My little girl is 4 months old and she is a sweet little thing for most of the day. She doesn't sleep all that long during some days, but all sleep is varying with her. Some days we will get 3 hour long naps and only one wake up at night for a bottle and then back down. Other days it is 20 minute cat naps throughout the day and sleeps for about 3-5 hours at night and then is up for the rest of the night.
The problem isn't that she doesn't sleep- it the REASON WHY she doesn't sleep. When she is up at night, she is actually trying to sleep but she is twisting and turning and arching her back and crying out in pain when she farts. She is miserable!
We have tried a lot of things. She is on Axid for infants and we have tired Zantac too. We have tried her different types of gas drops, sleeping in her car seat, her swing, we have her on a Gentle formula, we have tried to swaddle her with the Miracle Blanket and other things, we have tried putting her down earlier and later, tried getting her to sleep more during the day (some days good- some days bad)- we have even tried putting her on rice cereal 2 weeks ago (after talking to our pediatrician) and even putting her to sleep on her tummy. Also took her to a pediatric chiropractor to see if that would help (have only been three times, but haven’t seen much of any improvement so far).
All these things and nothing! I would say we get about 2 good nights a week at the most and the rest are so frustrating.
We are going to her 4 month appointment tonight and I don’t even know what to ask for. Am I just going to have to wait this out? She we try and change formula again? Any other suggestions out there would be appreciated!
after eating we would let #2 suck on a candy cane/ peppermint stick. the little bit of sugar he was getting greatly out weighed the benefits of cutting down the gas!! IMO it was a great choice and so nice not to see my lil man have the gas pains!
Huh, I never would have thought of peppemint for a baby even though I eat them whenever I have tummy aches. If you don't like the peppermint candy cane idea, you could always get peppermint essential oil and use that instead.
Things that worked for us:
1) Switched to soy formula - made a world of difference
2) I love Mylicon infant gas drops - for those tough gas bubbles that just wont come out
3) Held the baby on my hip but facing out (not facing my body) and with my arm around her stomach and gently bounce.
4) Never let the baby lay down flat while drinking and never put the baby to sleep flat on her back until I heard a burp
5) Gently use your thumb to press on the stomach (not entire abdomen but just one press on the stomach itself) Our pediatrician taught us this and it was like pressing a burp button. :-)
Good luck!
Gripe water. You will seriously love the stuff and I tell every new mom I know about it. We had issues with this and the Doc gave us an RX, it worked okay, the gripe water worked better, it was all natural and we didn't need the rx anymore. This stuff is as good as gold, I'm already stocking up for # 2!
mylocon gas drops from the pharmacy and switching to lactose free milk
I had this problem, but with less sleep. I switched to soy and Dr. Brown's bottles.
I have heard gripe water works great. I never used (or knew about it when my son was an infant). My son had terrible gas/reflux as an infant we found that Carnation Good Start was the only formula that worked for him (I wasn't able to breastfeed). We tried all the special formulas and they didn't work. Mylicon drops were our miracle - we were told to even put them in his bottles. You could actually see the bubbles disappear in the bottles when we added them. We were also told that we need to have him sit upright for 20 mins following a bottle and that he MUST burp. All this worked for us. Good luck to you and your daughter - hope she feels better!
I would try a Happi Tummi! It's an herbal pack you heat in the microwave that fits into a chenille wrap that keeps it safely and securely around the tummy. It can help immensely with gas pains, along with the other things you are trying. Much safer than a hot water bottle or a heating pad. I've also had luck with a combination of gas drops and an organic Gripe Water made by Welements. It's a combination of organic fennel and ginger that aids with digestion, gas, colic and constipation. Otherwise, it sounds like you're trying everything to help with the gas. Good luck!
Most peds freak, because they have been so brain washed, but it works nearly 100% of the time: goat's milk.
Here's thing to try and one of them WILL work. I have 4 kids, the youngest being 4 months. When he is gassy, it's usually something I ate, because I am breastfeeding. I will open a capsule of PB8 (not all probitoics work the same and the infant ones are useless). I dump almost the entire capsule contents into his mouth and throw the capsule away. Wthin minutes, he's comortable.
The other thing, is adding goat's milk instead of water to the formula. You can try a variation of all goat's milk, half goat's milk and half water, or another formula with a variation of this. Nutramagen seems to be digested easily compared to other formulas, but it's more expensive.
You can try the formula changes, as well as adding some PB8 to each of her bottles.
We also give our kids calcium at night and they sleep all night. My 4 moth old sleeps from 9pm-3am each night if I am taking my calcium/magnesium. If I forget, he's up way more. We use bluebonnet or lifetime blueberry flavored liquid calmag and give it at night. Works like a miracle, but give it a week to get the calcium levels back up. the go through growth spurts every 3 months.
We find that when our kids are adjusted, these changes make a world of difference, so that's good you got her adjusted.
You an also make your own formula using Weston Price's formula recipe...and see. Most of the formulas use corn syrup and corn can be really irritating to the baby's bowels. I can't have corn or ice cream with corn syrup in it or my babys freak out with gas and pain.
Put a couple of drops of Mylicon in each bottle before shaking and giving to her. This will help get a good burp and take a lot of the bubbles out of the formula. Also, you might try the ready-to-use variety. A lot less mixing and it's a little thicker.
Hope this helps.
I think you are right - you are just going to have to wait it out. Fortunately, you don't have long to go. :) She's just growing and all babies do it differently. Aim for a consistant bedtime routine (YES, at 4 months old - we started our first son at 3 months old and my kids go down so easily to this day) and be patient as you can. Maybe you can switch off when you are tired at night with your husband for feeding (unless you are breastfeeding of course).
I would suggest reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth - saved my skin. At least you knwo what is going on physically with your baby and he gives you tips on how to deal with each stage.
Babies are a lot of work and totally exhausting in the sleep arena. But it does get better. :)
This was a huge thing in our life until our naturopathic physician/midwife gave us some tips. Make your own Fennel tea - boil 1 cup water, add 1 tablespoon fennel, simmer for 20-30 minutes. give baby 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (we used a syringe). This was like magic for us - MAGIC! the tea can be kept in the fridge for around 1 week. we usally warmed it a little before giving it to her. If she spits some out it is okay to give her more as it isn't medicine, the amount we gave increased as she got older.
Another option that we use more often now (out of convenience) is Tummy Ache Tea for kids from Traditional Medicinals - we buy it at Fred Meyer which is a Kroger store in our area, you can get it from Vitacost.com too. Our baby loves this tea and gets totally excited when she sees the syringe.
A cool thing about this is that when baby sees the syringe or tastes the tea she calms down because she knows she will feel better soon.
I would give my baby the tea at different times, usually before feeding, or between sides (as I nurse) and even after feeding, can give it anytime really and can't really overdose.
Good luck - again it was like magic
When my son was on zantac (that was all they had then) they had me give him ADULT Mylanta with it, when his stomach was acting up severely. We also used peppermint water, just take a peppermint candy disc & swish it around in a couple ounces of warm water, discard candy & let the baby drink an ounce or so. For formulas after going to soy, then Nutamigen, we ended up using Goat's Milk (canned in the baking aisle) and later we used Coffee Rich (I don't know if they still make it, but it was in the freezer section & my mom had mik allergies & could drink it) & I gave him PolyViSol drops for vitamins to make sure he was getting enough as the Coffe Rich is not necessarily nutritional. You can try to gently massage her belly in a clockwise circle, this should help push the gas out. I'm wondering if it's more gas than reflux, if the Axid will work. Just a thought, as zantac is a reflux medicine, more like heartburn. Also, have you looked at the side effects of the medicine to make sure it is not causing the gas. I know Drs say those are rare but on too many occasions I have seen meds cause more problems than they are helping. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000949/
So sorry. Are you breastfeeding? If so watch your diet ( onins, pizza, chocalate etc.) Do you use bottles? Dr.brown or born free are my favorite. I would look into what causes it and prevent it. I saw this on dr. Oz to do cicular motion opposite to letter C over your baby's belly. Breaks between feedings to burp every 2oz, after the bottle feeding lay the baby on their back count to 20 and burp over your shoulder pressing on their belly.
How bout a hot water bottle or heating pad on her tummy...try having her sleep on her side too. Hope it helps, good luck!
Gripe water worked for my baby. However you need to be careful which brands to choose. Since some use peppermint. Peppermint can give acid reflux and uncomfortable tummy for some kids. I use the kind with fennel seed. That worked the best. Nothing helped my poor boy and he had the WORST toots from birth. He stunk worse than my husband or the dog even. I had to sometimes for 20 put him on the bed and do the bicycle exercise and push his legs towards his tummy. That alleviated some gas but generally he always had a bubble or two. He is 11 months now and no so bad with the gas but occasionally he gets it still and its really miserable. He drank the Alumentium, and the soy base but that didnt help as well. I still nurse him but he got messed up with the formula introduction so I dont have much its more for comfort now.
We did Mylicon and warm baths. If it's more severe, it could be acid reflux. Ask dr about that.
