4 month old with gas

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues:

A work colleague of my husband's has asked me for help in figuring out

what could be the cause of the apparent intense pain her son is

exhibiting after feeds. He is 4 months old. Her first child had

problems with reflux and was treated with zantac which helped. " Judy "

is ready to try " simple formula " to see if this helps. I've urged her

not to go that route. I've suggested she try to have her son sleep in

a swing or reclined seat to see if that helps. I've also advised see

she an excellent CMT in our area for cranial sacral treatment. She

has given me permission to post her email. I do not have direct

experience with this and am hoping you may all have some insight.

Thank you!

From her:

" Robbie is having some serious intestinal (I think) discomfort that

causes him to wake " early " from his naps screaming with his eyes still

closed and pulling up desperately with his legs. He's not so bad at

night, but still seems to wake himself and cry every 3-4 hours with

lots of leg motions. He's also trying to rub his eyes whenever he can

and definitely gets mucus in his throat after feedings. (Her sister

says: " Today's summary is fairly representative of Robbie's gas

struggle. I say gas because he wakes up 40-50 minutes into every nap

drawing his legs into him and pushing them away as strongly as he can.

And his combination shriek, wail and cry is pretty hard to take for

all of us who want to help him " )

From what I read online, the intestinal discomfort is usually gas and

along with the other symptoms can indiciate an allergy for him

associated with my diet.

It's to the point where I'm wondering if I need to try a " simple "

formula (without soy, cow's milk, wheat) to see if that helps him

because I'm having a hard time cutting out everything from my diet

that might be causing him the gas and what I see are other allergy

symptoms.

I've cut out dairy and soy but then read that wheat, corn, certain

green veggies can be culprits too, which leaves me with little to eat

to keep up my strength for breastfeeding. It's one of those things

that I've been tracking now for 3 months and it hasn't gotten better

and, with my sister visiting and caring for him, she's seeing real

issues with it.

I've been off soy and dairy for about 5 weeks (with an occasional slip

with cheese in a burrito or something), but I honestly haven't noticed

a difference, so I think it might be something else, but haven't yet

but dairy back into my diet because they say it takes 2-3 weeks to get

it all out of your system. I talked to his pediatrician about his

" gasiness " about 4 weeks ago at his last normal check up.

I really started to notice the symptoms at Robbie's 1.5 month mark

when I tried to start letting him sleep in a motionless, flat(er)

environment (after keeping him upright for at least a 1/2 hour after

feeding). Before that, there were times when I noticed increased

fussiness, but I knew we were still in the new baby phase where

fussiness can just be there without a reason and it was no problem to

tote him in the sling, put him in the car seat and walk or drive, etc.

Delivery was fine - vaginal birth with an epidural sort of late in the

game (8 cm dialated). Water broke at 1 pm ish, regular contractions

around 4 pm ish, hospital arrival at 7:30 pm, epidural at 8:30 ish and

delivery at 9:15 p.m. No tearing or suction or forceps or other stuff

used. Meconium was in the amniotic fluid.

My main concern is that the intestinal situation (and underlying

possible allergy) is keeping him from getting enough sleep and causing

him pain. I've talked with my pediatrician a couple of weeks ago and

she recommended diet changes and mylicon (sp?) for the gas, but I

think that really only helps with stomach gas, not intestinal gas. And

again if anything it's gotten worse, not better since I saw her. Of

course, he's gaining weight, so it's not life threatening, but

worrisome to me. "

[Guest guest]

RE: 4month old with gas

Mom states, "Robbie is having some serious intestinal (I think) discomfort thatcauses him to wake "early" from his naps screaming with his eyes stillclosed and pulling up desperately with his legs."

Have you looked into oversupply? Babies getting too much foremilk can act this way.

Judy Gutowski, BA, IBCLC