This may be a silly question, but I am wondering whether chronic problems with gas are behind ds' fussiness at the breast and erratic feeding. I also wonder if this is behind his difficulty settling before sleep. He will often become fussy and seems hungry but only takes a partial feed, often stopping after a few minutes. I will try to burp him but as he is becoming increasingly fussy and crying harder I think that he is not actually hungry but OT, so I work at getting him to sleep (still doing AP - patting, holding, walking, rocking, etc. - starting shh/pat next week). However, he doesn't settle well or he will drift off and then wake and ask to nurse again and we start the whole process over again. Sometimes it is a couple of hours before he finally settles. Other times he isn't so fraught, but just refuses to nurse after a brief (i.e., few minutes) feed. Of course this totally throws off our EASY as he ends up nursing again later, closer to S time.
So tonight, 3 hrs after his previous feed, which was not a bad one, he nursed on one side then stopped again. I burped him but then he refused any more. I tried the other side but he kept bobbing off and on. So, I decided to give him a bath. The fussing and then hard crying began after he was dressed (noticed it was blue around his mouth - wind). Tired to feed again, but off and on and increased distress. So, I committed to burping him and found that eventually he settled and emptied the left side. Then he was so calm. I burped some more and some came up after ten minutes or so. He drifted off and I tried to put him down but he woke and started after his hands (always hunger or gas for him), so I picked him up and got out more.
So... what struck me was how calm he was after finally filling his belly. It took awhile for him to get back to sleep (although he did it on his own with a little patting in his crib
), but despite the fact that it was well past an appropriate awake time he was not fussing at all! Is it possible that fussiness that I take to be OT is really related to this seemingly ongoing problem with feeding?
On a side note - reflux has been suggested and I will explore with the doctor when we go for his 2 month in mid-October, but is there a correlation between gas and reflux?
TIA for any insights.