Cayden is generally a really happy baby, or at least I thought so until the last two weeks. The past two weeks have gone something like this... Cayden wakes up starving and eats, but falls asleep while eating. Ten to fifteen minutes later he wakes up starving and screams until he is fed. I cave in and feed Cayden even though I know he isn't hungry. He only eats a little and I burp him. As soon as he is done being burped he starts screaming. I go as long as I can without feeding him, but finally give in because I can't stand the screaming. Cayden again falls asleep while eating and wakes up soon afterward screaming. Eat, sleep, scream. Eat, sleep, scream. Eat, sleep, scream... I think you can see how the day continues. After about a week of dealing with a baby that demands to be held 24/7 (this led to many days without a shower - gross!) and screams unless he is eating, your nerves and sanity are pretty much shot. I knew Cayden's behavior wasn't normal, but had no idea what was wrong with him. After talking to many people and lots of experimenting I have come up with a few reasons for Cayden's screaming:
1) Vitamins - At his two week check the Dr said that most nursing babies end up vitamin D deficient and said I needed to get some liquid vitamins and start giving them to Cayden. I did it and a few days later the screaming started. I've heard that vitamins can be really hard on a baby's tummy and decided to quit giving them to Cayden.
2) Lack of milk - A few days ago I noticed that Cayden's diapers weren't very wet and that he wasn't going to the bathroom as often as he had been. After thinking about it I realized that I hadn't been drinking very much liquid and therefore probably wasn't producing enough milk for Cayden to eat. Solution... Drink a glass of water each time I feed Cayden and with every meal. For a while I felt like I was drowning myself. Within a day I had plenty of milk.
3) Spitting/Reflux - Along with the screaming came huge amounts of spitting. Now I know that babies spit a lot, but I don't think it is normal for a baby to empty their stomach of everything they just ate. After talking to a nurse on the phone she decided it sounded like Cayden had reflux. She talked to the Dr, who agreed, and called in a prescription for a liquid antacid. Within a day of giving Cayden the medicine he was back to spitting like a normal baby. :)
Finally, after two long weeks and five days of experimenting I am happy to report that I once again have a happy little boy! Whether it was a combination of the three things or only one I don't know, but I do know that I'm not going to give Cayden the vitamins again, I'll keep drinking a lot of water, and I'll continue to give him his medicine.
3 comments:
So glad you're figuring this out. Christian screamed for 5 months straight and the Dr. told me it was all in my head. I finally took Joy with me to tell testify of the problems.
We finally switched doctors. Mother's intuition told me there was something wrong. The new dr. foudn he was allergic to my milk. It was a fluke.
Good thing you are a smart gal and can figure this out. I think most drs explain everything as colic, when in reality there are things that can help.
Good job on the experimentation. When babies are as little as him it is so hard to decipher what is going on with them! That was a good idea with the water. And eating oatmeal helps too. Plus, if he was only snacking a little bit each feeding that week, then your production was getting used to only putting out a little at a time instead of "full meals." Now you are probably back to where you are supposed to be...
Anyway, fun fun. Glad it is all better now. Read Shannon's blog- she had her baby. love m
For the first couple months that I was breastfeeding Owen, I basically carried that huge water bottle from the hospital everywhere I went - I was always so thirsty!! It's great that you figured out what was wrong with your poor boy. I'm glad he's back to normal. :)
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