Crying daily at 5pm for hours.. Advice please

[Strawbs]

Hi

My 7 week old has started in the last couple of weeks to scream for 3 hours at 5pm daily.. I can set my clock by it!!

There is no consoling him.. Singing, rocking, dark room, pushed in pram, even more food - he is normally so worked up he won't take it..

Any thoughts please?

Ps he has very bad reflux, he is on medication etc..

[jennyh]

You poor thing, its horrid having a hysterically crying newborn. No real experience myself but from what I've read it sounds like colic maybe? Always tends to come on around this age and at this time of day I think. Does he pull his legs up towards his chest? Perhaps google colic and do a check of his symptoms, otherwise many more on here will be able rooster their experiences when the world wakes up!!! If smut is then I've heard good things about cranial osteopathy which they do at Dulwich therapy rooms amongst other places. Otherwise over the counter stuff like gripe water and infacol could help. I believe it can help by doing bycicle leg movements on his legs whilst he's lying down, but again not 100% sure.

The only other thing - my friends baby did this same thing around 6 weeks and believed it was colic. After they looked at the rest of his behaviour though they saw that he wasn't napping well in the day and as a result was desperately tired come late afternoon hence the hours of screaming and no ability to console. They somehow made sure he was napping well during the day and ensured that was a priority and the afternoon/eve crying stopped. Does he sleep well in the day?

Well done with what you're doing though and good luck. Sure others will add to this and you'll find something that helps.

[jennyh]

Excuse typos, 4.30am and only one eye open plus iPhone touch pad, enough said. :)

[Fuschia]

It sounds like what gets called colic (ie nobody really knows why)

Google Harvey Karp on YouTube

Some very good techniques for baby soothing and his book happiest bSby on the block is much recommended for colicky babies

Also cranial osteopathy, yes

I do sympathise

BSby no 1 had miserable evenings

Are you bf? X

[bluesuperted]

Second recommendation for Harvey Karp and also sling wearing baby as much as possible during colicky time and also during the day - we only had a few colicky nights but those two combined sorted it. So upsetting to listen to an inconsolable newborn so do hope it gets better soon x

[Yak]

Ugh how horrible for you all. If it is colic, I have a brand new unopened bottle of colief that you are welcome to. We never ended up using it ain the end but it costs about 11quid a pop and I'd hate to see it go to waste! If it does work then you can get gp to prescribe it for you.

I second recommendation for lots of sling wearing. Also playing music.....it distracts both of you.

Lots of you tube videos of baby massage etc etc.

This too shall pass; let's hope it does so quickly! X

[MrsC]

Poor you, if any consolation if finishes as quick as it starts but I know exhausting when going through it. I had this with my son (who also had reflux) it might be colic might just be the baby 'witching hour' which always starts at about this time and leaves them very unsettled (no one seems to know why?).

What really helped us was white noise, seemed to interrupt his crying - we downloaded onto ipod from here http://www.babywhitenoise.com/ and ended up using it for months as we were convinced this was the cure to his crying so didn't want to stop!

Also we reintroduced a swaddle at this stage and that seemed to help, but also like others have said a sling/baby carrier (and for us running up and down the staires as he liked the movement!) seemed to calm him.

Good luck and it will pass! x

[BB100]

My son did this but he didn't have colic. I found splashing water on his face helped but I still don't know why. Just a suggestion to try when all else fails.

[Mathilda]

There's also a theory that around 5-6 weeks the baby suddenly becomes aware of surroundings and by the end of the day can be overwhelmed / overloaded until they gradually adjust. My daughter cried a lot in the evenings at this age but it was just a phase and decreased quite quickly. Can't think of any tips really...good luck!

[willjac]

My son had exactly the same. Started around 7 weeks and then the moment he turned 13 weeks it stopped. In those really tough 3 hours in of constant crying we would get in the bath with him & that provided a small window of relief. Sometimes it was 2 baths a night!! Also the crying would stop when the hair dryer was on for a small period of time. It may seem like its forever at the time but they do seem to come out the other side as quickly as it all started. Good luck!

[Belle]

It depends what he's doing (is he rigid/pulling legs up/arching back or straining his neck?) but cd poss be linked to the reflux. are the meds otherwise working? My 12 week old has had a terrible time with reflux and before the meds kicked in we had evenings like this, was def the reflux as was as particular pain cry rather than overtiredness/basic wind (though of course he gets those too like any baby). It has def got better...plenty time in sling will def help as calms plus helps with being upright.

whatever the cause, it is sooo hard listening to your baby cry for literally hours and not being able to find a way to soothe them - totally sympathise.

[busymum]

my 1st used to do this as well but right from birth, but it wasn't colic, everyone said it was the "witching hour" what ever that means. Basically (from what I can remember) she would just get really over tired from 5 and go a bit bonkers. With our 1st baby our rule of thumb was simply that she should never be awake for more than 1.5 hours because she just got over tired. The 2nd baby was totally different, didn't really seem to need the same amount of sleep. They are all so different.

Is there anyway you could squeeze in a quick nap just before 5pm, this might work.

[Saffron]

Have you considered an Amby Baby Hammock to help with the reflux? Maybe when the reflux improves a little, you'll see an overall improvement that will carry over to the evening. Evenings are tough for a lot of babies, for too many reasons to count. Hope it gets better soon. xx

[sian]

Have you tried the herbal tea recommended to prevent colic in breastfed babies. Sorry dont know how you are feeding and no judgments of any sort on feeding methods. Chemist on Herne hill sells. Helped with our youngest/ Hope this eases soon. It is so distressing. Also highly recommend cranial osteopathy

[candj]

Sorry haven't thoroughly read all posts. Could be colic but could also be overtiredness. My youngest would cry every day at 4.30-5pm to the point of also setting a clock to it. I gave him all the tummy soothing stuff recommended for colic and it didn't help. I finally realised he was just over tired from the day and would take him into darker/calmer room away from bustle of household (ie, two other LOUD children) and bf him and he would calm down and fall asleep. Happened around the 6-8 week mark. Also agree that this time is the 'witching' hour for chiildren.

[crystal7]

What others have said re tiredness/being overstimulated. My oh often used to come back from work to find me bouncing baby on exercise ball in the dark with the hoover on! My daughter never really slept longer than 30 min at a time in the day so must have been exhausted by 5. 9 wk old has longer sleeps and doesn't have this witching hour at the moment- long may it continue! Hope it improves for you soon.

[Strawbs]

Hi everyone.. Sorry for the late I struggle to get on here most days now. I went and got some colief and a dr brown bottle and amazingly he hasn't screamed since! I've now had two 5-8 times pass and not a peep.. He is sleeping better (albeit is asleep on me right now in the nursery as I rock on the rocking chair..

Thanks for all of your advice, I was getting beside myself especially as my other half isn't home til after 8 so was battling it alone..

I'm assuming as the drops and bottle have made such a difference it must have been colic? He is off to an injection tomorrow so I'm hoping to get a script for colief for him..

I was Breastfeeding up until a couple of weeks ago but have had to switch him to SMa stay down formula for his reflux.. I cried a lot but he is so much happier on the formula..

We are on our second lot of meds now, tablets so nightmare to administer and they said they would take up to two weeks to work and then we would have "a good two weeks before it then suddenly gets a lot worse" and I have to increase his dose.. Whilst obviously not cured I have seen an improvement.. Went and brought 8 dr brown bottles today which he likes..

Sorry I can't reference anyone as doing this one handed on my iPhone

X

[Belle]

are the tablets omeprazole mups? we had them but asked GP if could have the suspension instead - expected a no as it's extremely expensive apparently - and was no problem at all. baby doesn't like it any better but at least a bit easier to administer...worth asking if it is the same drug? we still keep some of the mups eg for when we're away as easier to transport (suspension has to be kept in the fridge).

Also - we were prescribed nutrimigen formula (dairy free) - wasn't tested for cow's milk protein intolerance but apparently even without this some reflux babies tolerate nutrimigen/equivalents better than cows or goats milk based formula. It's def helped. Worth considering if you feel you're not getting much improvement in the next few weeks. Sorry if this is all stuff that's been considered...just that I posted on here about reflux and got so much help (worth looking for the thread) and so would like to pass on my help now in turn!

x

[Fuschia]

Colief works by part digesting the lactose (it's based on lactase) so perhaps he is lactose intolerant?

[toast]

Been there, hope it settles down with some of the tips above, in the mean time my advice is lots of kisses and cuddles and ear plugs are not cheating!

[Goodliz]

Yes, sounds like colic. My first was like that from the day we brought him back from hospital. Usually passes at about 12 weeks - seems like ages when you are living through it every night though! You have my sympathy. We found turning hairdryer on for a bit of white noise helped and the baby stopped crying.

By number 2 we were wiser and we would take it in turns to put the baby in the pram and go for evening walks down Lordship Lane and around and about - feels like the last thing you want to do with a newborn but it really did help to get out of the house. Crying does not seem as bad when you are out.

Good luck. The colic stuff works too like infracol. Apparently they call weeks 1-12 the 4th trimester. They say the baby cannot hold it's spine straight or something so wind gets trapped and caused immense pain - poor little things.

xxxx

[????]

Unfortunately it does sound like colic and with all due respect those who haven't had a colicky baby have no idea how relentless and stressfull this is. One of our three had it and yes the other two had the witching hour and got burpy and restless and cried towards the end of the day and sometimes screamed BUT our little girl, who was absolutely fine for the first 4 weeks, would start getting restless about 2-3pm and from 4pm at the latest scream relentlessly until about 7pm. We got so stressed tried loads of different things like infacol,different patterns, cranial oste, etc sadly none of these worked FOR US and, as Goodliz said we found just going out for a walk for 2 hours plus was the best solution - we both got very fit (luckily I was at home)and ran out of local walks! Literrally on 12 weeks (almost to the day) it just stopped! Do your best, try things but don't beat yourself up, it's not anything you are doing wrong and it will stop!

Best wishes Quids

[Strawbs]

Thanks everyone, I feel reassured and not so alone!!

If anyone ever fancies a coffee I'm happy to buy youone for all the help you give me on here x