4.5 Month Old with Terrible Gas

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I found with my first son that he would fall back to sleep on his Daddy's chest. In fact, as long as he was laying on his belly the pressure on his tummy seemed to help. We ended up letting him sleep on his tummy in the crib, and he did much better. I know I shouldn't admit that because it's supposed to be dangerous, but so is driving your car with the kids while completely exhausted or letting the baby sleep on top of you and falling asleep yourself which was our situation. Best of luck.

Was she on heavy duty antibiotics while in the hospital? She's old enough to start eating spoonfuls of yogurt, or put some liquid yogurt in her formula to help rebuild the natural flora in her gut.

try the mylicon or little tummies gas drops. or you could try gripe water. ive used both with my kids. if she was on antibiotics you should try the yogurt or put probiotics in her formula or milk if you pump. i use Jarrow formulas Baby Jarro-dophilus on my little ones. i dont work full time bit i know how awful it is when your baby is up that often. praying for you both.

What have you done so far to figure out what she can't tolerate in your diet? If nothing yet, then I'd start with cow's milk as the suspect.

Very very often it's cow's milk. If you haven't done so already, cut out all milk products from your diet - milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt. It will take up to 2 weeks to get it all out of your system, but if this is the culprit, your baby will start to feel much better in 3-4 days. If it's helping, but she's still a little gassy, you may need to look for hidden dairy (anything with casein as an ingredient). When you give formula, give her Nutramigen.

If cutting out milk doesn't help at all, then try nuts. If that doesn't help, then try eggs. Most baby allergies are to one of these common things. (http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/food-sensitivity/)

My kids were both intolerant of dairy, but to different degrees. My first one, I could eat a slice of cheese on a sandwich and he was ok as long as I didn't drink a glass of milk, and I couldn't have ice cream or yogurt. I didn't worry about milk as an ingredient in baked goods, that was fine.

My second was so sensitive that I had to look at every ingredient list and if it listed milk or casein, I couldn't eat it or he would be miserable. Fortunately, I think that this level of intolerance is rare - but it is possible.

I would definitely NOT do sleep training until you figure out what is causing her pain. I agree with you that it makes no sense to leave a baby in pain to cry alone.

And if you need tips on going dairy-free, let me know. I'm expert at this point I think :)

Give her Mylicon Infant Gas Drops.
You can get it at any drugstore.
My daughter as a baby had BAD gas pains, and this helped.
My daughter had gas pains... and she rarely burped or farted, though I tried. But her gas just got all pent up in her. Hence, pain. Hence, crying and inability to sleep.
But the Mylicon helped.

It is a rough patch, that will be outgrown.

Well if she was sleeping before and did not have this terrible gas you need to look at what changed. Is that when you introduced the formula? If so she could be reacting to that. If she has been on the formula all along it probably is not that. But I always suspect formula before breastfeeding. for example cutting milk out of your diet won't help if you continue to give her milk based formula, and most kids with a milk sensitivity also have a soy sensitivity, so giving a soy formula won't necessarily help either. If she has been on the formula the whole time tho and did not have problems before she probably doesn't have a milk issue(breastmilk or formula). If however the formula was a more recent addition, it could be causing the problems. As for gas, roll her often while you are awake, or lay her on her tummy while you can supervise. My daughter could only sleep on her tummy and after 4 months of no sleep and watching her all day sleep happily on her belly, I finally let her sleep on her belly at night and she slept better. But this is not recommended until kids can roll over on their own, so do not do it if you are not comfortable doing it. You can try the gas drops but they never did much for my daughter. Gripe water helped a tiny bit but also not enough. Tummy sleeping and lots of movement when awake helped more. As did cutting dairy out of my diet(but don't try that if you will still give a milk or soy based formula). There are hypoallergenic formulas, but they are very expensive and need a prescription. Some insurances will cover them tho. Hope you can figure it out. If you suspect it might be the formula, I would try cutting that out first and just pump more often. Breastmilk is easier to digest than formula and causes less gas. Also check the type of bottle u are using and if you recently switched that could be causing problems. Playtex drop ins work best, but you must squeeze all the air out of the bottle before feeding it to the baby, otherwise it is just like any other bottle. Once there is no air in the bottle quickly turn it over and into baby's mouth, you may lose a squirt(usually on baby's face or nose) but it will keep the air from coming back in, and she won't get any air during feeding. If you stop feeding you need to squeeze all the air out again that accumulates when the baby stops sucking. You can also add gas drops directly to the formula or breastmilk. And I was advised to give double the amount as it is not absorbed by the body but please check with your doc before doing that. Hope some of this helps! I know sleep deprivation is terrible!!!! And the saying this too shall pass is of little comfort and sounds like a cruel joke. But try to hang in there and see if changing anything helps. If I think of anything else I will write.

My second son was the same way and I gave up on the nursing. Wish I had tried more but was going crazy. I have heard of people using chiropractors for infants and they can work wonders. I wish I had tried. Worth checking out at least!

These have probably been mentioned, but these worked with my son who had tons of gas:
- Dr. Brown bottles. I avoided them, trying over 20 diff others and finally found that they were the only ones that truly cut back on the gas for him.
- Doing the bicycle move with the legs, really getting each knee up to his abdomen (reaching for chest) (gently, of course).
- A move we learned at a baby yoga class, where you tuck both knees up to his belly, then rotate the knees to his left side, then straighten legs, then rotate knees up to his right side, then rotate back up to his belly. It has to be done clockwise (if you are facing him).
Good luck!