This is so hard to see happening and I feel for you. With my son it turned out to be spincter spenosis (tight anus) and was not diagnosised until 4 months old. For my daughter is was severe allergies to dairy and soy (breastfed with both babies until several months old).
I strongly suggest looking into a formula that is soy and dairy free and adding a probiotic for infants. www.neocate.com
I highly suggest that you look into vaccinations as something to watch out for as there are ingredients such as dairy, soy, wheat, yeast, corn, egg that are in there that could cause even more reactions (besides the ingredients that are toxic that are in there as well). Please make sure YOU have done the research on vaccinations for YOUR child. The AAP recommended schedule of shots for children is too many, too soon. Here are sites and books that I always recommend for people to start their research:
Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders, by Dr. Kenneth Bock
The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Vaccinations, by Dr. Stephanie Cave
Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby
Hi Nicole, I had the same problem with my son, so we started using similac advance early shield. It helped a lot. I would reccomend laying your son on his back and pushing his legs into his tummy w/o lifting his butt off the floor a few times. That will help push the gas out. Also sit him on your lap with your arm on his belly, sometimes applying pressure will help get it out as well. Mylecon drops are a hit and miss, have you tried gripe water? I do believe similac has a soy formula as well. I also reccomend trying the doctor browns bottles, born free or think baby. they have a filter to help keep the bubbles in the bottle instead of the nipple, so the baby doesnt catch air. I hope these tips are helpful!
Nicole I know it is frustrating not knowing what is causing this, maybe this website maybe of use. www.mspiguide.com There are so many babies who are labeled...colic or lactose intolerant and that is not always the case. MSPI is not known by a lot of Doctors yet and they usually don't know some of the information the website has. Nutramgen is a formula that does not have cow protein which may work great for your baby. It is very expensive...so if your Dr. says the baby needs this have the Dr. "prescribe"it and call the insurance for you to see if they will cover it. Good luck.
get homeopathic Lycopodium 30C, you can get liquid in several places on-line. this is one of "many" remedies designed for gas relief. may not be the one he needs, but will not do any harm to try.
Good Luck
Victoria
This happened with my daughter too and it turned out she had colic. The gas drops helped a little but not much. She went on Similac Sensitive and that helped. We also put a warm pack across her tummy when she would have the pains and it would help her get the gas out. Unfortunately there's no cure for colic but it goes away around 6 months.
My six month old baby girl went through the same... We used the Milicon (sp?) drops and the Little Tuimmies Gripe Water (for hiccups). Both worked wonders!!!
I am a first time mom with twins now 15 mons old. the nestle goodstart is excellent my little girl had the worse of the gas pains and it helped her. dont be afraid to try different formulas, i did and in the end they could drink all three, enfamil, good start, and similac without any problems. its just his little system might not be developed enough yet. hang in there will get better.
Hi Nicole,
I can understand how difficult this experience has been for you! I teach parent education classes and know that formulas other than breast milk are sometimes very difficult for a little tyke to digest. Often, their digestive system is not quite developed enough. I would definitely consult your pediatrician again, however, here are a couple of suggestions:
1) take the side of your hand under his rib cage and pretend you are scooping sand down to the ground. You are essentially helping any gas bubbles move out.
2) if you don't already have the HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK by Dr. Harvey Karp, you may want to get it. Tips are included that may be helpful. He recommends swaddling, rolling baby on side/stomach, shhhhing in ear, swinging and sucking her switch off a reflex.
Nicole,
Try bending his knees to his chest,that will sometimes dispell the gas. Also, laying him on his tummy on your lap where you can watch his head. For some reason laying on their tummy will also dispell the gas. My son had this when he was little too. I was able to use Goodstart and it worked wonderfully. I also used playtex disposable bottle liners. This got out as much excess air as you can and that really helped too. I hope these things are helpful.
You will get through it!
My baby had terrible reflux and it took a bit of experimenting but it turns out he's allergic to both dairy and soy proteins. Fortunately I'm a breastfeeder so I was able to change my diet and he was better. Since you are doing formula, Similac Alimentum is the first level of hypoallergenic (nothing is truly hypoallergenic, just more or less allergenic). The next level (more) is Elecare or Neocate. It is special order. You can get it from a pharmacy or on-line. I actually know a bunch of folks who did what you are doing - struggling to find a formula their baby will tolerate. It is very stressful when you have an endlessly crying baby (been there,done that). I hope you find a good formula really quickly.
Lactose intolerance is extremely rare in babies. Human milk is very high in lactose. Babies who don't tolerate dairy it is a milk protein problem, not lactose. If you don't find some relief pretty quickly, try the neocate. It is pricey but remember that most babies outgrow their intolerances pretty quickly as their GI system matures. I found pediatrians and even my son's pediatric GI doctor were basically useless in helping me find out what my son's problem was. Other moms were actually much more helpful.
Once I eliminated dairy and soy from my diet (and therefore my son's), his reflux was 90% better. It takes about 3-4 weeks for dairy proteins to leave your system once you quit eating them so you can't expect immediate improvement if you change to a more hypoallergenic formula. But you should see improvement within a week and continued improvement after that until the protein is out of his system. We were able to cut my son's Prevacid dosage in half within a month and then in half again soon after that and then we were able to eliminate it entirely. For him, no medication really helped his reflux until we figure out what was tearing up his stomach and eliminated it.
All 3 of my kids had really bad tummy troubles. Isomil helped out tremendously! You need to give it about 2 days to really start working. I also used Good Start for kid #2 and that helped, but not as well as Isomil. You may also want to try Nutramigen.
My mom had me rub their tummies with chamomile oil and place a bandana around their tummies. It seemed to help ease them with gassiness.
Hi
Try Similac (no Iron) THis worked for my first daughter who experienced the same. Second daughter was put on it immediately and had no problems. As a first time mom I would tell you this, put away all the books and go with your gut, also if not sure about anything, call the doctor.
my son a had similar problem. he would get such bad gas pains you could hear them. I switched his formula to a soy based formula which was so much better he hardly ever vomited and the gas pains went away. I would try Isomil with low iron. I hope this helps!
I have a 5 week old son that has similiar problems. It sounds like he might have acid reflux. My son would scream and spit up alot. He was just diagnosed with acid reflux and is now taking Prilosec twice a day. It helps so much! Also my son has a protein intolerance in which he would scream for hours and had bloody stools that showed up around 3 weeks of age. I was breastfeeding and changed my diet but he contiued to have problems. He now is on Nutramigen and is like a whole new baby! I hope you can figure it out soon so you can enjoy your newborn. Good luck! Lynnette
Don't know if this will help or not, my youngest son had terrible gas pains and what you are discribing is virtually the same thing we lived through with him. We put him on a formula powder that did not have iron in it, and we bought the Symithicone (spelling) drops. We gave him the drops prior to feeding him, fed him smaller amounts, and burped him more often, if we followed the same procedure each time, the pains went away and the vomiting and spitting up significantly reduced. I would follow the same procedure again if I ever run into the occasion, and will recommend this for my grandchildren if any end up with this gas problem. Hopefully, either this helps, or your pediatrician has better ideas.
for one you should always stick to one formula at least for 2 weeks for it to kick in. I always had great luck with nestle goodstart supreme and I gave my children gripe water, you can find it usually in the infant aisle if not try in the pharmacy. Good Luck and congrats!
Small babies have a lot of gas from formula and breast milk because their digestive system does not fully grow up.Give your child Babies Magic Tea.It`s relief discomfort with great result.
We went back to the pediatrician who said we could either try going back to the premixed Enfamil that we used in the hospital because powder can be harder to digest or we could try a lactose free powder…it was up to us. Makes you feel real good when your doctor leaves it up to you! I got the expensive premixed formula and it seemed like he was doing better, at least he was pooping again on a very regular basis. It’s been about 5 days now and his gas and fussiness is worse than it’s ever been. I’m about to cry right along with him. I’ve tried gripe water and Mylicon with no results. I bicycle his legs and try to rub his tummy, which he hates. He poops and passes gas all the time so it’s hard to understand why this happens. I also have the Dr. Karp book and sometimes those techniques work for a short time. I would love to try everyone’s advice with the iron free or Good Start formulas but I’m afraid to keep changing his food for fear of making him hurt worse during the adjustment period. Not sure how to proceed at this point or to continue with the premixed formula for atleast 2 weeks. 2 weeks seems like forever with a crying baby. Since he’s gaining weight, the doc didn’t seem to be concerned which is really disappointing.