeping helped me cope.

Also, some children sleep better than others. My 3yr old and my 15month old rarely sleep through the night.

Kynthia

What do you mean by the baby won't settle at night. Do you mean they won't go to sleep when you want, or will only sleep for two hours at a time, or is grizzly and occasionally cries, or will scream solidly for hours? What are your expectations of what a five week old should be doing? Are you expecting a bedtime routine that means they fall asleep until morning with perhaps one night feed or are you expecting a baby who can be grizzly in the early evening but will fall asleep for a few hours waking every 3/4 hours in the night for a feed?

Until you answer I can't give any construct advice or tell whether your baby is doing what most 5 week olds do and actually your expectations are unreasonable. I also think you should re-read your similar thread from a few weeks ago as people wrote a lot of good advise there.