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Reflux, gas, or just plain fussiness - how do you know? (long)
Hey ladies, DS is 6 weeks old and he's recently gone from happy, easy-going, baby that eats well both bf and bottle to more and more fussy. I'm going to ask the pedi, but I wanted to get your advice too. Is this reflux, gas, just 6 week fussiness?? anything I can do to fix it??
DS started spitting up around 2 weeks but it never seemed to bother him and he still ate like a champ. Now, even though it doesn't seem to bother him when he spits up, he does fuss a lot more while eating (more at the breast than bottle, but still will fuss at both sometimes). He'll cry and pull off after only a few minutes of eating, we'll try to burp but usually nothing happens, then we try to go back to feeding but he cries and fusses so we resort to bouncing him up and down. He calms quickly with the bouncing and will sometimes burp. After the burp he's happy and then starts to give hungry signs so we'll put him back on the boob or bottle - he pretty much refuses the boob at that point, no matter which side or which holding position. He's more willing to take the bottle but even that is not as easy.
His spit up is kind of random - sometimes he'll spit up a lot during a feeding, sometimes nothing (even after more than 5 minutes of burping) but then we find spit up in his crib, or he spits up like 45 minutes later. I think he tends not to fall asleep until after he spits up though.
He also cries and fusses a lot each time he poops/has gas. It seems like it is easiest for him to poop in his sleep or while laying in his crib vs. being held.
Last night was awful, he didn't seem to want to eat (breast or bottle) even though it had been more than 4 or 5 hours since the last time to ate, and he was crying way more than usual. I ended up swaddling, giving him the paci, and holding him on his side while rocking which finally worked to get him to calm down and eventually sleep after about an hour. I never could tell if it was poop, gas, reflux, or what that made him so unhappy. He woke up an hour or so later and bf decently and then went to sleep easily until his next feeding, at 4am which also went pretty well. This morning though he bf only about 5 minutes and then fussed and cried no matter which side or position but then was willing to take the bottle a little bit later.
any idea what's going on? i'm so confused!
fwiw, we use slow flow nipples and he hasn't had any issue going back and forth for several weeks now. we also elevate one side of his crib to help with the spit up.
Thanks for reading all this and for any advice you have!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Reflux, gas, or just plain fussiness - how do you know? (long)
at 4 weeks, we dealt with a lot of these symptoms (also tons of hiccups, lots of burping and farting and general all-around screaming but not so much with spitting up) and our pedi was willing to give prevacid a shot in case it was reflux. it wasn't. turns out it was just a growth spurt!
usually with reflux baby will arch their back when pulling off the boob and fussing. is he doing that? it sounds like you may need to try to burp for longer too. 5 minutes may not be enough. even if we get 1 huge burp within 5 minutes i still keep going and i will always get a few more smaller ones. if i don't go that long, without fail H will spit up a few minutes later.
i know we still have some times where H is fussy at the boob. usually in the evening during her "fussy period" but also probably because milk production is lower in the evening and she's angry she can't get it to come out as fast as the bottle.
it's worth talking to your pedi about this at your next visit.
it's at least nice to know i'm not alone!
zerf - thanks for reminding me about hiccups - he gets those often too. i'll burp longer and see if that helps. he also tends to hate being burped unless he's pretty full.
mssaint - we bought mylicon just in case and considered trying it but i was hesitant to give him anything just yet.
I also stopped dairy for a few weeks (but went back when I didn't see a difference-I couldn't give up cheese!), and LO is on Zantac. Honestly, though, I saw a little improvement on Zantac (mostly with his sleeping, so it's worthwhile), but not a huge change so I have wondered if it is really reflux or if it's colic/temperament. Although he does arch his back and spit up on occasion. We went to the pedi quite a few times and their consensus has been that he is colicky and has reflux. Also, I noticed that when I eat onions or tomatoes, he is worse. So I've cut down on those.
It does slowly get better as everyone will tell you--you might not believe it but it does. LO had a pretty rough weekend but that was after 4 good days last week and he's been pretty great so far today--in fact, he's on nap #3 since 8 am. I'm wondering if he hit the 3-month growth spurt a little early and is now sleeping it off. We also are hitting 8 weeks adjusted/12 weeks actual, so it is time for the fussiness to decrease according to all the books. He's still not a happy baby necessarily, but he's less angry and doesn't look like he's in pain all the time.
We rely on the 5 S methods from Happiest Baby on the Block and also keep trying things even if they didn't work last week -- we've found that what soothes him changes as he grows.
DS was gassy from the get go and we started supplementing with probiotics which really seemed to help. Still gassy, but they seemed a lot easier to pass.
DD got colicky beginning at 6 weeks (apparently she never got the memo that she was supposed to peak at 6 weeks). It last about a month and then abated noticeably.
We ended doing the "swallow" test which confirmed our reflux issues. But we were already in the ER for a bad stomach virus so they decided to make sure. Ben was shy of 3 months at that point, already colicky and did spit up all.the.time.
There are so many tactics - some work, some don't. Gas drops, pressure on the stomach or cycling the legs, keeping upright 30 minutes after feeding, increasing the angle of the mattress, Zantac/Prilosec/etc.
I don't post often, but wanted to share what I learned from our dr. and my now-five month old. He sounds a lot like our son. Six weeks was just the peak of fussiness. They are learning a lot of new skills at this age and I think it is very overwhelming. We had one night we were up every other hour and he was just plain old angry. The very next night, he started consistently sleeping 8 hours at a stretch!
His spit-up issues were similar too. I mentioned it to our doctor and she said that people forget babies spit-up and are quick to give them prescription drugs. I think it's normal to have even as much as a cup of spit-up at one time. Try the mylicon/generic drops to help him burp. As for reflux, I would look out for the back arching and a correlating cough.
I guess the gist of it is, my diagnosis is he sounds like a six-week old! Our experience was every crappy phase turns into something good, so just grin and bear it because it normally does get better so quickly!