Someone help

I have a colicy twin boy. He will stay awake some days for 6+ hours, nap for a couple hours, then up again for several hours and there is no making him happy. He is formula fed and he eats I think too much. We have tried giving him water in between (RN told us to do this) to help with his poop (typically 2 times a day but they are balls).

Last night was the worst. Dh took him for a drive to get him to stop crying and he did just as he was entering the neighborhood. As soon as he put him in the house (still in his carseat) he started the screaming all over again. I rocked him standing up, in a chair, you name it. He no longer wanted to eat and everything we tried wasn't working. He doesn't like the swing or bouncer, try that daily. He finally cried so much I think that he wore himself out on dh's chest around 10:30. He woke up again at 1am to drink 1 oz and then was out until 7am this morning.

Do you think that he is constipated because they are balls of poop? We have tried gas drops too, thinking that was it. We do have an appointment on Friday for their 1 month check up, just want to know what I can do in the meantime. I need my sanity, because he is wearing on me.

 

Poor little guy, he definitely sounds constipated. Poop at that age should be runny. I don't know about the water thing; I've heard that babies aren't supposed to be given water, so I'd ask your doctor.

 

Our pedi recommended we mix a tsp of karo syrup in with 1-2 bottles a day when my son was having hard poop balls around that age. His poop turned mushy as soon as we started giving it to him. It never seemed to bother him though, he wasn't colicky so your problem definitely sounds more severe than what we were dealing with. Good luck!

 

:hug: We also were told about the dark karo syrup or mixing 1 ounce of pear juice with the water in their bottle - that helped.

 

We used 1 teaspoon of prune juice that worked for us. are you swaddling?

 

A friend of mine is bringing over some of that syrup. I'm hoping that it is the trick.

Swaddling? Not always, but he loves his boppy pillow so we let him sleep in it when we can get him to actually fall asleep.

 

Try the vacuum cleaner. It saved my life.

Nicolas had the WORST colic EVER. He would stay awake for 16 hour stretches and I'm not kidding!! UNTIL THE VACUUM came into our lives!

 

I highly recommend you buy the book "Happiest Baby on the Block" It will be a huge eye opener. The whole logic of the book is how babies really need a 4th trimester. They want to be swaddled, rocked, shushed...etc just like when they were in the womb. Oh and a paci too.

I loaned it to a friend out of state....if she were here I'd get it back and mail it to you.

 

Have you tried switching formula? Something like Gentlease might help him digest it easier.

 

QUOTE(goldylocks @ Oct 11 2008, 12:47 PM) [snapback]1022111[/snapback]
I highly recommend you buy the book "Happiest Baby on the Block" It will be a huge eye opener. The whole logic of the book is how babies really need a 4th trimester. They want to be swaddled, rocked, shushed...etc just like when they were in the womb. Oh and a paci too.

I was going to suggest the same thing, but they also make it in DVD form which I recommend (who has time to read with newborn twins?!?!). It was a lifesaver for us!! I would not have survived those first couple months without it. GL!! :hug:

 

Swaddle, shush and suck would work for us sometimes. We found that ds could not get the tiniest bit hungry or he would freak out. Still does. Colic for us equaled hunger pain. We would feed to sleep as often as possible. For me what ended up working was the bouncy seat, but mine were preemie too and the bouncy seat was just too big until they were a couple months old and then it was the saviour for DS and sleep. Thank goodness for that vibration and being able to rock him with my foot (while I rocked dd in my arms. I would try all kinds of motion. Motion is what usually offsets colic if hunger is not the issue.

Oh yeah and my DS would not poop sometimes for four days. It was never balls though and he was mostly breastfed. For me the key was and still is never letting DS get really hungry (or even slightly when he was itty bitty).

:hug: GL. I can still remember taking DS into the bathroom with no windows in the middle of the day, turning off the lights, rocking vigorously and shushing him for like 30 min to get him to nap for 45 min.

 

Poor little guy. I hope you are okay and not getting to frustruated. Does a warm bath help? My babies get like that when they are tired, really really tired.

Has the doctor seen this?

 

My singleton had HORRIBLE colic but was exclusively breast fed so without the poop problem. The only thing that he would ever calm down for was running the water in the kitchen sink. He didn't ever even take a nap in his own crib until he was over a year old. Not to scare you or anything but I would literally try anything just to get him to calm down. I never tried the vacum thing but it is worth a shot. Just know that the time will pass and crying never killed a baby so don't feel bad about putting him down..... My heart goes out to you I know just what you're going through....

 

One of my sons suffered from colic and I thought it would never end. Thankfully, he eventually cheered up. Phew! Wearing him in a moby wrap (www.pookababy.com) helped tremendously during his very fussy periods. He just wanted to be held sooo close and it was about the only thing that would silence him. I would dance around the house with this little guy stuck TIGHTLY to my chest. I also used a lot of the techniques in The Happiest Baby on the Block - have you seen the DVD? Highly recommended for colicky babies. To help with constipation I used to add an extra 1/2 ounce of water to their bottles, but not much more than that (don't want to compromise the nutrition). I'm so sorry you're going through this. Swaddling helped us a lot, as did a white-noise machine. PM me any time - I've been in your situation!

 

Swaddling, vibrating seat(this was the best thing we found), vacuum cleaner noise (I bought a CD b/c I was worried I would burn out the engine on ours!!! Amazon sells one called "For Crying Out Loud" it has the vacuum, raindrops, waved, maternal heartbeat, and a ton of others. It is a lifesaver in our house at naptime). Shhhing really helps too and I second the pp's boppy pillow, the slight incline helped our colicky ds who also has reflux issues. Hope something works soon! Hang in there it gets better!

 

I am so sorry :hug:
I also recommend the Happiest Baby on the Block (DVD! who has time to read?!). It SERIOUSLY worked, and we were huge sceptics.
We also did 1 tsp of prune juice PER ounce of formula when they were constipated & it worked wonderful. It took maybe a half-day or day to work though.
I hope things get better soon for you ~

 

Thank you ladies for all the suggestions. I'm going to try them all. LOL! I swaddled him up yesterday afternoon in one of those swaddling blankets and rocked him in their room with no noise and he fell asleep around 3:40 pm and stayed that way until after 7pm. We kept him swaddled all night long and he slept much better then normal. I also tried the syrup to see if that will help loosen him up.

The babies have been into the doctor a lot already and had to already spend 5 days in the hospital for a virus, so no I haven't talked to their doctor about this issue. We will be on Friday, that's for sure.

I will go looking for that dvd or book it can't hurt to read more suggestions.

 

What??? The books comes on DVD. Sheesh.... that would have been good to know. Too late now

We used prune juice for constipation. That's what the NICU used - and it always had them poopin' soon after drinking a bit of it.

I feel for you. Hope all the above suggestions give you some relief. (Hugs)

 

:hug: You have gotten some great suggestions already. But I just wanted to add that we used 1/2 ounce of pear juice to 1/2 ounce of water at that age and it worked well. Also, if you are still having issues on Mon, it might not hurt to at least call the Nurse and let them know and see if they have any suggestions for you without having to go in to the Dr. before Friday.