Mom’s Question:
Ever since my baby was born she has had trouble with her belly.
The doctors just said it was colic but she is 9 months now and is still the same. She wakes up to 5 times a night and is in real pain, then she passes wind during the 1 to 2 hours of screaming and then goes straight back to sleep once the wind has gone.
Also if she needs to poo she is up all night in pain until she has been.
It is very upsetting when she is in so much pain. I try moving her legs up and down so to get the belly working and this does help but now she is bigger it is harder as she is like a stiff board resisting being moved.
She is normally up and down from when she goes to bed until about 2am and sometimes up to 4am. She is then normally up again about 6ish and up about 7.30/8am so we normally only get at the most 2/3 hours of sleep in between the screaming.
Her poo changes; sometimes it is hard and sometimes it is runny. There is no consistency. What should it be like at 9 months? She is normally ok in the day time but recently has stopped eating in the day; it is a real job of get a few mouthfuls in. The doctor has given us gaviscon. The last couple of weeks she has been sick as well so this has not helped.
Please help us.
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Baby Help Line:
Baby With Painful Gas At Night
You describe a very exhausting situation! Your daughter obviously does not have colic; that would have been gone by now.
Why is she getting gaviscon? Gaviscon is mainly given to babies for severe acid reflux, which is when stomach contents reflux. Does that happen to her?
Babies with gastroesophageal reflux typically cry, have sleep disturbance and decreased appetite. On the other hand, Gaviscon is also known to cause stomach cramps and possibly constipation. If you are not sure why her doctor gave it to her, make sure you ask!
I wonder, has she been checked for lactose intolerance and/or milk allergy? A lot of the symptoms you describe are common for babies with that. You can read about the symptoms of lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy in this thread.
I think you need to get a second opinion from another pediatrician immediately. Crying, gas and pain to such extent is not normal for a 9 month old. Also, that her poo varies between runny and hard is an indication that she might have some sort of intolerance or allergy.
I really hope you get it sorted out soon. Don’t stop bugging the doctors!
Please let me know about your progress,
Paula
(Answer approved by our Medical Reference Team)
More Babies With Painful Gas And Pooping
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Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing is based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.
Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians that you find here. They write or review all health-related articles.
I hope this helps anyone that comes across this! When I found this thread I felt such a huge sense of relief. My baby is 9mo now, but since 4mo he was waking up crying god knows how many times a night, mostly needing to pass wind! After so many doctor visits, hospital visits, health visitor appointments and a lot of nagging that I don’t want him to ‘just grow out of it’ we finally saw a paediatrician who instantly knew what the problem was. My baby had developed a temporary lactose intolerance. This can happen for many reasons, a tummy bug or like my baby; he’d had antibiotics and hadn’t been the same since! They gave him bad diarrhoea for a week and that’s why he ended up lactose intolerant! Anyway, a few days on Aptamil lactose free and a complete lactose free diet we have a different baby! No more night wake ups and no more grumpy baby during the day! In a couple of months we will start introducing lactose slowly again once his gut heals- but I really hope this helps someone because I have felt the desperation this situation causes and it’s awful. But just know things get better x
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing, Alicia!
Please help! My baby girl just turned two. She is on a super limited diet, neocate Jr., and lactulose. I breastfed for 9 months on elimination diet, but threw in the towel after so much success with neocate. Solids have been a nightmare… Dairy, soy, eggs, grains, fructose, beef and pork all upset her tummy. I recently weaned her from Zantac/ Prevacid that she was on from 5 weeks on. I still can’t figure this out. I have seen a naturopath, 2 allergists, 2 GI specialists and 2 pediatricians. I’m super depressed and blame myself entirely. When she was a month old, I had severe post partum depression. My best friend came in town and took me out for dinner. I pumped tons of milk prior, but came home to a fussy baby refusing the bottle. I think freezing my milk made it taste bad to her. I probably had 3 glasses of wine over the course of 5 hours. I waited as long as possible before giving in and nursing her. I have had so much guilt and depression that I caused this ever since. I didn’t even drink a drop of caffeine while I was pregnant. I was so careful. Please tell me any treatments for these issues that you have had success with. I’m desperate to move on in my life and enjoy my sweet baby.
My 9 months son is the same. Finally I found a topic on this problem. My little one was always gassy but it never bothered him so much as it does lately. All doctors saying will get better with time but for us was another way around. Indeed he suffered from UTI but lucky was successfully treated and now he is healthy, gaining weight and happy – until the night comes. He does all from the above: rolling, bringing his knees to chest, arching his back, crying, plus scratching his head and rubbing eyes. I barely get 2 hours of sleep at night. I also moved him with me in bed as I lost any hope of him sleeping in his cot.
I did eliminate dairy from my and his diet it helped with his skin only. I would blame now the solids I started giving him but when I stopped them for around 2 weeks I saw no change. It’s a mystery, I am so puzzled.
I would really appreciate if one of you can share her successful stories, if there is a solution for this problem
It seems to all be getting better! I have given up the elimination diet and am now back on eating anything.
What has really helped has been getting his eczema treated. We are using some serious steroid creams and it has meant that he doesn’t get as itchy at night. He still wakes up a lot (every 3 hours) but doesn’t seem to be irritated. If he gets grumpy/ crying then he will still pull up his legs and farts will come out but I don’t think this is what is causing him to wake up.
During the day he can still spend time straining – up to 3 hours at a time. Feeding him and putting him on his tummy helps. He is still passing over 4 poos a day which is a LOT more than his friends. We will see what happens…
Just to update: I have cut nuts, eggs, diary, wheat, soy, fish, caffeine, chocolate and gluten out of my diet for a week now. Be warned – cutting this much out of your diet is a real pain!!
It doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference so I’m going to reintroduce things one by one.
The eczema is still just as bad but he has now learnt to roll and always chooses to sleep on his front which has helped a bit.
The best nights are ones where he does a lot of poos before bed and goes to bed quite early. Last night was awful – kicking, tossing, rolling and nursing non stop from 12.30am onwards. Aaaaargh!
Exactly the same issues here!! I am so pleased that this is not my imagination and that there are other people with possible solutions.
My baby is 4 months old and has had the same problem since 2 weeks old – sleeps fine from 8pm to 3am (with a dream feed at about midnight) but then like all you others he wakes every 30mins to 1 hr with gas that won’t come out. People have asked me – ‘how do you know it’s the gas that’s waking him up?’ and I don’t know how to answer. He tries to stay asleep and screws up his eyes, he kicks non stop and thrashes from side to side. He cries and is definitely not happy. He also has eczema and mucous in stools.
Here’s what I have found out so far:
– in the morning I put him on his tummy and it ALL comes out (doesn’t work during the night though for some reason)
– If I try and comfort him it just wakes him up, and then he cries even harder because he doesn’t want to be awake
– If I feed him the moment he starts to grumble he falls back to sleep again easily (breastfed)
I have tried all the usual and cutting milk out my diet. I’m now going to try a diet of just meat and vegetables for 2 weeks. If that makes no difference then I think I can safely say its not an allergy.
Has anyone looked into lactose overload?
Fantastic thread and Julie in particular I find your comments really helpful, generous and reassuring.
My second son is sooo farty and we are at our wits end with sleep deprivation. At 5 months he had frothy green poos and started writhing in pain overnight. We started on solids as he was exclusively breastfed at that time. Then he became constipated. He is now 6 months and very farty and in pain, waking every 2 hours overnight sometimes for a fart in between. He’s on lactulose now, as well as paracetemol, teething gel, infants friend and infacol, and a probiotic. Thanks for this thread. Wish us luck!
I am in shock that so many people are going through this! Glad I am not alone!
To be honest I’m not sure how much I can take, and am worried as hell about my boy!
Since about 5 weeks old he has been in constant pain during night… We tried everything and at 4/5 mo ths were finally ref to peadatric docter who filled me with hope and said it was cows milk protein allergy.
We went on to aptimil Pepti, and restricted everything he ate! After 6 weeks he was still in pain every 45 mins during night.
Went back to pead who said if it made no difference at all then it’s not cows milk protein allergy!!!
She then said my 7 month old baby had behaviour issues! At this point I saw red and broke down In front if her!
So she said she wanted to admit him over night for observations! Hurrah I thought finally someone can see what I’m trying to explain!
Literally wakes every 45 mins grunting, crying in pain and arching… But the poor thing is desperately trying to sleep he doesn’t open his eyes! I’m rocking, bobbing, giving gripe water and feeds to settle him for half an hour for it to start again!
With the admission booked for 4 days time I went home and packed for a weekend away (dreading us all being in a family room) however I forgot his formula!
So whilst away I bought a different formula… Aptimil hungry baby.
He fed at 6 slept till 11 fed again and slept till 4, had a minor gripe small feed then slept till 6am.
He basically went to waking every 4 hours feeding and then going back to sleep with no gripes!
I cancelled admission I to hospital, spoke to pead who said it could be by use the hungry milk sits in gut for longer so digestion is slower…
So I cracked it!
I am in shock that so many people ate going through this! Glad I am not alone!
To be honest I’m not sure how much I can take, and am worried as hell about my boy!
Since about 5 weeks old he has been in constant pain during night… We tried everything and at 4/5 months were finally ref to peadatric docter who filled me with hope and said it was cows milk protein allergy.
We went on to aptimil Pepti, and restricted everything he ate! After 6 weeks he was still in pain every 45 mins during night.
Went back to pead who said if it made no difference at all then it’s not cows milk protein allergy!!!
She then said my 7 month old baby had behaviour issues! At this point I saw red and broke down In front of her!
So she said she wanted to admit him over night for observations! Hurrah I thought finally someone can see what I’m trying to explain!
Literally he wakes every 45 mins grunting, crying in pain and arching… But the poor thing is desperately trying to sleep he doesn’t open his eyes! I’m rocking, bobbing, giving gripe water and feeds to settle him for half an hour for it to start again!
With the admission booked for 4 days time I went home and packed for a weekend away (dreading us all being in a family room) however I forgot his formula!
So whilst away I bought a different formula… Aptimil hungry baby.
He fed at 6 slept till 11 fed again and slept till 4, had a minor gripe small feed then slept till 6am.
He basically went to waking every 4 hours feeding and then going back to sleep with no gripes this went on for 2 weeks!
So I cracked it! Or so I thought the past 4 nights I’ve been up since 2am with him in pain.
So I have to convince the pead to admit us again!
Watch this space!
Nutramigen will answer to your prayers….