6 Week Baby .... Grunting and Straining to Poop/Pass Gas .... is this normal?

Natasha, try changing your diet a little and see if there are some things that set this off. Citrus , caffeine and onions come to mind (it was a while back!). Try a bland diet for a while and see if there are changes. If so, then re-introduce foods slowly.

I am a firm believer in (and all the major medical bodies AAP, WHO etc also recommend) on-cue feeding, as in feeding when baby is hungry not by the clock, especially if breastfeeding, so long as you are confident with knowing hunger cues and giving her ample opportunities to nurse then keep with that. (i.e don't wait for her to cry before you feed her) I suspect that she hasn't quite settled into a day/night routine, or should I say she has a natural routine, but it doesn't quite match up with the day/night one you want. I don't think you should aim for scheduled naps, the literature suggest that babies are ready for scheduled naps from about 4 months,(although I'm not into "training" or "forcing" at any point really) but I do think its really important not to let your baby get overtired and I think new parents often do, trying to entertain an unsettled baby instead of seeing that they need to sleep. I think there is a window where they will settle easily and if you miss that it can be quite difficult to calm them down. All babies are different so I can only make suggestions you might like to consider, I think that she seems to have 2 naturally sleepy phases, one in the late afternoon and one from around midnight. It also sounds like she is maybe not eating a lot in the afternoons? She needs to BF 8-10 times in a 24 hour period, ideally you'd like most of those feeds to take place between 6am and midnight :) or even better between 7am and 10pm :) :). I wonder if she is trying to clusterfeed in the 9pm-12pm period instead? I would try skipping the evening bath and starting the soothing process a bit sooner, when she wakes keep the rom dark and don't "entertain her" (but obviously do feed and soothe her), so that she is getting clear cues on the difference between day and night. Maybe try waking her by 9am if she isn't up already, you def need to go to bed earlier than midnight yourself though and start having some naps by day too. It is still very early days and she is still finding her way, I think you can gently nudge her towards more appropriate sleep times (day and night). She might be fine with the 2 hour awake times but tbh that is quite a long time up for such a young baby, perhaps try putting her down for her naps earlier (start soothing after she's been awake for around 45 minutes, so she is asleep by 90 minutes awake) and see if you can encourage some extra feeds during that time too. (NB by "start soothing" I mean a gradual wind-down, let things get less stimulating, gradually begin the sleep cues (cuddles, boob, dummy, white noise, swaddle etc ....whatever you are using) always factor in the amount of time it takes her to get to sleep as part of her "awake" time. Sorry if that is very rambly too, have a monster head-cold at the moment and struggling to formulate sentences You'll get there :) I think the 6 week mark is the hardest point.xx

Hi ladies, I was taught a sequence by my doula and this really helped with my twins as they were both very colicky in the first 3 months - bear with me as it's difficult to explain ( tried to google some images and i got some that are not EXACTLY the same but close enough), but here we go: Do this sequence with baby with diapers only. Sep 1- Stand up. Hold the baby like this (while standing up), with both hands on baby's lower belly, baby's legs hanging down. http://www.doggienanny.com/ukrainefamilyconnections/images/kris-images/Kristinawbaby-sm.jpg Count to 20. Step 2- Put one hand on baby's feet and bend them up, bringing baby's back to rest on your chest (other hand remains on belly) Let go of the belly's hand (other hand holding baby firmly against your chest) and massage baby's bottom in an outward motion. Count to 20. Hold baby's belly again Let go of baby's feet, going back to 1st position, both hands on baby's belly, feet hanging down. Repeat a few times. Do this twice a day. Hope it helps!!! MoT

I've already cut down on dairy products, but I do have a single cup of tea everyday. Interestingly, he doesn't strain as much at night, but always first thing in the morning! In fact, he hasn't gone at all since last evening...is that normal too?

She is 6 weeks old, to be honest even 10 minutes of "playing" is probably too much, they don't really need to "play" at this age, just being held and talked to is their 'active" time. I'm guessing she is getting over stimulated and over tired and then is too wired to sleep. Its normal to wake every 3-4 hours at night at that age, she needs feeding that often None of what you have described sounds like colic, (if you are talking gastric distress) apart from the unsettled evening, but it sounds like she is well overtired by 11, normally at 4 weeks they can't handle being awake for longer than 60-90 minutes at a time . Maybe you are missing the tired signs, its easy to do especially in the beginning. Being VERY awake is generally a sign over overtiredness. I think her day and night are still a bit mixed up still, you might need to wake her in the morning and out into some sunlight to get the day started. Also at 6 weeks(ish) they go through a bit of an unsettled stage, lasts about 2 weeks. <em>edited by kiwispiers on 14/11/2011</em>

dramaqn has gd advice. My LO is now 3 months and up til about 2.5 months she grunted and grunted. Always looked like she was straining. I actually went so far as to videotape it for my pediatrician and she said it was normal. Dont worry, it will pass shortly.

If you are breastfeeding you could consider what you are eating too. I found I could not eat spicy food and I avoided caffeine, other mums have found success cutting out dairy and/or wheat. Also I used to sit DS up right after a breastfeed and he often pooped then. After the first few weeks they learn day from night and stop pooping at night :).

My 4-week old does the same thing, almost all day :( I tried the gripe water remedy too, but it only seems to give temporary relief. How long will this phase continue? I'm worried because I think it is interfering with his sleep as he wakes up straining after only 20-30 mins of going to sleep.

You might try to burp LO during BF or right after - try to keep bubs for good 4-5 minutes upright and patting her back gently. Hiccups and spitting might happen because she swallows air during feeds. All the air that doesn't come up :) goes down later :D If she is not colicky, no need for gripe water :) and yes, all of the described by you is normal for LOs :)

tummy time and massage are both good ways to help work the gas through them, try after her bath.

You're right, its totally normal for them to get very red faced and strainy when they poo and fart, doesn't actually even mean discomfort and you don't need to give gripe water for this at all (and gripe waters are generally not recommended if you can avoid them as ideally you want to keep your baby exclusively breastfed and not mess with the "ecosystem" of her bowel by introducing anything else). The hiccuping and spitting up is also completely normal and a large number of babies do this. You might find giving her a break between sides (ie splitting her feeds) helps as it is partly related to over-eating/tummy being too full but really, its just normal and she will grow out of it. I found if I burped my wee guy just before a feed it helped some, but he was very spilly until around the 4 month mark. HTH