'easy' 6 week old suddenly won't sleep, crying as if in pain....

[Anonymous]

my 6 week old has been a fairly easy baby--gassy but other wiserarely cries (only to be fed but I usually get there before then--she is EBF and usually eats about every 3 hours). But today has been different. She woke up from a nap at 3, ravenous (I had fed her at 1 pm), and got progressively fussier as the day has gone on. I tried to put her down for a nap, she wanted to nurse again at 4:45, then again at 5:30, then again at 7:15--she acts as if she's ravenous, but nurses a while, starts to drop off and then wakes up squirming and crying as if in pain. She's now been up for over 5 hours and is with DH, who is trying to shush/jiggle/swaddle/etc/' to no avail. I know this is supposed to be the peak of fussiness, but the sudden onset and the crunching/arching makes me wonder if this is a sign of reflux? She doesn't spit up, however. (and there is no fever, etc) The only other thing I've noticed is that she's wheezing/choking more when she nurses--as if she's nursing too fast and got some milk down her windpipe or something. It's a lithe disconcerting, as it sounds as if she's choking.....

tia

[Anonymous]

I would suggest everything you already posted: she is going through a growth spurt (feeding frequently), could have reflux (fussiness, wheezing) and at this age, my DD got particularly fussy with what I think was gassiness / reflux.
The evening is also the witching hour and I would say she is not too young that she doesn't feel the effect of the evening, Dada coming home, etc. to be more fussy than usual.
I would say to put her on the boob as much as you can stand it, or give her the pacifier. That should comfort her.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hang in there. It's so hard when they're so little. It may be gas or colic. If you're breastfeeding, make sure you're not switching sides too early, so she's not filling up on foremilk. That can make babies fussy/gassy:

http://www.llli.org/faq/foremilk.html

[Anonymous]

OP, could it be oversupply?

It's been a while since I had to think about nursing issues but some of what you wrote sounded like overactive letdown could be the culprit here -- some good description and ideas here:

http://kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

What are your child's stools like? If you have more foremilk than hindmilk stools might be green, child might appear gassy... solution is in some cases to finish on one breast and then offer same breast first at next feeding.

[Anonymous]

My DD started to show signs of reflux at around that same time. Wanting to eat all the time, crying & arching her back. Talk to your ped. She's now 3 1/2 months, on meds and is much better. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I've explored fore/hindmilk already since she is so gassy and I've been block feeding for 2 weeks now and it seemed to help a bit. also cut dairy out, which didn't make much of a difference (I think). I'm betting reflux. she basically can't lie flat--gets hiccups or spits up or fusses, so that's a sign of an immature digestive tract already. It is probably that combined with the peak of fussiness. I just hate to hear her cry and don't know whether feeding her more is good or not (if she's reflux eating it could harm her). She refuses the paci

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I've explored fore/hindmilk already since she is so gassy and I've been block feeding for 2 weeks now and it seemed to help a bit. also cut dairy out, which didn't make much of a difference (I think). I'm betting reflux. she basically can't lie flat--gets hiccups or spits up or fusses, so that's a sign of an immature digestive tract already. It is probably that combined with the peak of fussiness. I just hate to hear her cry and don't know whether feeding her more is good or not (if she's reflux eating it could harm her). She refuses the paci

20:43 here.
Similarly, my DD starting the major fussiness about this time, and was really only very fussy in the middle of the night or in the morning. She would fuss, arch her back cry and the let out lots of gas. I suspect it was reflux, and propping her upright at night seemed to help. She quickly lost the fussiness... keeping in mind, we held her upright during the day and she was only flat at night.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

All babies seem to have reflux or colic at this age. It's the fussiest period...it'll be tough, but use the 5 S's and get through the next 6 weeks any way you can. Your DC will go back to being easy at about 12 weeks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All babies seem to have reflux or colic at this age. It's the fussiest period...it'll be tough, but use the 5 S's and get through the next 6 weeks any way you can. Your DC will go back to being easy at about 12 weeks!

This. My DS was the same way. Got really fussy, especially between 4-7pm between 6-9 weeks. Eventually it went away.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my baby (now 16 weeks) did this too. In fact, I could have written that post at six weeks! Just yesterday I found (and threw away! my food log from that time period, since DH was convinced that it must be a change in something I was eating. Our pediatrician said "he's just six weeks old!" and advised us to wait it out---and lo and behold, he outgrew that phase a few weeks later.

That's not to trivialize the other conditions noted above, since it's always possible that something else is going on---but it's also very possible that she's 100% normal and just going through the same phase most babies apparently do at that age (or so says our pediatrician).

Also, on the oversupply note---one thing I've found with my son is that when he goes through a growth spurt, he nurses frequently and a day or two later the milk supply bumps up supply (as it's supposed to). For the first day or two on the new "more milk" supply, he'll do the chokey-wheezy thing while eating to keep up, but after a couple of days it always balances out and he goes back to eating normally.

Good luck---hopefully it is just a normal phase (and fingers crossed that it passes soon---we just hit the four-month fussy period after a glorious six weeks of lovely nighttime sleep, so I feel your pain!)

[Anonymous]

PP again---oh, and our ped said that for many babies, fussiness peaks at 6 weeks and pretty much ends by 12 weeks. This did hold true for us.

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

The frequent nursing does sound like a growth spurt. DS had the same coughing/ wheezing at 6 weeks. It even got so bad one morning at like 4am that we called the on call pediatrician. He just sounded like he couldnt breathe at all!! Ped checked him out that day and said everything was fine. he was also spitting up a LOT but they didnt think it was reflux. Like PP suggested, I have a very strong/ fast letdown and the Ped said that basically he just gets too much milk too fast and has trouble keeping up- especially at night when he's tired. It stopped after a week or so and now he nurses just fine but it really scared DH and I when it was happening. GL!

[Anonymous]

Our 5-month-old has always been extremely gassy to the point where he sometimes cries in obvious pain. The only thing that worked for him (and still does) is Colic Calm. You can get it on Amazon (http://www.coliccalm.com/) and I've heard you can sometimes find it at CVS. When DS is going through one of his obvious gassy episodes (rock hard belly, crying inconsolably, straightening his entire body), we give him a dose of this and he almost immediately calms. Within minutes he toots and is generally fine. We often gave it to him before bedtime when he was your child's age. Check with the doctor to be sure it's okay but it's basically just gripe water so it should be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP again---oh, and our ped said that for many babies, fussiness peaks at 6 weeks and pretty much ends by 12 weeks. This did hold true for us.

Yes, that's what Weissbluth says too - it was definitely true for us. by week 7, things were a lot better.