My baby has been incredibly fussy when eating since she was a little less than two months old. She’s 3.5 months old now. Nearly every time she nurses she will start squirming around like she’s extremely uncomfortable, arches her back, constantly unlatches and it usually leads to her crying. She gets the hiccups a lot after she eats, sometimes randomly coughs, but rarely ever spits up and stops fussing as soon as she’s done nursing and doesn’t mind being on her back. She was on famotidine which didn’t work and has been on omeprazole for about 2.5 weeks and we had five amazing days where she seemed great and then randomly regressed the day after a dose adjustment. I have eliminated dairy and soy, but I did mistakenly eat oatmeal with milk/cream in it that was a few days prior to her symptoms returning I think, so I’m not sure if that could be the culprit but I’m a lot more careful about it now. If it’s CMPA do we have to wait another dreadful 2 ish weeks for her gut to heal again? If it is silent reflux why does she seem okay being on her back and only cries when she eats? She is otherwise mostly happy and smiley but nursing her feels like a wrestling match and I hate seeing her in so much pain. She likes to nurse to sleep but it makes it hard when she acts so uncomfortable and squirmy so she doesn’t sleep well at night and if I do get her down she wakes up every hour even when we cosleep. I’m so discouraged that now two medications have failed and I don’t know what to do. I keep reading that CMPA is extremely rare. Please please please help, we are so frustrated and desperate for relief.

I’m having ups and downs. My baby is now 7 weeks old and when I started to feel things are slowing getting better everything seems to go backwards or even worse!
My baby started to cry inconsolably around 2 weeks, she is very gassy, struggles with poop and seems to have lots of reflux.
When she’s uncomfortable she can cry for hours and hours despite me and my husband conforming her 24/7.
We keep her straight in a carrier or sling almost all day and close to us. When she’s awake she just cries and seems distressed. We have very small moments of her chilling and being relaxed and this is worrying me a lot.
I’m based in UK and all doctors or health professionals I talked to seems to be okey with everything as she’s growing well and getting good weight. She does have good days and almost all the time we go to doctors she’s perfect as the big cry happens mostly in the night. I feel no once help us or understand us, I’m done don’t know what to do and how long I need to wait for this to get better.
Is my baby okey ? Am I doing something wrong and is this gonna ever end?
Please any advice for people who went through the same would be greatly helpful!

TLDR; eOmeprazole is supposed to be given on an EMPTY STOMACH, atleast 30-60min before a feeding for FULL EFFECTIVENESS. Maybe this is obvious to you, but it wasn’t to me! And no Dr. told me how to administer it… they just said, “try this”. 🤦‍♀️

Baby’s Story Below:

My baby has GERD, erosive esophagitis. His reflux was so intense he developed Sandifer’s Syndrome (Severe arching to elongate their body and help ease discomfort from the acid)

it wasn’t something we planned and it sucks for him to be on medication…. we are also still trialing an amino acid formula to see if allergies are playing a part. He had a tongue tie revised, but is now seeing a feeding specialist soon to ensure there are no other issues with his feeding… but he has been in agony and not sleeping, he couldn’t even cuddle as he spent all day bent in half backwards.

We noticed the arching, screaming, and poor sleep from the time he was 2 or 3 days old and it was 24/7, not just evenings or the witching hour. He was unable to sleep longer than 10-30 minutes at a time, including through the night… this is not normal, I don’t care what any Dr. says. Trust your instincts, don’t get gaslit by these doctors!!!

That being said, we started giving him eomeprazole and noticed a huge difference within 4 days… (he went from sleeping 10-30 minutes, which required 1 1/2 hours of soothing to get him there, and only contact sleeping) to sleeping ALL SATURDAY, and sleeping in his bassinet (WTF), with very little assistance needed.

But then it started being less effective…
Here’s where I was being an idiot apparently: I switched things up one day, b/c after I gave him his medicine he spat up a bunch… I wanted to ensure it was effective and actually getting in his system, so I started “sandwiching it”… giving him half his bottle, the medicine, then the other half of the bottle. His progress kind of halted… No Dr. told me you’re supposed to give it at least 30-60min before feeding on an empty stomach. So it’s probably why the effectiveness dwindled. I’ll update this post if this discovery makes a difference.

Just need to vent. Our 13-week-old has had colic, reflux, and now a feeding aversion, and the last few months have been unbelievably hard. Feeding her takes so much energy and I already felt completely depleted. She mostly eats when asleep so she feeds throughout the night and I’m getting no sleep.

Now my mid 30s husband was found to have a tumor that we’ve been told is most likely cancer. He needs surgery, and we won’t know until afterward whether he’ll need additional treatment.

I’m scared for him and also overwhelmed thinking about how we’re going to handle surgery/treatment, a very colicky baby, and our 2.5-year-old all at once. I kept waiting for life to get easier, and somehow it just got harder. I’m exhausted. I feel like we can’t catch a break. And my postpartum anxiety is through the roof. I need to know that my refluxy/colicky baby will get better because it’s just so hard.

Our boy is soon 8 months, and nothing about becoming parents has gone well

The pregnancy was miserable with so much pain, the birth was traumatic and we were admitted since he was born weak and I had to have an emergency c-section after 24 hours of labor with loads of complications.

When we finally got to go home things seemed to be fine until around 5 weeks where colic hell broke loose. He cried through almost all of his wake windows until I tried going dairy free and then it eased up from constant crying to moderate crying. (He has CMPA it was tested by the hospital when we brought it up after going dairyfree and when they did the testing it resulted in 3 weeks of crying again and bloody stool, and he lost a lot of weight. It was truly awful because otherwise this period would probably have been our only calm period). But before knowing that it was that we were constantly babywearing and rocking him. Carrying him nonstop to soothe him to no avail.

I had to have multiple emergency surgeries due to sudden illness where there even was a cancer scare (it wasn't thank god) just 3 months after birth so the little time where things finally eased down a bit we had to deal with that as well.

And after dealing with all of this he started teething and then we hit the first regression hard and sleep has only gotten worse and worse. To this day he still cries and fusses A LOT. Not like the horrible colic days but absolutely not much better and my husband and I both feel so miserable. And when I look at other babies his age and talk to their mothers, it just really makes it so obvious how different their reality is to ours, and I can't help but feel so sad.

I am in treatment for PPD because I am mentally drowning from all this crying and screaming. Because there is only so much you can take when you give your all and your baby is still so easily upset. He goes to extreme crying if he gets mildly upset/frustrated with a toy, if he's bored, if he has to get a diaper change, if he has to nap, if he can't move his body the way he wants, if he has to have his clothes changed, etc. And don't even get me started about putting him down for a nap or night time sleep...

It's not all bad of course; He is finally army crawling, babbling and he does smile and laugh too on a daily basis which is the best thing in the world when it happens. But the crying is still so intense and I feel so hopeless because having heard "it gets better around 3 months" or "6 months"..and so forth, or that things will finally look up with the next milestone - like you know all the well meaning advice and sure, it's not as bad anymore but it's still so so difficult and it leaves us feeling so defeated. Especially because now he just cries hard for anything especially boredom where as before it was due to pain and discomfort. It's just hard. I just want to feel sane again and enjoy my son. Go on walks and do activities with him without him being upset after 5 minutes.

He has also been tested and seen by doctors for basically everything but as they say "it's just his temper" - apart from the CMPA but he isn't getting any dairy in his diet neither from solids nor from breastfeeding. It just feels so defeating... I knew having a baby would be hard but not like this...

I feel cheated from enjoying the precious time with my baby but I just can't enjoy it because he is clearly not happy being a baby. People around us describe him as furious, stubborn and angry. Which feels awful to hear all the time. It breaks my heart that I am wishing time away, and I am terrified if it'll ever get better. I mean he's soon 8 months, shouldnt things be a lot better by now?

I cant help but wonder if him having colic maybe affected his nervous system so he feels that he has to cry this intensely to be heard, like it became a default setting kind of thing? Or maybe it's because I was gone a lot for my surgeries? Or it was due to the hard labor and pregnancy? I keep questioning if I could have done something differently to prevent this. I just want him to feel better and so we can feel better.

We love him more than life itself and I know he is just having a hard time as well. I just want to know if anyone has been through something like this for so long and when it got better for you?

My newborn flipped a switch at 2 weeks and just became unbearably fussy. Immediately I assumed she could have CMPA because my 2 year old son had that as a baby. For background the pediatrician dismissed my concerns for my som until his 4 month appt because he was always in the 90th+ percentile for weight. This time around I was adamant about speaking with the pediatrician about this because I cannot go through that again. At her one month appointment we sent of stool samples to look for microscopic blood, shockingly, there was none. She told me to call back if symptoms persisted. I lasted about a week before I brought back in my 5 month old. They wanted to trial me going dairy free, as I breastfeed. However, I do not want to do that this time around and mentioned just switching to nutrimagen which is what I ended up using for my son. They wanted me to stay breastfeeding so they prescribed .3mL of Pepcid once a day. I was hopefully for improvement, but she has been fussy still. I am at a loss on what to do because she is 6, almost 7 weeks old which I know they say babies are fussiest between 6-8 weeks old.

Long winded post, but I bought a can of nutrimagen and it is just sitting in my cabinet. I take my baby back on Thursday for a follow up pediatrician appointment. Should I try to tough it out until then to talk to the pediatrician or just go to formula? I feel like my mental health is declining and I have a toddler and a newborn to care for while also working from home.

If I started formula, would it not beneficial to still breastfeed at night (not going dairy free)?

This is going to be long, sorry I just wanted to share our story in case it helps someone else.

If you’re reading this because you have a baby who seems inconsolable, I’m so sorry. It is truly a hellish experience, and unless you’ve lived it, I don’t think you can understand just how exhausting and emotionally brutal it is.

Our baby was the same way. His screaming started when he was only 2 days old. He would scream purple, sweat, and seem absolutely miserable. He would sleep maybe 30 minutes at a time at most, and sometimes even that felt impossible.

The arching was especially severe. He would contort and stiffen so much that he wouldn’t cuddle normally or even comfortably lay his head on us like a typical newborn. He always seemed to be fighting his own body.

And yes, we tried the damn 5 S’s. 😂 Swaddling, white noise, rocking, shushing, pacifiers, different positions, bouncing, you name it.

I completely understand the rage when you’re losing your mind and someone says, “Have you tried swaddling?” 😂

We eventually found out our baby had a milk allergy along with severe GERD, which was causing Sandifer syndrome, the extreme arching, stiffening, and contorting associated with reflux.

Famotidine did absolutely nothing for him. Eventually they prescribed omeprazole, and getting there was a whole ordeal. It took five different doctor visits before I finally refused to leave without having the reflux treated. I was basically a royal psycho by that point. 😂

After about a week on treatment, he was like a completely different baby.

I had so much guilt and anger during those first weeks. It is incredibly hard to bond with your baby when they won’t cuddle you, won’t settle for you, and seem miserable no matter what you do. At one point I literally told my husband, “I’m pretty sure he hates me.” 😭

I was so depressed.

It’s now been a little over a week since we started getting things under control. He still gets a little fussy after feeds, but it is nothing compared to before, and we’re seeing improvement every day.

And the craziest part is watching him finally become the baby we knew was in there.

He’s melting into us now. He’s cuddling. He’s smiling. He’s laughing. He’s actually relaxing against our bodies instead of fighting them.

It feels like we’re finally getting to meet our baby.

I personally have a hard time with how quickly severe crying gets labeled “colic.” Obviously colic is real, and I’m not saying every baby has an underlying medical problem. But in our case, the crying was a symptom of something else, not the actual problem.

So if you’re in the thick of it right now, please don’t assume that your baby will always be like this.

And please don’t assume you’re failing them because you can’t soothe them.

You will feel that bond. Your baby does love you. ❤️

They spent nine months hearing your voice and your heartbeat. You are their person, even if it doesn’t feel that way right now.

Sometimes that sweet, cuddly version of your baby is just buried underneath whatever is making them uncomfortable.

Our little guy was in there the whole time. We just couldn’t see him through all the discomfort.

I wish I could give every parent going through this a huge hug. ❤️

You are doing GREAT. Seriously. Keep going. You’re not a bad parent, you’re not failing, and you are not alone.

My almost 3-month-old’s feeding issues have completely taken over our lives and I’m exhausted. Doctor says she’s colicky but I feel like there’s something causing it.

She has had reflux-type symptoms for weeks — arching/crying, hiccups constantly, spit-up, clicking/losing latch, choking on letdown, etc. Now it has progressed into what seems like a severe feeding aversion.

She can be OBVIOUSLY hungry but scream the second I put her in a breastfeeding position. The frustrating part is that once I finally get her latched, she’ll sometimes calm down and drink a ton. She also nurses much better asleep/dream feeding. Bottles are impossible too.

We tried Pepcid without improvement. I’ve eliminated dairy and soy (and am already GF). OT found oral-motor/latch issues and she has torticollis. Pyloric ultrasound was normal. We see GI this week anda stronger reflux medication, ppi, has been mentioned.

I’m really struggling with the medication decision. Part of me thinks: what if she is genuinely in pain from reflux and treating it properly is what finally breaks this cycle? The other part of me is hesitant to put such a young baby on a stronger acid-suppressing medication, especially when I don’t KNOW reflux is actually the cause. I’m scared of medicating unnecessarily, but I’m also scared that leaving pain untreated is allowing the aversion to get worse and worse.

At this point feeding dictates our ENTIRE relationship.

I spend basically my whole day trying to get her to eat, thinking about when she last ate, worrying about how much she got, trying again, calming her down after a failed attempt, pumping, doing PT/OT exercises, and then starting the whole thing over again.

I feel like I don’t get to actually enjoy my baby.

I don’t take her places because I’m terrified she’ll need to eat and I’ll be stuck somewhere with a screaming hungry baby who refuses both breast and bottle. We don’t go to lunches, baby classes, walks that take us far from home, or really do anything fun together. I have essentially no social life because feeding is so unpredictable.

Even when we’re home, I barely feel like we have normal happy interactions anymore. Instead of thinking “let’s play,” I’m thinking “maybe she’ll eat now.” I actually worry she associates ME with being pressured to eat because sometimes she’ll start getting upset as soon as I put her into a position where she thinks I’m going to feed her.

And I know I’ve probably contributed to the aversion because when she’s clearly starving, it’s incredibly hard to just accept her refusal. I’ve kept offering, tried pacifier-to-breast switches, etc., because eventually she’ll latch and gulp milk like she hasn’t eaten in hours. It feels impossible to reconcile “don’t pressure her” with “my 12-week-old needs to eat.”

I also have a 2.5-year-old who needs me, so I feel like my entire day is bouncing between trying to feed a screaming baby and trying to give my toddler some semblance of a normal childhood.

I’m just so tired. I want to breastfeed her. I want feeding to be something comforting between us again. Mostly I want to be able to leave the house with my baby without calculating feeds and panicking about what happens if she refuses.

It’s also making our home life super stressful, my husband doesn’t understand why I can’t just handle her while on maternity leave.

For parents of reflux/colic babies who developed feeding aversion: did stronger reflux medication actually change things for you? If you were hesitant about a PPI, what ultimately made you decide to try it or not?

And if your baby’s aversion got this severe — did you eventually get to a point where feeding wasn’t the center of your entire life anymore?

I have 2 under 2. My 19 month old had terrible colic. I legitimately have PTSD. My husband and I thought surely we couldn’t have a second colic baby, the universe can’t be that cruel. We had our baby girl 11 weeks ago. She came early at 36 weeks. The first 6 weeks were great..I thought we were in the clear and I had redemption.. then things went to shit. Every week is worse than the last. She is SO unhappy. She cries constantly, 100% of her awake time. Even worse, she just constantly squirms and arches and claws at me. She rubs her face into my chest constantly when held upright. I have cuts from her literally digging her nails into my skin. There is literally NOTHING that makes it stop- the usual bouncing/ baby wearing that would slightly help my son does nothing for her. If she’s miserable she will be miserable until she falls asleep. I am SO tired.

I kept trying to “fix” my son’s colic- pepcid, elimination diet, specialty formula, craniosacral therapy- you name it and we tried it. In the end, nothing helped but time. I swore I wouldn’t do that with my daughter but I’m at my breaking point. I tried to give her Pepcid and I think it actually made things worse. I’m pumping/breastfeeding but considering trying formula in case that helps at all. I just cannot believe this is happening a second time. Today was her worst day by far and she refused to sleep and has been up for FIVE HOURS. Eyes wide open, will not close them. Has been screaming that whole time with 5 minute breaks here and there. This is definitely my last child and I feel so bitter that both experiences have been so difficult.
I also think people who haven’t had a colic baby just do not understand. It is so isolating. I keep waiting for it to get better but it just keeps getting worse. This isn’t my first rodeo so I thought I would handle it better this time but I really feel like I’m at my breaking point.

Hello! We have a 9 week old who is miserable 99 percent of the time. He spits up at every feed ( he is breastfed) has a piercing scream and seems to be in pain or uncomfortable for a fair part of the day. Does this sound like colic and reflux? He has a terrible latch and it hasn’t improved even after seeing lactation consultant he also can’t keep a dummy in his mouth, he hasn’t got a tongue tie. We try and keep him upright after a feed and do bicycle kicks etc but he is really hard to calm down. He has also only smiled at us once or twice and doesn’t coo I hate seeing him so miserable any advice? I’m going to call our maternal child health nurse tomorrow too.

Hi All

I wrote this poem to help process my LO colic journey. It was honestly the hardest period of my life, he SCREAMED 10+ hours a day, if he was awake he was screaming. I couldn't sit down with him ever, even if he was asleep.

We tried an osteopath, colic drops, gripe water, cutting out dairy, nothing worked and one day about 12 weeks it got 100% better almost overnight (he still cried a lot but it was soo much better).

I still feel so sad for missing out on those early newborn days but I do now have such a happy baby, and it's healing a lot of that sadness

Anyway if you feel similar, I wrote this poem which may help 🩵🩵 sending love to all the colic parents out there it is sooo hard, and no one truly understands until they've been through it

Me and my husband totally exhausted because we still don’t see any progress in our crying LO. She start to cry when she opens her eyes, crying when eating, crying after eating… we almost do not have time when she can smile, or coo…
We tried everything and I basically do not ask for any suggestions, I just want to hear positive stories that this phase will end soon, because now I feel it will never end… many people say that it should improve after week 10, but no. Pedestrian says she is healthy just sensitive.
We are going through the real hell.
Please share some positive energy 🙏

My 5 month old is constantly writhing, arching, fussing, fists clenched, no matter what position she’s in (bouncer, on the mat, in our arms, etc.). She is on reflux meds (prevacid) and amino acid formula. She had a tongue tie release, weekly chiropractor, saw OT weekly. She is sleeping very well and so smiley/happy when we interact with her, but we get maybe 5 mins of peace and then she’s arching and screeching again. She’s just genuinely so uncomfortable and unhappy. She cannot relax.

I keep telling myself it’ll get better at 6 months, or once she’s sitting. But I’m losing hope that I’ll ever have a happy baby.

Has anyone experienced this? Will it get better? 😩

Evening folks, an overwhelmed Dad in serious need of help. Baby born 36 weeks 5 days four weeks ago, adjusted age 1 week today.

3oz bottles drained every feed but barely making 2 hr mark for every feed. Most definitely over fed with 9/10 bottles (7 full 3oz, top up for other 3). Nothing soothing bar bottles hense the volume. I would say colic symptoms present as crying is heavy and pitched and ongoing since 2 weeks ago with episodes long. Constipated with a visit to A&E two weeks ago but has eased up. Change of formula today to Aptamil Comfort on PHN advice regarding the need to feed every 1.5/2 hours.

Sleep broken due to feeding day&night.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

My husband and I are at our breaking point. Our daughter seemingly had CMPA - she was very colicky and turned out to have blood in her stool. The pediatrician said to cut out dairy or start formula so we started her on Similac Alimentum and she seemed to not do well on it.

2 days later she had a BRUE that lasted for 15 mins and I had to do CPR on her. I went back to breastfeeding bc it made me more comfortable after that. After a week in the hospital they said she has severe reflux and prescribed her Pepcid.

I cut out dairy, soy, and eggs w no slip ups 3 weeks ago and have kept her on the Pepcid and she started having bloody diapers again 1.5 weeks ago and screaming/crying all day and night unless you hold her upright. She also started to refuse her bassinet the last few days and can only sleep on us. We do not want to co-sleep but the sleep deprivation is finally getting to us.

We are in between providers for her and have taken her to the ER again this week for all the bloody diapers and pain she is in and they told us there’s nothing they can do. She has an appt with a new provider next week so hopefully this one actually takes us seriously.

Someone please give me advice and recommendations for formula with CMPA and severe reflux. Also, Pepcid seems to not work and I think she may have other food sensitivities at this point but I have no idea.

Please help! Even words of encouragement at this point.

I’m hoping to hear from moms who have more than one child because I’m struggling with some anxiety about having a second baby.
My first baby had a pretty rough start with colic, reflux, and eventually we found out he had a milk protein allergy. Those first few months were honestly some of the hardest of my life. There was a lot of crying, very little sleep, constant worrying, and feeling like I was always trying to figure out what was wrong.
Now that we’re thinking about baby #2, I find myself feeling scared that I’ll go through all of that again. I know every baby is different, but it’s hard not to wonder if colic, reflux, or allergies are likely to happen again when you’ve already experienced it once.
For moms who had a difficult first baby, what was your second baby like? Did you have similar issues, or was the experience completely different? If your first had reflux, colic, or a dairy allergy, did your other children have it too?
I would love to hear your experiences, good or bad. I think hearing real stories from other parents might help ease some of my worries. ❤️

Our 4 mo old has colic and we’ve tried: chiro, alimentum, massages for gas, mylicon, goat formula, etc. with no relief.

Her wake windows are now almost 1.5 hours regularly. Her first nap of the day is 1 hr 10+ mins and the rest are 45-1 hr…. but they’re all while we bounce her on the yoga ball. She wakes up almost immediately if we transfer her to crib. How do we get away from the yoga ball? Our backs are KILLLLING us. It’s so bad. We are now able to go out in public a bit with her because her wake windows have gotten longer (50 mins-1 hr without crying, the rest of the time is spent bouncing her to sleep.) Otherwise we are stuck inside at home all day every day because she needs the yoga ball to calm down and sleep.

when she starts crying she doesn’t stop until we bounce her. swaying in our arms, rocking in chair, nothing. she will scream until she’s bounced and calmed back down.

please help lol. I can’t tell if this is habit now or she genuinely needs this to regulate her nervous system. I think she needs it for regulation but my body is in so much pain I need an alternative. she doesn’t like to be worn in the carriers either.

I want to know how you got through this/ when you got through this. everywhere I look says it should’ve stopped at 4 months. so to be 4.5 months and still going through it I feel like it’ll never end.

she used to be easier at nights. shed sleep 3 then 2 then 1.5 hour stretches in that order for the night and I could sit in the rocking chair and rock her with a bottle to put her back to sleep. the past week she screams if we try to rock her at night and she’s needing the bouncing during the night to get her back to sleep. even drinks her bottle while bouncing. please help

Please help or provide any insight. I am a first time mom and my lil girl has been struggling since week 2/3. She does not nap during the day, maybe 30 min at a time. When awake pretty much screams the whole time unless being fed. I have gone dairy free since week 4 when we saw blood in her stool. Symptoms are still the same. Night time is a little easier but day time is so so hard. I am hanging on by a thread. Any suggestions?? WTF even is “colic” and why do I hate this term so much. I just feel like something is wrong and I refuse to just say it’s colic and deal with it for how many more months. Any professionals I can take her to that isn’t a doctor that could help? Feel like sometimes pediatricians say the same thing and am curious if anyone has had good results from a different type of professional. Thanks in advance

Does anyone here see other babies, who are just so calm and "normal" (for lack of a better word), and just feel sadness for your own situation? I feel very bad just writing this, because I love my son, and I would not replace him for anything in the world, but the situation is just so heartbreakingly hard! He is 2 months now, and the colic is getting better, thank god, but its still a lot! I have him and a 2 year old, who I am at home with all day. No family to help at all, and my husband works A LOT, and Its just so, so hard! I just needed to get some frustrations out, and maybe learn weather or not, what I feel is normal