teething? constipation? general fussiness?

hilsy85

LO is 16 wks and EBF; over the last week or so, he's become very fussy while nursing, and won't nurse longer than 5 min. He'll unlatch and grunt/groan/whine, stiffen his legs and bring the up to his chest, and look like he's straining to poop. I'll burp him, and sometimes he'll burp, but then do the same thing when I bring him back to the breast. When he does poop (1-2x per day), it looks normal--runny, yellow/orangey. He's also generally more fussy than normal, which I attributed to being tired, as his naps are crap right now.

Does this sound like it could be constipation even though his poops are normal, and he's going at least once a day? My other thought was that it could be related to teething, as he likes to chew on his hands/other things, and is drooling a ton, and I've heard teething can make nursing painful. But would that cause the groaning while nursing?

Any ideas? We see our pedi in about a week for his 4 month visit, but if this continues over the next few days I'll probably call her...

NBiancamano

Sounds like he might be gassy but it also might be teething! Do you use gripe water? I give it to my son in the morning and right before he goes to sleep and it works great!  

hilsy85

NBiancamano:

Sounds like he might be gassy but it also might be teething! Do you use gripe water? I give it to my son in the morning and right before he goes to sleep and it works great!  

We have gripe water but haven't used it...do you think we should try that or gas drops? 

NBiancamano

I would! It's only fennel and there's no medicine in it so its harmless. Read the instructions because there's only a certain amount you can give per day. Looks like our babies are the same age (mine was born 10/16)! He has some gas issues and it def helps. As far as teething I'm going through that now also and I'm told if its real bad give Tylenol but if its not give a teething ring or sofie the giraffe! Good luck!

Andreabks

and if you find regular gripe water doesnt work, we went with "colic calm" and it worked better for us.

schafer17

My little guy started doing this too over the past few weeks.  He would stiffen his legs and then kick and his face would turn red.  It continuously got worse at every feeding.  My pedi thought it was just because he wasn't napping well.  Then it got to the point earlier this week where he didn't want to eat at all.  Pedi finally diagnosed as silent reflux.  Food was coming back up his esophagus after he started eating and it would burn.  She put him on Prilosec and he's a different baby now.  No more fussing at the bottle.

christinasullie37

hilsy85:

LO is 16 wks and EBF; over the last week or so, he's become very fussy while nursing, and won't nurse longer than 5 min. He'll unlatch and grunt/groan/whine, stiffen his legs and bring the up to his chest, and look like he's straining to poop. I'll burp him, and sometimes he'll burp, but then do the same thing when I bring him back to the breast. When he does poop (1-2x per day), it looks normal--runny, yellow/orangey. He's also generally more fussy than normal, which I attributed to being tired, as his naps are crap right now.

Does this sound like it could be constipation even though his poops are normal, and he's going at least once a day? My other thought was that it could be related to teething, as he likes to chew on his hands/other things, and is drooling a ton, and I've heard teething can make nursing painful. But would that cause the groaning while nursing?

Any ideas? We see our pedi in about a week for his 4 month visit, but if this continues over the next few days I'll probably call her...

We FF but my LO sounds a lot like this. It cold be all of it. My LO is drooling so much and eating her hands constantly. If she can't get something in her mouth se goes nuts.  Worse yet, she won't use teethers and I really don't want to resort to Tyleno but I am out of options.  Fortunately feeding is not a problem for us but she does seem gassier than usual and spitting up more as well.