Any advice to help a windy baby?

I think you count it as constipation based on how the poo looks, rather than how often your baby goes. Its normal for an EBF baby to only poo once a week (or longer, for my guy from about 10 weeks it was very 8-9 days, until we started solids) but its also normal if an EBF baby goes daily. I think there are different "guidelines" when a baby is FF, but again, look to the poo more than the timing. Grunty red- strainy faces when pooping are not an issue at all but crying etc isn't really normal. Burping for us was best achieved by a variation or the torso-twist below. We would sit DS up and rock his upper buddy in a circle, a bit like a sitting down hula dance. If no burp we would lie him flat on his back and sit him up a few times. Another thing to consider is at 6 weeks most babies reach a peak in unsettled behaviour anyway, so it might not be due to the formula, or to gas, constipation etc at all. She might be going through a growth spurt and be a bit hungrier than usual, want to cluster feed etc. My DS def had an unsettled week or two around the 6 week mark (right when MIL came to stay which was less than ideal :( ) and he was EBF the whole time. So you might find in a week or two things have settled back down regardless.

Kts 2 small tips I can offer... Hope they help. The first is that I learned from one of the books I read that an easy way to get a stuck burp up is: hold your baby facing you in a sitting upright position. Gently twist the upper torso about 30-45 degrees left, hold for a couple of seconds and then bring round to the right. And repeat about 2 or 3 times. This is meant to help the burp up by working on the diaphragm. Can't remember exactly where I read this I think it was one of the supernanny lady's books. Anyway it used to work for my little girl when nothing else did. The other thing is an old home remedy to help things out the other end :). Lie your baby down on her back and push her knees up against her chest (the same way you would if you were huggin your knees). Hold for a few seconds and then release and repeat about 5-10 times. Worked so well for the little lady that sometimes she'd start fire before I was done! ;) Don't be afraid to put a little pressure.

I'm with Kiwi on this one (cow's milk protein) as my DD had very bad problems with formula (we tried seven different brands) until putting her onto S26HA when she was about 4 months old. Imagine, it took us 4 months to find the right formula for her and she was suffering quite badly with gas and had silent reflux at the same time. I also couldn't BF despite wanting to.

If you'd like to try getting her back on the breast its definitely not too late and there are lactation consultants who can be a tremendous help with this. If you want to keep expressing then buying/borrowing a good quality double pump will save you a lot of time and you may find you get better letdown too, there is also a donor breastmilk program in UAE but I don't know much about how you access it. She is [i'>unlikely[/i'> to be lactose intolerant (there is lactose in breastmilk too) but she may have an issue with cows milk protein in which case she would need to move to a hydrolyzed formula. They taste pretty different so you might want to try sooner than later as older babies often reject the taste. There are lots of other bits and pieces in formula that can upset their tummies so it might be a matter of working your way through a few (giving each one a few weeks). Probiotics can also be helpful for tummy upsets in general. As far as relieving gas, a warm bath and a tummy massage is great, lots of tummy time and a good kick helps them work it out, laying her on her back and moving her legs in a bicycle motion. As they get older they move more and have much less of a problem with trapped gas. Don't blame yourself for breastfeeding not working out, but do seek help if you think you want to bring back your supply, even just a little breast milk will be great for her.

The first few weeks are so, so tough - I completely sympathise, and it is difficult to say what is happening from a post, but from what you have said, these are my thoughts.... I think in your first couple of weeks, there are lots of nappy changes, so the 4-5 a day is quite normal in the beginning - and I wouldn't necessarily say the reduction in her frequency of dirty nappies is due to the change from breastmilk to formula, it is just her body functions regulating. Breastfed babies actually produce less poo nappies, because breastmilk is a far more effecient nutritionally, and therefore far less waste is generated and therefore less nappies. So my DS (100% express breastmilk) only had a poo nappy every 3-4 days when he was a baby, and this was completely normal for him - he was not demonstrating any signs of discomfort when he was trying to go the toilet, so wasn't constipated. I think people seem to worry that if they are not going once a day, this is definitely constipation, and this isn't the case in a small baby. So, it may not be that she is both constipated and struggling with wind (although she could be) She should be quite a windy baby, which does happen with bottle fed babies because of the air in the bottle, which clearly you don't have when they are drinking from a breast. DS was bottle fed - although 100% expressed breastmilk for the first 9-10months, and therefore in the beginning, it became quite an artform establishing how to best burp him. He didn't need to just burp once, he needed several burps. He had positions that worked best for him, sitting up on my knee, with my hand on his chest and rubbing his back did not work, propping him up on my shoulder did, tiger in a tree (you will need to google a picture for that one!) worked sometimes as well. RE: the expressing, it is really, really hard (and very timeconsuming) work. Your body produces as much breastmilk as you need for your baby, in order to trigger the production of milk (and for your body to know how much you need), your have to get rid of it (either through the baby drinking it directly - the most effecient method) or through an expressing machine. If you don't use it, your body doesn't produce it, which is why you are only getting 50mls a time. I can't remember how much I was expressing at 6 weeks, but my 'guess' would be I would have been expressing around 8 times day (at regular intervals) for between 45 mins to an hour each time (even during the night) to ensure I was producing enough milk for DS. Once you start subsituting in formula, your body starts producing less because you aren't using what it is producing... Unless you start to increase the frequency and duration of your expressing, it will continue to deplete until it stops completely. There is no right or wrong as to whether you continue expressing, but hopefully that gives you a guideline of what you need to be doing if you are expressing. At 6 weeks, I would probably have someone to come and see you and assess exactly what is going on to give you some peace of mind. I didn't do this with DS, and really regret that I struggled along on my own trying to guess what is going on... I am pregnant and about to have No 2, so I will definitely be getting in touch with someone if I have any issues. One of the people that is regularly recommended on here is Cecile de Scaly (I think that is her name) - I have had a few friends use her and say she is very good, and this is who I will be contacting if I have any issues. Your paed is great for any medical issues, but when it comes to these types of 'behaviour/comfort/routine' issues, I would suggest someone like Cecile to come to your home (I think she does visits) to sit down and talk with you, and go through what is and isn't working, it could be quite a simple technique that she can show you or suggest, that will reduce you having to use infacol, gripe water or change your formula. I am sure others will have suggestions, but, it does get better, I know it seems really hard at the moment, but it will pass! <em>edited by TanyaR on 18/01/2012</em>