Discomfort Night Feeding

My son had some similiar issues and I ended up taking him to a pediatric gastro doctor. He ended up having high acids and required stomache meds. One was over the counter, not mylicon, but gavistron- this was adjusted by my son's weight. He also had a prescription to block the acid production. He needed it only for just under a year. He is fine now. Hope everything works out well for you all. Good Luck! It is so hard to watch little ones be uncomfortable or in pain... it just breaks my heart.

Hi K.,

This is not really a solution, more of a ME TOO! With my first child she never had this but this (4 weeks old today) one seems to be extra gassy (bottom half). She grunts and grunts and hardly cries. I just blame it on her father's genes. LOL. One thing that has helped is I put her in her car seat to sleep. I have no idea why this helps me but I'm thinking its the position and her intestines are not as stretched. Also I find a lot of her grunts are cries of hunger. Not your typical rhythmic crying for hunger. So I feed her more and she's back to sleep. I do a combo of breast and bottle. I also found my Similac Organic works better than the Enfamil Lipil. So maybe try a different formula if you bottle feed. I bottle feed at night for sanity reasons.

I also give the drops (usually late evening in the hopes of a more peaceful night) and haven't had any problems with the stuff. I was given it in the hospital at a much higher dose and breastfed.

I hope someone else can be more helpful.

Good luck.

Hi K.. I breastfed for 1 year to my now 20 month old. I remember the first three months...so much to figure out. We had the same problem with mine and I think Celia had it figured out. Sitting them more upright seemed to help the gas leave the body better. My husband figured it out. He always grossed me out by sitting up to burp. He can't burp laying down for some reason, so we thought that may be her problem also. If you're nursing I would also check what you're eating. Sometimes our night time meals have more starch or dairy and even gassy veggies that may be giving him problems. I know nothing about formula, but I know there are lots of different kinds. You may just have to try lots of different brands until you find what works. Oh, and we used Mylicon and it seemed to help. There's also something called Grape (or grepe) Water. I can't remember exactly what it's called but it works great.
Best of luck! You'll get through this and be on to something else just as frustrating.
~J.

K.,

My son did the same thing and seemed to have slight reflux when he was very young. We raised the head of his bassinet and I let him sleep sort of upright on my chest alot. That way I could monitor him closely, burp or help pat his back if he seemed to be uncomfortable. We gave him Malox as prescribed by the Dr for acid. I don't know whether it did anything but over time he seems to have grown out of it. Now we use Gripe Water (an organic one found at most health food stores) which contains fennel and ginger extracts for soothing stomach. Since you are breastfeeding, you can also take fennel capsules to help the baby. I have never heard of gas meds causing constipatio in a breastfed baby...

The other thing is maybe he has a sensitivity to something you are eating??? Doesn't necessarily mean its a true allergy, but more so a sensitivity meaning that since his gut is still immature, he may not be able to easily tolerate certain things yet such as dairy (cow's typically- that you eat), soy, wheat, eggs, and others. If he is sensitive to dairy that does not mean YOUR breastmilk, it means cow milk protein, which is found in almost everything from milk, cheese, yogurt and the obvious ones to spaghetti sauces,breads, etc....

Is it also possible that your supply is less in the evening (which is typical) and he is getting agitated over that? Try taking fennugreek capsules or drinking red raspberry leaf tea or coconut milk to increase supply at that time of the day so that flow is to his liking and maybe he wont get angry :-) You are doing the very best thing you could do for your son, hang in there! Come to a LLL meeting or to the Morton Plant Nursing Moms Care and Share group.... meets at Morton Plant Clearwater every 1st and 3rd Friday at 10-12.... You will get lots of good advice and meet lots of cool moms!

Congrats K.!! I used Mylicon after every feeding with my first daughter. I never heard of it causing constipation nor did it cause it with her. But what it sounds like is what I have been going thru with my second daughter who is about to be 5 mths old. She had the worst acid reflux and was miserable because of it. At 1 week old the Gastroenterologist put her on medicine but said it won’t help with the acid reflux just the heartburn. I honestly didn't notice a difference so we quit giving it to her. I tried elevating her, holding her upright for 30+ minutes after every meal, gently rubbing her belly. You named I tried it. She grunted, arched her back, flailed her arms, and had hiccups the whole night. If she wasn’t doing all that then she was crying. I found out from the gastroenterologist that those are signs of distress (even hiccups which I never knew before). I began to notice she had diarrhea. I called both the pediatrician and the gastroenterologist after about 2 weeks (I waited because I was breastfeeding and the number of her pee diapers didn’t go down so she wasn’t dehydrated) neither were concerned. Then finally after a month of that I made an appointment with the gastroenterologist because she was so miserable because of the pain. It turned out that she developed a milk allergy as well as had acid reflux. They gave me a hypo allergic formula (it doesn't have soy or milk in it)to try and after about 5 days the diarrhea started to calm down. The point of this story is she completely transformed into the happiest baby because she wasn’t in pain anymore. I could actually lay her down without her grunting/crying. The first night of the special formula she slept through the whole night and has slept through the whole night ever since. Also, the acid reflux calmed down. She still has it but no where near the way she had it before. They tried diagnosing her as colicky. I don’t believe in a colicky baby. I believe babies cry for a reason and that was her reason. If this sounds like what you are going thru you can eliminate ALL milk products out of your diet for a few days as a test. If you notice a difference then he may have a milk allergy as well. Good luck. You're doing a great job!!

are you nursing or bottle feeding? if nursing, i don't think the mylicon causes too much constipation. I would try right after the feeding, try to get a birp, then give a little more. my ped told me it is not absorbed, so you can't overdose. If bottle feeding, check to make sure you are holding bottle so no air gets into nipple. my sis in law puts caro syrup in her bottles to prevent constipation. the rumbling could also just be normal bowel sounds, and he may like to pooh at night (as my little one does.) hope this helps. you can also try a broken down formula for night feedings (like enfamil gentlease, or carnation good start). Also, you are holding him up which is good b/c they can be refluxy. I resisted medication for mine until 6 weeks when I couldn't take it any more, and the ped put him on Zantac, which stopped the "screeching" cries. She said many babies have reflux, but eventually grow out of it.

Poor thing! I feel for both of you! We went through the same thing..........burp the child then give him the gas drops! Even if is just for the overnight feedings, you'll both get the much needed sleep you deserve, and we has no issues w/ constipation! Good luck! L.

Mylacon is a life savor. also, what are you eating? is he a nursing baby that could be an issue. at 3 weeks they grunt alot and move there arms it is just him learning to work with them. He will be more steady in about 60 days

First, are you breast feeding? That is preferable, if possible, because there is less air swallowed with breastfed infants. Don't use any Mylicon, avoid pharmaceuticals wherever possible. You can make some warm ginger tea, sweeten it with maple syrup (just a little), not honey, as ginger is very soothing to the stomach, no matter what age. It's the warmth of the liquid and the warmth of the ginger that does the trick. And it's natural! You can get a good, organic ginger tea from a natural food store to make it easy, and while you're at it, make a cup for yourself, too. Very comforting. L.

My little one suffered like this for months and everytime I took him in my pediatrician would tell me it was culic (sp?). It got so bad he stopped eating because he associated pain with eating. It ended up being acid reflux and once the doctor put him on zantac he was a much happier baby and started gaining wieght.
Above all listen to that voice inside of you because you will know your baby best. If you feel he is not feeling well you are probably right. I would have him seen by your pediatrician and if he thinks you need to wait and try other options that is fine but if the pain persists I would try Zantac.

My daughter is now 9months old but when I first brought her home she would scream at night too.

Then after she let out a few farts she was ok so I narrowed down the screaming to be associated with gassiness.

I gave her one tiny drop of the "GasX Infant drops" on the end of her pacifier and ler her suck it off (so i would not choke her) She was only days old and it is scary to give them anything that young but it helped.

Still though, I had a nag to figure out why she was so gassy in the first place and why she would spit up from time to time because I did a LOT of reading when pregnant and found that no baby should have to spit up on a daily basis.

I breast fed for 5 weeks until my milk vanished but alwasy had to substitue with formula because my breasts simply did not produce enough milk for my daughter and I stared on Enfamil LIPIL.

Through trial and error I found that the lactose free enfamil worked best for preventing gas.

Then after i fixed the gas problem she then got constipated and I had to fix that problem- the doctor said white grape juice would fix it and it did- but i wanted a permantent solution.

I had to make my daughter 2oz of powder formula and mix that with 2oz of readyMade liquid formula for every 4iz bottle. While that seems tedious, by the time my daughter was 3 weeks old I had no problems with bowl movements, no gas and no spit up.

She is 9 months old now and she has never spit-up and has not again gotten gas except the time her pedatritain recomended that she is no longer lactose intolerant to switch to normal formula again- wow waht a mistake! GAS and FUSSINESS follwed that change.

Consider that your child is lactose intolerant. If you research lactose intolerance online you'll realsize that about 75% of people who are lactose intolerant do not know they are lactose intolerant and live daily with gas not knowing the underlying cause.
(me benig one of them who did not know that I was intoleratn until I was 19 years old)

Hope this helps

@}~>~~

Congrats on your new baby! My daughter did the same thing. Are you nursing? If so, I noticed that if I ate anything somewhat spicy or "gassy" for dinner, it would cause more gas. I gave the Mylicon drops by the bottle. We joked that we should by stock in Mylicon. Unfortunately, they didn't always work. The best thing is to lay them on their bellies but I know this is contraindicated for sleep. (Although my second baby would ONLY sleep on her belly.) I hope that helps. We never had a constipation problem from Mylicon and we gave a lot of it. Good luck!!

I have never heard of Mylicon causing constipation--it didn't with our daughter but she was breastfed. She was more or less colicky at that age and we gave it to her a lot (dr. said it is safe up to what the label says), although I don't think it worked. We even tried Gripe Water, a homeopathic liquid you can buy at Babies R Us... again, didn't really work for us.
A lot of babies have reflux, so keep an eye out for those symptoms. Arching the back while eating and a look of pain during/after eating... We got our daughter on Axid at 2 months old. Really helped. Some drs. don't take it seriously and will have babies just grow out of it.
Good luck.

Hi K.,
Don't worry! Parenting gets easier! :-)
I suggested calling the La Leche League. You might enjoy attending the meetings; I met some of my current best friends there. The moms there can be a wonderful support group.
Also, though, anything dealing with nursing, digestion, etc., the La Leche League representatives will be able to help.
Good luck,
L.

I'm not sure if you are breast feeding or formula feeding, but my daughter had a similar problem. It turned out that she had reflux. We ending up putting her on enfamil ar which has a little rice cereal mixed in it. She slept much better after we switched her to this. Our pediatrician said we could mix a little rice cereal with the breast milk, but I could never get it to disolve wll enough to get through the nipple of the bottle.

Oh my goodness! This happened to my daughter aroun 2-4 weeks. Shewould be very fussy at night, up frequently, squirm and scream,and it sounded like she was quietly burping most of the night. It took us two more miserable months to figure out what was going on and it was finally diagnosed as "silent" reflux, which means she is refluxing, but rather than spitting it up, it just goes back down. So my recommendation, is to let your pediatrician know all the symptoms and see if the will help. Also, try elevating the head of the bead so that he is on a bit of an incline.

I wish you the best in figuring out, I remember how long our nights were during that time.

It could be that he has acid reflux. My son had/has it. He has started to outgrow it but had to be put on medication for a while. Try holding him upright longer after the feeding and burping him after every ounce. Also, you can elevate his bed on one end. Put a telephone book under each leg on the end. You can also massage his stomach in a clockwise motion starting at the belly button and working gently around. This helps relax the stomach muscles and also sometimes will release the gas if thats the problem. Hope this helps.

He could be allergic to something. Are you nursing or using formula? Allergies to food are the worse at night. They can't sleep because their tummy hurts,

My daughter used to have the same reaction after eating and laying down. It was so horrible to see her so uncomfortable! As it turns out she was diagnosed with sever reflux. For my daughter it was so sever that she has had to have surgery to correct it; but in most cases, the doctor can perscribe medication that will help minimize or control the reflux. It is definately worth getting him into the GI Dr to get checked out! My daughter also had a problem with the time it took for her food to move from the stomach into the intestine; the doctor said that this slowness also causes discomfort. I would not self medicate until you find out exactly what is causing the issue. Good luck; I hope your little one gets better soon.