Tummy issues in newborn, WWYD?

[GoddessKristie]

My 3 week old babe is having some serious tummy discomfort. It seems that gas and her stools are causing it. Her stools  are completely normal for BF, but I can hear her tummy grumbling like when you're sick and have diarrhea. She burps well at each feeding  (several times) and even burps on her own throughout the day. I keep her upright for 10-15 minutes after her feeding to make sure any gas that's left has a good chance to come up. Still, she fusses and screams and I can easily tell that it's her tummy bothering her. A week ago I stopped eating dairy and at the same time I started block feeding to help reduce my huge supply. I'm still going for 3 hours on each side and I'm still leaking quite a bit on the side that's not being nursed. Without a pad in my bra I have a wet spot larger than my hand and sometimes it goes all the way down to my hip! 

So, after a week I'm not seeing any improvement at all in the way she's feeling. I am feeling like the issue is my supply at this point because I should see some kind of improvement if it were the milk, right? And I still have a serious oversupply. So, I'm feeling like it's the oversupply and not dairy. I'm unsure if I should continue on eliminating dairy (which I'm craving like mad despite supplementing with calcium), if I should try an elimination diet to pinpoint something else that might be causing it, or if I should go back on dairy and wait out the oversupply. 

What would you do?

[sere234]

I think it takes at least a couple weeks for dairy to clear your system. Maybe you'll see some changes in the next week or two. Hugs, hope your LO improves soon!

[GoddessKristie]

I've read it can take up to three weeks for it to be completely gone from your system, but that there should be some signs of improvement. I'm at a week and a half now and still not seeing any improvement at all. 

DH got some gripe water last night and that's helping slightly, but she's still having a tough time. I hate watching her suffer and I'm starting to really hurt on the sleep front. It doesn't help that the lack of sleep and level of frustration keeps me from thinking straight.

[Louisep]

Did she or you have any antibiotics at birth? My DS2 had antibiotics in the NICU and he was in a lot of gastro pain as a consequence. I gave him probiotics and the relief was instant and amazing.

I have done my share of elimination diets with ds1. Are you reading labels careful? You can't eat anything with dairy derivatives, like casein. I would personally deal with one thing at a time - primarily your supply. It's overwhelming to try a bunch of different things at once.

It could just be a newborn thing too...their little tummies are still figuring it all out.

Look into foremilk/hindmilk imbalance too.

Combined with a probiotic, if there's no difference in another few weeks, I'd suggest cutting things out of your diet. It's always worth keeping dairy out if you can keep going though, just make sure you really are cutting all traces out - it's in everything!

PM me if you want a probiotic brand suggestion.

[GoddessKristie]

I started an elimination diet on Sunday. I just couldn't watch her suffer anymore knowing I wasn't doing everything I could. So far no real improvement. I'm more convinced every day that it's my supply. We did have abx. What probiotic did you give? At what age and how did you administer them? I have been wanting to do this and was thinking about it before the birth even, but can't find any good info on how or what kind to administer.

[PatioGardener]

I had to build up to blocks of 10 hours before was under control.

Hang in there!

[Hillary77]

I second the suggestion of probiotics - Primadophilus by Nature's Way is a good choice. You take some yourself and give some to baby also. Wet your fingertip then dip it in the probiotic powder and let baby suck your finger.

I would work up to bigger blocks - 4 or 5 hours.

When I did food elimination, I cut out dairy, eggs, beef, soy, peanuts, tomatoes and citrus (these were my "suspects") for 2 weeks and then began reintroducing one at a time to look for reaction. This might seem hard but it requires less eliminating time overall. Dairy turned out to be the big one. I think egg whites are a very common one as well and I would suggest gluten too if you're not sure it's not an issue for you. Infants allergies/intolerances often follow Mom's.

It's normal for babies sytems to be sorting themselves out at this age too...it will get better!

[Louisep]

I'm not sure if we're allowed to say actually brand names - I'll email you. A randomized controlled study showed it reduced fussiness...I forget the exact findings but they were huge. I got mine by mail order but you could call around pharmacies. I think it was three times per day but I don't remember. The instructions are on the bottle though. The difference was incredible. I was also dairy free which is recommended with the probiotics.

[GoddessKristie]

Great Ladies, thanks so much! I have some Primadophilus from my DS, so I'll try that first, I guess. 

I have been block feeding for the past two weeks and I've seen a HUGE improvement in my supply. I was leaking so much that my shirt would soak down to my hip, a couple times the sofa was even wet by the time I noticed! Once I woke up (after her first 4 hour stretch of sleep at night) and my sheets and gown were wet under my whole torso. The last two times I leaked (twice in 4 days! I was leaking EVERY feeding before) it was just a small spot, smaller than a quarter). I'm pretty happy with that. She's coughing and sputtering less with my let-down, too. Along with that I have seen an improvement in her behavior. She was screaming most of the time she wasn't sleeping. It's slowly decreased to fussing and yelling right before she potties. Her bms are still watery, too with only a few seeds in them. 

I need to get all of these things together and done in the next week so that her tummy is all better before I start adding foods back in. 

[PatioGardener]

Remember that many probiotics are grown on dairy, so finding a dairy-free probiotic is important if you think that dairy may be an issue.

[GoddessKristie]

Thank you for mentioning that! I didn't know. Dairy is actually the one thing I'm nearly certain isn't a problem, as I've now been dairy free for 18 days.