Reflux in babies
Discussion
Dad of a 17 day old here joining in for mutual support!
OP are you sure it's not colic? From the various baby books I have you seem to be in the age zone for that. I'm told a rule of 'three and three' - three nights of crying, for three hours or more - is a classic sign.
Our boy isn't so bad, but he had a proper screaming fit meltdown on Saturday and Sunday nights. Treating him like a car and diagnosing all possible running faults I have got it down to him cluster feeding - basically being ravenous on the boob, wants to feed almost hourly - nature's way of him getting the milk flowing. Consequently he can be a bit sickly, simply because he is gorging himself on it, and even though we're being careful to break him off a feed to wind him periodically he is still managing a few chunders.
Friends have suggested Dr Brown's vented bottles as a godsend (if it is Colic) - I've got a set on the way from Amazon as we speak. We are finding that our best policy to get him to sleep is breast feed all day, then give him a big bottle of expressed milk as his last feed before we go to bed. This seems to get him ot sleep for several hours, but he's still happy on the boob the rest of the time. Expressions I never thought I would discuss, "nipple confusion"!
Good luck. If it's any consolation my missus is also feeling rather down too. I think she expected her maternity to be an endless round of coffee mornings with Mumsnetter types but the reality is that she's absolutely knackered with sore, leaking boobs, with a kid screaming quite a bit, and getting over an emergency C-Section after a drawn out induced labour. Glamourous it ain't!
I've parked the, "well it was you who wanted kids" comment for use when I decide I no longer have a use for my knackers/wish to reside in a bedsit!
OP are you sure it's not colic? From the various baby books I have you seem to be in the age zone for that. I'm told a rule of 'three and three' - three nights of crying, for three hours or more - is a classic sign.
Our boy isn't so bad, but he had a proper screaming fit meltdown on Saturday and Sunday nights. Treating him like a car and diagnosing all possible running faults I have got it down to him cluster feeding - basically being ravenous on the boob, wants to feed almost hourly - nature's way of him getting the milk flowing. Consequently he can be a bit sickly, simply because he is gorging himself on it, and even though we're being careful to break him off a feed to wind him periodically he is still managing a few chunders.
Friends have suggested Dr Brown's vented bottles as a godsend (if it is Colic) - I've got a set on the way from Amazon as we speak. We are finding that our best policy to get him to sleep is breast feed all day, then give him a big bottle of expressed milk as his last feed before we go to bed. This seems to get him ot sleep for several hours, but he's still happy on the boob the rest of the time. Expressions I never thought I would discuss, "nipple confusion"!
Good luck. If it's any consolation my missus is also feeling rather down too. I think she expected her maternity to be an endless round of coffee mornings with Mumsnetter types but the reality is that she's absolutely knackered with sore, leaking boobs, with a kid screaming quite a bit, and getting over an emergency C-Section after a drawn out induced labour. Glamourous it ain't!
I've parked the, "well it was you who wanted kids" comment for use when I decide I no longer have a use for my knackers/wish to reside in a bedsit!
Edited by PurpleTurtle on Tuesday 10th March 12:29
With a 9 week old here I will say it does get better and quite quickly at that.
We've been following Gina Ford's 'Content Baby' book and it does work.
The first few weeks are hard and it seems all they want to do is feed, sleep (grow) and poop.
But for breastfeeding babies this is the foundation work that gets them into a routine and gets Mum's body in balance for milk production.
We didn't have colic or reflux to any extreme but we did have a few nights where he was bolt rigid, screaming his little head off with milk blasting out his noise - heart breaking at the time, buts it's part and parcel of it.
Ours is feeding 2.5 / 3 hourly from 6.30 / 7am with a long nap around mid day, he has a bath around 6ish then his last feed. He then goes down at around 8pm and has slept through the whole night the last few weeks with just the odd 2 or 3am wake up.
It may feel like all your wife is doing all day is feeding but it's really important that you get the feeds in during the day so that baby doesn't want them at night, this is part of the process of re-jigging their body clocks.
I've been off work since he was born with a broken femur so I'm quite up to speed on everything at the moment!
We've been following Gina Ford's 'Content Baby' book and it does work.
The first few weeks are hard and it seems all they want to do is feed, sleep (grow) and poop.
But for breastfeeding babies this is the foundation work that gets them into a routine and gets Mum's body in balance for milk production.
We didn't have colic or reflux to any extreme but we did have a few nights where he was bolt rigid, screaming his little head off with milk blasting out his noise - heart breaking at the time, buts it's part and parcel of it.
Ours is feeding 2.5 / 3 hourly from 6.30 / 7am with a long nap around mid day, he has a bath around 6ish then his last feed. He then goes down at around 8pm and has slept through the whole night the last few weeks with just the odd 2 or 3am wake up.
It may feel like all your wife is doing all day is feeding but it's really important that you get the feeds in during the day so that baby doesn't want them at night, this is part of the process of re-jigging their body clocks.
I've been off work since he was born with a broken femur so I'm quite up to speed on everything at the moment!
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