Help! My 6 mo is driving me NUTS!!!!!

[becky1969]

My LO is 25 weeks old. The last 3 weeks his night sleep has been awful. His naps have been great, for the most part. It all started 3 weeks ago with him fighting going to bed. I'd be able to get him down, like usual. But then 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes later he'd wake up CRYING really really hard. Like he was in pain. I thought it was his reflux acting up, perhaps, because he was also doing a lot of back arching in his lseep and while awake. He'd also kick out and flail his whole little body, often whle still asleep. If I could keep hold of him, he'd stay asleep.

4 days ago, we dropped the catnap and shortened his daytime naps from 4.5 hours to 3-3.5 hours. For 3 nights, he went to bed GREAT! It was wonderful! He also slept through the night like normal, no wakings! I thought maybe THAT'S what the problem was - we needed to drop the cat nap. However, on the 3rd day I fed him 3 tsp of oatmeal instead of the 1tsp he's used to because he'd gotten his appetite back after it being gone for 2 weeks (another reason I thought reflux was the culprit). Well, since then, he' been a mess. Naps are starting to go to crap because he wakes up with horrible gas pains. And last night he woke up every hour, and then at 3 am and I couldn't get him back to sleep until 6 (I tried feeding, but he only took 2 oz). When I finally got him back to sleep (I laid him in bed with me, the first time EVER in his life), I noticed he was constantly kicking his feet out. Like maybe it WAS gas. Also, right before I got him to sleep, he let out a few toots, and that seemed to help him relax a little bit.

Can someone please advise? Do you think these sleep problems are still related to my routine? Or is it possible that it is something like gas or reflux? He's also teething, but I gave him Tylenol before bed last night, just to make sure he wouldn't be uncomfortable. None of his wakings seemed to be teeth related. He wasn't pulling at his mouth, and he wasn't crying, just back arching, kicking, and at 3 am wide awake.

Here's yesterday's routine:

7:30 Awake
E 8:00
A 8:30-9:45
S 9:45-11:45

E 12:00
A 12:30-14:00
S 14:00-16:00 (but with a waking at 14:30, and didn't get solidly back to sleep until 15:10) Total nap time: 1hr20

E 16:30
A 17:00-17:30
17:30 began wind down for bed
E 18:00
finish wind down, and in bed by 18:30

3 brief wakings, all taken care of in less than 2 minutes

Dream feed 22:30

woke at midnight 1 am, 2 am, and then at 3 am- 6am.

[Colin Macs Mom]

becky, it sounds to me like the reflux is definitely rearing its ugly head. What med(s) is your lo on? If it's something with a weight-based dosage then I would get to the doc as soon as possible to get it adjusted. If not, then it sounds like something needs to change.

Does he sleep on an incline?

[becky1969]

He does sleep with a wedge. But it has never seemed steep enough for him. I've been looking at the Tucker sling, thinking that might be our next best option.

He's on Prevacid, and our doctor will not increase his doseage. He's on 7.5 mg twice/day, and she said that's 1/2 an adult's doseage, and she doesn't feel comfortable increasing it.

I just don't know how to help him! And I can't figure out why the reflux is getting bad NOW. Someone mentioned teething can make reflux worse. Have you heard that?

[Colin Macs Mom]

I never used the Tucker sling myself, but there are many parents who absolutely swear by it. I have also heard that teething can aggravate reflux, but as I understand it that's not a given.

Another thought, have you started solids recently? Is it possible that something he's eating is stirring things up?

[becky1969]

Well, funny you should say that. About 2 weeks ago we started oatmeal cereal. 2 weeks prior to that we tried rice cereal for 3 days, but had to stop because of constipation/gas. I just spoke to the nurse at my pediatrician's office because his poo has been the worst smelling stuff EVER the last 3 days. I think it's because of the oatmeal. I'd been giving him 1 tsp (or even less) wet each day for the past 10 days, but then Monday he got his appetite back (after a 3 day hiatus from cereal!!!! wish I'd put the clues together then!), and so I gave him 3 tsp of cereal. I was just so excited to see him eat! Since then, he just has NOT been a happy camper. The nurse agrees that we should stop cereal altogether (I stopped after that large doseage). I think that really may be the culprit, now that I'm looking back on it. The last time he behaved this way was when he was about 2 weeks old, and that's when we first realized he had gas issues and changed his formula, started using Gripe Water and Mylicon. He got better in 2 days. We're just going straight to fruits/veggies now.

Argh. I feel so terrible for my LO! I've been slowly torturing him with the cereal! I think the small servings were just enough to make him cranky and irritable, but I attributed that to teething (which he's also doing). But the BIG serving really showed us how it was irritating his system. Maybe it was a good thing after all because I would have gone on torturing him in little doses for who knows HOW long!

[Colin Macs Mom]

Ah hah! Sounds like the cereal is definitely not agreeing with him. That's ok, some los are just that way and can never do the cereal. In case your doc has not discussed it with you, root veggies are REALLY good for refluxers - stuff like carrots and potato. Definitely avoid anything acidic like citrus and tomato. My DS's favorites are sweet potato, pumpkin, zucchini, and mango.

I bet once you get the cereal out of his system he'll be a new man!