baby gets cross in the evenings???

jackben

hi, my 4 week old son has been very good up to now, never got cross that much, the usual wakes at nite feeds and goes back to sleep, but the last few evenings we have noticed that from about 7pm to 10pm or so he gets very cranky crying alot,, but then once his settled for the nite around 11pm he sleeps fine, i dont no why he gets so cross at this time, he doesnt sleep for long periods during the day (due to constant visitors!!!!), so maybe it could be lack of sleep, just curious if anyone else had this happen?

Grawns

sounds like colic . My little one had it and they grow out of it. gripe water helps - but you have to get it in the uk.

jackben

hi, oh dear i hope its not colic, or if it is i hope it doesnt get any worse, hate hearing him cry and cant do anything for him, i have the gripe water though (got it up the north). so if it continues i might try that. thanks for your reply:)

LashingLady

I hope this isn't construed as "medical advice" - it's just based on my experience wtih my babies.

I have two kids. They both had varying levels of this evening crankiness when they were babies. My first is 2 and a half now, and I think we can say that he had colic. It started at 4 weeks and got progressively worse over the next two weeks. Then I changed his food and he was a different baby. My little girl (now 4 months) had a few cranky evenings starting around 4 weeks, but we didn't need to change her food.

Based on my experience (admittedly limited to my kids, my friends' kids, and information from discussion forums like this!), all little babies will have some trouble with wind as their intestines are so small, but some actually have trouble digesting the lactose in the formula and this causes wind to build up in the lower intestine. My son used to have so much bottom wind that couldn't have been caused by taking in air, so must have been coming from the formula in his lower intestine.

Here is what I would try if I were you:

- If baby is bottlefed, then switch to anti-colic bottles (Dr Browns or Avent) If not already using them. I was using the TT Closer to Nature bottles with my little girl and I found she got a lot of wind as the teat was so large.
- Infacol at EVERY feed
- Wind religiously at every feed. Keep baby upright (eg on your shoulder) for as long as possible after every feed. I think any trapped wind builds up during the day and causes trouble in the evening.
- A little bit of extra water in the bottle might help. I didn't add any extra water per se but I made up the bottles using the 30ml rule instead of the oz rule which resulted in a little extra water which I think can help with digestion.
- In the evening if there's a "crying crisis" then massage tummy in a cicular motion. Take off legs of babygro aswell as kicking can help baby work the wind out.

If all the above doesn't help much then I would think that baby has the type of colic that's caused by not being able to break down the protein in the milk properly. Apparently this can be because of an immature digestive system, that's why colic usually disappears after around 3 months. In this case, there are a couple of formulas on the market that you could try - There's Comfort Formula's made by two of the brands, and one has a lactose free one. I changed to the Comfort with my little boy and within two days he was so much more settled, a different baby. I would talk to your PHN or doc though before changing. I have known some people that these have not worked for and they have had to change to non-dairy formulas like Nutramigen or Neocate, but I think they are quite a bit down the line if your baby is diagnosed as truly lactose intolerant.

I hope this helps. I know how awful it is to see your a baby crying with wind:(...

Meant to say, if baby is breastfed, then the winding points still apply. As far as I know there are drops you can get to help break down the lactose in breastmilk if baby is having trouble. Have a look at colief and dentinox drops.....

AmcD

As far as I am aware, this is quite common in babies that young. They often have a quite restless, cranky period in the evening- as you describe. My daughter (now four months) used to be like that. Friends' babies were similar. It does tend to settle as they get older, but it means parents never get a chance to relax in the evening.

implausible

My wee man was like this for a few months too - we used to call 6:30 "crabbit o'clock" because he would just be whingey and grumpy from then til bedtime @8:30. Maybe he had colic, I don't know but we used Infacol and Gripe Water for a few weeks and it seemed to work, or maybe he just grew out of it.

(You can get gripe water in the South, it just doesn't have any alcohol in it any more)

Dades

Sounds exactly like our fella was.

Turned out it was silent reflux. Do a search here it's been mentioned loads of times (by myself and others).
All I can say is - after a word with your PHN or GP - give Infant Gaviscon a go. Could be the lifesaver it was for us.

And don't listen to people who tell you that your baby is just cranky.

RachaelVO

My mam used to call it the cranky hour! Most babies get it.

One thing though, you said baba isn't sleeping great during the day. That is NOT a good thing. Babies that young need to sleep. It's when they grow. It can be hard when everyone wants to say hello, but for your sake and for babys sake you might be better off giving yourself more space, and spreading out visits. Sometimes we forget we have the right to say can you come another day. People won't mind as much as you think they will.

It could be a bit of colic, which babies can get if they are being over stimulated. When mine were new born I refused to have visitors (expect grandparents) for the first few weeks. I wanted that time with my baby, and I didn't want other people changing their baby smell and I wanted that time for me, cos I knew it wouldn't last long (that's just me now, I'm weird about that kinda thing). It was a good decision, as my daughter used to get very unsettled after we did have visitors, but she did grow out of it, and now she is a very happy go lucky 4 year old, so there is light at the end of the tunnel (PROMISE;))

bulmersgal

maybe you could do what I did and have a little party say sun tell every1 to come look at baby and thats it for next few weeks. We did this the night i came out of hosp as with visitor restrictions nobody could come see us. It was tiring but great cause then for the next 6 weeks it was just me and baba total bliss.

Hopefully baby gets better soon but they can be very cranky when tired even now at 10 months i hate when she doesn't get her nap at right time or for long enough as she gets so cranky

RachaelVO

bulmersgal wrote: »

maybe you could do what I did and have a little party say sun tell every1 to come look at baby and thats it for next few weeks. We did this the night i came out of hosp as with visitor restrictions nobody could come see us. It was tiring but great cause then for the next 6 weeks it was just me and baba total bliss.

Hopefully baby gets better soon but they can be very cranky when tired even now at 10 months i hate when she doesn't get her nap at right time or for long enough as she gets so cranky

That's a brilliant idea! It just saves so much heartache in the long run!

I do agree, they can be so hard to deal with when they miss their sleep. If I was going out I would only arrange it for when I KNEW they would be awake as their schedule settled down! I never went out at lunch time cos that's when the pattern meant they slept and then they were pretty happy in the afternoon.

sandra06

hi my girl is 5 now and i had this problem with her when she was 4 weeks old ,went to doc told it was colic tried loads of different remendys .none worked ,if it continues ,when you try everything ,bring baby to doc i did and it was not colic can be reflux which is easily sorted

jackben

hi all thanks so much for all your replies,, sounds like it could be a number of things!!! I have a couple of the anti colic bottles and i use the 30ml method rather than the oz method. He is very good at bringin up his wind from both ends!!! so thats a good thing i guess. Also even if i have no visitors during the day he still wouldnt sleep as well as he would during the night like 2 to 3 hours, he might only sleep for an hour an a half sometimes during the day and just wants to be awake for most of it, i think that this could be a reason why his cranky in the evenings. ill just have to see how it goes and try get him to sleep better in the day and use the different bottle methods for the next 2 weeks and then mention to my doctor when i see her in 2 weeks time. its hard not knowing and hearing him cry. but will have to be patient with him and see how it goes i guess, as every mother goes through this im sure.. i think my main thing is to try get him to sleep during the day, so hopefully over the next few days this will improve.
thanks again to every one for your help:):)

bookwrm

Hi everyone

My older kid (nearly 6 now) had similar symptoms and no amount of Infacol or Gaviscon or anything else helped.

She sounds similar to OP's son - rarely slept through the day, had to walk, walk, walk her round the town to get her to nod off.

At night she screamed from getting out of the bath until exhaustion, usually after 9pm.

My second child had none of these issues, slept fine, day and night, no colicky behaviour, I hardly ever heard her cry.

Now I see that DD1 is a very strong-willed and resistive individual who simply HAS to get her own way (pathologically!). I feel now that as a baby she figured out her routine and was actually refusing to be put to bed, refusing to be away from her mammy, and doing the only thing she knew to show she was unhappy about it. This is reinforced by the fact that she always fell asleep no bother if she was lying in my bed with me beside her.

It might not be anything you can fix with potions and patting etc (though of course as mams we try everything we can).

I am not saying bedsharing is the answer either... 6yo still insists on sleeping with me so it's definitely not the answer!

Good luck, your wee fella will grow out of it, either way, most likely. Congrats on your new baby.

xzanti

Hi OP,

I had a similar problem with my Son, I got really useful info on here.. Here's the thread I started.. I ended up going with Cranial Osteopathy and it has really made a huge difference..

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056147928

Best of luck

Das Kitty

We had a bit of colic, a bit of baby massage and leg cycling did wonders, it got a lot of the farts out.

For the other end we tried everything and in the end it was the second syringeful of infacol that sorted him out. It was also the cheapest solution. We could never get him to take the gripe water as you had to give 5ml, only 1ml of Infacol went mostly unnoticed.