Belly Battle
I'm so conflicted regarding J's tummy troubles. Is it really a dairy reaction? Why would it just be worse at night then? Is this normal newborn fussiness? It seems to fit all the typical symptoms. The blood in the stool is throwing me off. If that never happened, which was only once and never again, I would chalk this up to newborn fussiness since it's textbook. It seems that EVERYONE that goes through this with their babies describes it as though the baby seems in pain. It starts about 6pm - 10pm right around the age his started. It always seems poop or gas related. I wonder if I'm dealing with 2 different things...normal fussiness and a diet allergy or just one. As you can see I'm really trying to find other explanations so I don't have to give up my ice cream and pizza!
So many things I've been reading lately talk about Colic and how it's a wives tale that gas is the culprit even though the symptoms of Colic would greatly resemble a baby having stomach pains. And now I'm reading The Happiest Baby on the Block which talks about the 5 S's that turn on the calming-reflex. I am perfecting my swaddling and all that and it seems to work. It calms him. I was even able to lay him in the pack n' play and he slept. Albeit just a short time but it was his dinner time anyway. I bet if he wasn't hungry he would have gone longer. So if this was a food allergy then why would swaddling eleviate his reaction?
I also called his pediatrician today but he's on vacation so I spoke with his nurse. And just as I suspected she said that it could be Colic which is caused by gas and recommended using the gas drops which I've tried and haven't helped. I asked her why during the night would he experience this more and she said "because that's when babies are calmest and they notice the discomfort more." Sounds reasonable but not sure if I'm buying it. I really wanted to talk to the doctor anyway, she's given me conflicting info before and if I felt this was an urgent matter I would have requested to talk to another pediatrician but I'll wait for his to return. She also told me if this was acid-reflux then he would be throwing up after almost every meal which I also know is NOT always the case with acid-reflux so I'm not TOTALLY ruling that out.
Then I mentioned the bloody stool and she immediately said if I was breastfeeding it could be a dairy reaction (well she said Lactose which I read lactose intolerance is different than a dairy allergy. Who knew! Not her!). In my gut I feel there are 2 different issues. At the time of his bloody stool I was O.D.'ing on dairy products but his evening fussiness had started a couple weeks prior. And I've since eliminated..well greatly cut back as much as I could on dairy for the last couple days, maybe that's why there hasn't been anymore bloody stool but he still has the nightime fussiness. Man this is like detective work and impossible to solve! All I know is I want him to be comfortable and happy.
And I just realized after typing all this, see blogging is beneficial, that on kellymom.com it also says regarding bloody stool: There are several case reports of a baby beginning to have mucous and/or blood in the stool after starting vitamin/fluoride drops, where the blood disappeared after the drops were discontinued. I WAS giving him Vitamin D drops (long story) but have since discontinued them since I feel I wasn't properly advised. SO could that have caused it?? My LORD this is hard business being a parent! This could be anything. Is anyone out there a baby-mind reader? Wouldn't it be great if there were actually answers out there and not conflicting info every where you turn? And they all swear they are giving the "real" info. Thanks that helps when everyone is saying it.
I'm going to stick with my limited dairy but not stress over label-reading yet for all those hidden ingrediants (which is still a death-sentence for me) and see if there is any improvement. I'm also going to work on the 5 S's so if the diet changes don't reduce his fussiness at least I have some tricks up my sleeve to calm him. And when in doubt, lube up a thermometer.
So many things I've been reading lately talk about Colic and how it's a wives tale that gas is the culprit even though the symptoms of Colic would greatly resemble a baby having stomach pains. And now I'm reading The Happiest Baby on the Block which talks about the 5 S's that turn on the calming-reflex. I am perfecting my swaddling and all that and it seems to work. It calms him. I was even able to lay him in the pack n' play and he slept. Albeit just a short time but it was his dinner time anyway. I bet if he wasn't hungry he would have gone longer. So if this was a food allergy then why would swaddling eleviate his reaction?
I also called his pediatrician today but he's on vacation so I spoke with his nurse. And just as I suspected she said that it could be Colic which is caused by gas and recommended using the gas drops which I've tried and haven't helped. I asked her why during the night would he experience this more and she said "because that's when babies are calmest and they notice the discomfort more." Sounds reasonable but not sure if I'm buying it. I really wanted to talk to the doctor anyway, she's given me conflicting info before and if I felt this was an urgent matter I would have requested to talk to another pediatrician but I'll wait for his to return. She also told me if this was acid-reflux then he would be throwing up after almost every meal which I also know is NOT always the case with acid-reflux so I'm not TOTALLY ruling that out.
Then I mentioned the bloody stool and she immediately said if I was breastfeeding it could be a dairy reaction (well she said Lactose which I read lactose intolerance is different than a dairy allergy. Who knew! Not her!). In my gut I feel there are 2 different issues. At the time of his bloody stool I was O.D.'ing on dairy products but his evening fussiness had started a couple weeks prior. And I've since eliminated..well greatly cut back as much as I could on dairy for the last couple days, maybe that's why there hasn't been anymore bloody stool but he still has the nightime fussiness. Man this is like detective work and impossible to solve! All I know is I want him to be comfortable and happy.
And I just realized after typing all this, see blogging is beneficial, that on kellymom.com it also says regarding bloody stool: There are several case reports of a baby beginning to have mucous and/or blood in the stool after starting vitamin/fluoride drops, where the blood disappeared after the drops were discontinued. I WAS giving him Vitamin D drops (long story) but have since discontinued them since I feel I wasn't properly advised. SO could that have caused it?? My LORD this is hard business being a parent! This could be anything. Is anyone out there a baby-mind reader? Wouldn't it be great if there were actually answers out there and not conflicting info every where you turn? And they all swear they are giving the "real" info. Thanks that helps when everyone is saying it.
I'm going to stick with my limited dairy but not stress over label-reading yet for all those hidden ingrediants (which is still a death-sentence for me) and see if there is any improvement. I'm also going to work on the 5 S's so if the diet changes don't reduce his fussiness at least I have some tricks up my sleeve to calm him. And when in doubt, lube up a thermometer.
posted by Mama C-ta at
6:11 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like my Emily when she was J's age. She was very colicky around 6 weeks, too, and right around dinner time. I've heard the "gas" theory, but I've also read that the reason people interpret it that way is because babies swallow a lot of air when they're crying, so once they calm down they start burping and tooting it out. Who really knows. All I know is there really isn't much you can do. We tried the gas drops, Gripe Water, etc. and nothing really was the magic cure. Just hold him and snuggle him if that's what he wants, and if he's still crying he might just need to cry for a little bit. They say around that time in the evening baby is unwinding from a long day, and the hustle and bustle of everyone coming home, making dinner, etc. is just too much. Our youngest, Ava, also started to have this fussy period around 6 weeks. Once I got her on a regular sleep schedule, though, that was it. Please please tell me you're reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". It'll give you so much insight into what your baby is experiencing and I really think it'll make things much easier on you!
I agree with you that the nurse isn't knowledgable and that there are prolly two issues.
My theory on why babies are fussier in the evenings is because it's the end of the day... they've been through a lot and are worn out and things are just harder to bear!
I do read labels to avoid dairy but only skip out on the foods that have dairy as the first one or two ingredients, and obvious things like cheese and ice cream:(
Hope you work it out.
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