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Baby Has Painful Stools. Suckles To Sleep. Reflux Medicine Of No Help. Reason?
My baby is now 16 weeks old. At night she sleeps from 19:00 until about 02:30. When she wakes, I feed her, she falls asleep in my arms - but when I try to put her back in her cot she seems to have painful cramps until she passes stool . She finds relief in passing stool - I then let her suckle again in order to get her to sleep, but the same happens - and she won t sleep again until 9am the next morning. She sleeps very poorly - about 2hrs during the day. I do have her on reflux medication - but this does not help. What can I do to help her with these cramps
Fri, 21 Sep 2012
Dear Genevieve
It is possible that your baby is having colics. Most of the time this is because as they suckle, they also gulp down a lot of air. THis excess air in the intestine causes pain and babies are uncomfortable and get relief only after they pass stool and a lot of flatus. I would like to know if your baby is flatulent too. This might be due to a gradual decrease of milk (if you are breastfeeding) or too small a hole in the teat of the nipple of the feeding bottle (if bottlefed). If you are breastfeeding, kindly express the milk on an occasional feed time and measure the amount. If it is less than 50 ml, maybe you need to supplement or the baby might suckle for a longer time, half his stomach will fill up with air and then the colics will remain. Do clarify my above questions and revert. Regards
Dr Antony Robert Charles
Consultant Pediatric Surgeon,
Columbia Asia Hospitals
It is possible that your baby is having colics. Most of the time this is because as they suckle, they also gulp down a lot of air. THis excess air in the intestine causes pain and babies are uncomfortable and get relief only after they pass stool and a lot of flatus. I would like to know if your baby is flatulent too. This might be due to a gradual decrease of milk (if you are breastfeeding) or too small a hole in the teat of the nipple of the feeding bottle (if bottlefed). If you are breastfeeding, kindly express the milk on an occasional feed time and measure the amount. If it is less than 50 ml, maybe you need to supplement or the baby might suckle for a longer time, half his stomach will fill up with air and then the colics will remain. Do clarify my above questions and revert. Regards
Dr Antony Robert Charles
Consultant Pediatric Surgeon,
Columbia Asia Hospitals
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