10 month old up screaming every hour - exhausted and desperate!!

[RoseLemon]

My 10 month old is suddenly up every hour or two at night and it is absolutely driving me crazy. He used to sleep 10 hour stretches (I was lucky, I know) and now he's up all the time. Screaming inconsolably. He doesn't calm down when i hold him so I don't think it's separation anxiety. I figured out that he was farting during those times, then calming down, so I think he's in pain! It's unbearable to see him suffer without knowing how to help him. I've tried simplifying his diet, cutting lactose out of my diet (still breastfeeding to sleep for naps and bedtime), next I think I'll try cutting gluten. I'm shooting in the dark here. He doesn't seem to want anything and I am getting so very very frustrated. Nursing calms him, but I really don't think it's hunger waking him up, especially because I know he can go 10 hours without eating. I really didn't want to start up the nighttime feedings again. Any ideas of what could be causing the stomach pain?

  We're waiting on results from a stool sample the doctor told us to send to the local hospital to see if there is some sort of bacteria or something. I think it's probably just something he is eating. The pharmacist today recommended that I give him soy milk instead of nursing him for a few days. Can 10 month olds handle plain soy milk?

  I really really don't want to stop nursing him. He's still a baby!! But the only advice I seem to get is stop nursing (because it must be something in my milk) and let him cry it out. I know he's developing bad habits during this time. But I can't just let him cry. Not only do I hate CIO in general, but how could I let him cry if he's in pain? I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to help him.

 Any ideas of what could cause nighttime gas and pain? Anyone else have issues like this with their little ones? I hope this all makes sense. Being sleep deprived makes clear communication difficult...

[aaahmyeye]

Where is he with teething?  Could it be teething pain?  Have you tried giving him tylenol or ibuprofen and see if it helps?  I wouldn't think soy milk would fix anything - possibly make it worse since soy is a common allergen, and you say nursing helps comfort him.  It would be odd if it's from your breastmilk also, since he was doing just fine on it before this happened. If it is something in your breastmilk, any diet changes for you can take awhile to see an improvement in your nursing baby - a few weeks I think.  How long has this been happening?  Has your diet changed drastically to cause a new food to be introduced?  Has a new food been introduced in his solids intake?  If you think it's gas I would look there first - perhaps he is allergic to something he has recently started eating. 

Also, if it's gas look into tummy massages for babies.  That can help them relieve gas.  There are videos on youtube about it....

I hope he gets better. It's so hard to see your babe in pain. And tough to have your sleep interrupted.
 

[crayfishgirl]

Are you familiar with the wonder weeks? In a nutshell, infant researchers in the Netherlands (I think) found that babies were alll super cranky right around the same time and linked these fussy periods to leaps in mental development. My two followed the schedule pretty exactly, especially my son who is generally more mellow than my daughter (and thus, his fussy periods were far more obvious). There's a wonder week at 9 months (crankiness predicted at ~36 weeks +/- 2 weeks), and at ~11 months (44 +/- 2 weeks).

Finding this essentially saved my sanity because I could equate my super fussy, non-sleeping baby with something mental and not some nebulous health-related issue, possession by the prince of darkness, etc.

I would attach the "storminess chart" but apparently I don't have the necessary permissions to do so. I might be able to PM or email it. In any event, check out the website.

Good luck!!

http://www.thewonderweeks.com/index.php/about-the-wonder-weeks/your-babys-10-leaps/mental-leap-6

PS. stopping nursing and replacing with soy milk sounds like horrible guidance to me....especially in light of the fact that there is a big mental leap happening right around now. Of course, for my babes farting was a big giant deal until they were well over a year.

[RoseLemon]

Thanks for the advice about tummy massages. I went on youtube after reading your message and I think I might try some of that. What's been so weird about all of this is that I hadn't introduced anything new to his diet or mine. It just kind of started. But it seems that maybe it's getting a bit better on its own. He's still waking up a bunch, but doesn't seem to be in pain. The only thing I've ended up changing is that I followed my sister's advice to feed him a big lunch of solids and then something lighter for dinner rather than a big dinner. I don't know whether that is doing the trick or whether he's just outgrowing whatever was bothering him. Hopefully it's over now, though...