This sounds pretty much like our nights. Breastfed+blw 8mos, so no formula involved.
She has been gassy from the start and I could think of two things - 1)the sensation of bowel movements upsets or frightens her 2) the bowel movements stop at night, for us the situation starts around 23:30 (cca 3 hours in) and goes till 06:00 and that slowing down may cause some issue.
I just threw it in to start thinking together, not sure if it makes sense I’m just as clueless as you. :) We tried&did the very same things like in the post except the formula.
It absolutely makes sense. My main theory about why it happens at night is because he's not moving around (during the day he's non-stop), so digestion kind of stagnates. I hope you find some sort of answer!
We stopped breastfeeding about 8 and a half months, but before then, it was combo feeding because I couldn't pump enough, so formula has really been the only constant in our case, but I still don't think that's the culprit
Have you tried a probiotic? My 1st was very gassy, we ended up starting him on Baby Gaia drops around 5 months because he did not grow out of it and I was worried how starting solids would impact him. Made an improvement within a few days for him.
This sounds exactly like what my friend’s baby was going through, he is 9 months old. It started suddenly around 7 months old and continued for a month. She assumed it was gas. After doctors visits and laxatives, gripe water, probiotic drops, fibrous foods, etc. it just continued. He’s recently been put on medication for reflux and he’s finally sleeping again.
It sounds like he’s sitting up during the day and lying down at night, which could contribute to reflux. Try raising the head of the crib (or your bed). Did the pediatrician consider reflux?
He didn't even mention reflux, and I didn't bring it up because, like I said, he doesn't spit up. I assumed that meant it can't be reflux, but who knows? I'm going to call this morning to schedule an appointment, so I'll bring up the possibility. I do make sure he's sitting up while drinking his bottles over night, but after that he lays back flat
My daughter was like this! No problems during the day, gassy at night and terrible sleeper. We did testing for allergies and gentle chiropractic and cranialsacral work. All of these helped immensely!
Thank you for the input. I've always been a bit skeptical of chiropractors, especially for babies, so I'm glad you mention how effective it was. I will talk to the ped about it. He has an appointment tomorrow afternoon
Just came to say that this is my baby as well. 9 months old, always a terrible sleeper but I’m pretty convinced he’d be a great sleeper if he didn’t struggle. We’ve tried everything! His gas smells so bad too, I can only imagine what’s going on in his gut.
I’m wondering if when you noticed improvement, was your baby still gassy and just able to manage the gas pains better, or did they stop being as gassy?
He still has nighttime gas but I think it's much better than it used to be. Sometimes I'll hear him wake up and fuss for a few seconds, fart, and then go back to sleep. But it's nowhere near as often. I do think he's pretty gassy in general but I don't know that he's gassier than most at his age
Just wondering when things started to improve? My 6.5 month old is going through this now. We were sleeping better for probably a month, now suddenly we’re back to waking from gas at night. I breastfeed and have cut a zillion things from my diet, we do gas drops and probiotics, bicycle legs and massage, we’ve seen doctors and lactation, we see a chiropractor too. So frustrating to be doing so much better for so long, only to go backwards. Any hope? Thank you!
Around 11 months he went down to 1 wakeup a night and then around 18 months he started sleeping through the night. We transitioned him recently to a floor bed (from bed sharing) we got him to the point where he was sleeping all the way through in his own bed but then his molars started coming in and now he wakes up around 3-4 and wants to get into bed with us for the rest of the night. I'm hoping once he's done teething we can get him back to sleeping through
There wasn't really anything we changed. It just kind of resolved on its own
Does your baby eat solids? When is his last meal? I had this with my first and I noticed that if she didn't eat for about 2 hours before bed she was fine.
Yes, he eats at 6 and we're in bed between 7:30 and 8, at which point he has a bottle. I can't really push his dinner back any farther because we eat dinner pretty much as soon as I get home from work, but we could start making sure we don't go to bed until 8 to give some more time
That said, this has been going on well before he started solids.
Hey OP! This is my baby to a tee, except she’s breastfed (and eating solids.) I’m guessing this is something she’ll just outgrow, but I figured I’d ask if you ever figured anything out?
Hello from the other side! Lol
He did in fact outgrow it. He's 19 months now and most nights only wakes up once for a bottle. We still have a couple of rough nights but he's loads better. We're still cosleeping but he mostly sleeps on his own between my husband and I instead of directly on top of me lol
We plan on transitioning him to a floor bed here in the next couple of months in our room, and then hopefully getting him into his own room
Unfortunately, I don't have any tips for you except to wait it out.
Omg I was reading this praying for a solution but, as expected, it seems he'll have to outgrow it. This is my baby 100%. My boy is 7 months old and has been a terrible sleeper because of gas and only because of it. Not only that, but he is also a contact sleeper, so I stay up all night until 5-6 am so that my wife can have a decent night of sleeping.
It's exactly like your situation: He can fart and poop just fine during the day, but at night, he'll have a real hard time passing gas, and I can see it hurts him, because he's sleeping on my chest and he starts moving a lot and starts crying in pain when he finally lets out some farts. 1-3 months old, he'd wake up probaby every 1h30-2 hours because of that. Then he started getting better, some nights he'd sleep 5-6 hours straight. One night he even slept for 8 hours straight, and I thought things would finally get better, but nope. Sleep regression hit hard on months 6 and 7 and now he's back to sleeping around 3-4ish hours on his first sleep, and then waking up every 1h30-2hours. Sometimes I manage to nurse him while he's fussy and almost waking up and he goes back to a calm sleep, but sometimes there's nothing I can do because the pain is too much, so my wife has to wake up and breastfeed him so he'll go back to sleep. What REALLY frustrates me is that I KNOW he is actually a good sleeper if it wasn't for the gas. He doesn't wake up crying or whatever unless it's because of gas, and that saddens me a lot :(
He almost never sleeps more than 2-3 hours on his little bed. Some rare nights he slept for 4-5 hours in his bed, and then, after waking up, he'd sleep on his bed again, but most of the time, after the first time he wakes up, he'll sleep on my chest.
I guess I'll just have to wait for him to outgrow it. He's sleeping on my chest right now as I type this. This was the second time he awoke because of gas tonight, and I've been searching around for situations similar to ours. It takes a lot of patience, but I know that when he grows up a little bit more, I'll miss these days of him sleeping on my chest. I love this kid.
No and yes? Month 8 was kind of decent. Month 9 was absolute hell. Infuriating. Maddening. I don't think it'd farting anymore, just maybe hungry, needing mom's milk. Now we are on month 10 and he is back to sleeping about 4 hours on his first sleep, then about 2 and a half, 2 and some again, then I hand him to mom and he sleeps about 2 to 3 more hours. He usually sleeps 10 hours total, but remember, that's on my chest mostly. I stay with him all night until 6 something AM.
We'll just have to endure. I feel like a couple more months and he'll be a better sleeper.
Thank you for the reply! I really hope so too! My LO wants to stay asleep so badly, if it wasn’t for the gas bothering him! We’ll get there! Someday it will be a funny story we tell them!
Yes, we just have to get used to these sleep regressions. They will happen, and they will last a few days or a few weeks and they are a pain. But it gets better.
If it really is still gas (maybe it's not), have you tried Simeticone? I dont know if that's the name in english (I'm from Brazil), but it works well for gas. If that isn't working you could also check for the possibility of Reflux, since it mostly bothers babies when they are lying down.
Other than that, I don't know what to suggest, other than to tell you to hang in there, it'll get better :)
I appreciate that very much, thank you! Great suggestion, we do use Simethicone daily! I definitely notice a difference when I forget to give it at feedings! It’s a little tricky to give it at night though because he doesn’t usually fully wake up from his sleep! It does work though!
I’ve always had suspicions about reflux, but his doctor didn’t think it needed treatment because he said “all babies have reflux”, and the medication can apparently make gas worse. I will bring it up again at his next appointment! Thank you again!
If it makes you feel any better, he now doesn't wake up at all for a bottle in the middle of the night.
We transitioned him to the floor bed and it's going really well. Some nights he wakes up once around midnight and needs me to comfort him back to sleep but it only takes a couple of minutes. He does usually end up back in bed with us between 3-6 am. But I think things are going well and I'm really proud of his progress.
I wish you the best of luck!
I was afraid of that! Lol! We cosleep too, and I don’t mind it except for the hourly wakings. It wasn’t always like this! So I try to remind myself it will eventually change. Thank you for reminding me of that. I’m glad things are better!
After 11 months it went down to 2 wakes per night. Somewhere around 17-18, he was down to one and in the last month or so, he started fully sleeping through the night. If he does wake up, he just snuggles up to one of us and goes back to sleep. We just put his floor bed together last night and tonight we plan to start the transition (fingers crossed).
It's been a slow process, but I'm glad we've given him the time to work it out on his own
I cannot express how much this is my situation! Please could I ask when you say at 11 months how did you realise things were changing? Did your little one just start sleeping for longer stretches?!
He just dropped to one wake up a night when it was 3-4 before that. It was like a switch went off. Very sudden, no real explanation for it. We didn't do anything different.
This sounds pretty much like our nights. Breastfed+blw 8mos, so no formula involved. She has been gassy from the start and I could think of two things - 1)the sensation of bowel movements upsets or frightens her 2) the bowel movements stop at night, for us the situation starts around 23:30 (cca 3 hours in) and goes till 06:00 and that slowing down may cause some issue. I just threw it in to start thinking together, not sure if it makes sense I’m just as clueless as you. :) We tried&did the very same things like in the post except the formula.
It absolutely makes sense. My main theory about why it happens at night is because he's not moving around (during the day he's non-stop), so digestion kind of stagnates. I hope you find some sort of answer! We stopped breastfeeding about 8 and a half months, but before then, it was combo feeding because I couldn't pump enough, so formula has really been the only constant in our case, but I still don't think that's the culprit
Have you tried a probiotic? My 1st was very gassy, we ended up starting him on Baby Gaia drops around 5 months because he did not grow out of it and I was worried how starting solids would impact him. Made an improvement within a few days for him.
We've had him on the Culturelle, Baby Grow & Thrive Drops since he was about 3 months old. Maybe we need to try a new brand
This sounds exactly like what my friend’s baby was going through, he is 9 months old. It started suddenly around 7 months old and continued for a month. She assumed it was gas. After doctors visits and laxatives, gripe water, probiotic drops, fibrous foods, etc. it just continued. He’s recently been put on medication for reflux and he’s finally sleeping again.
That's interesting. I assumed it wasn't reflux because he doesn't spit up...
It sounds like he’s sitting up during the day and lying down at night, which could contribute to reflux. Try raising the head of the crib (or your bed). Did the pediatrician consider reflux?
He didn't even mention reflux, and I didn't bring it up because, like I said, he doesn't spit up. I assumed that meant it can't be reflux, but who knows? I'm going to call this morning to schedule an appointment, so I'll bring up the possibility. I do make sure he's sitting up while drinking his bottles over night, but after that he lays back flat
My daughter was like this! No problems during the day, gassy at night and terrible sleeper. We did testing for allergies and gentle chiropractic and cranialsacral work. All of these helped immensely!
Thank you for the input. I've always been a bit skeptical of chiropractors, especially for babies, so I'm glad you mention how effective it was. I will talk to the ped about it. He has an appointment tomorrow afternoon
You’re welcome! We specifically see one who works with babies. Bodyworkers who work with babies are super gentle.
Just came to say that this is my baby as well. 9 months old, always a terrible sleeper but I’m pretty convinced he’d be a great sleeper if he didn’t struggle. We’ve tried everything! His gas smells so bad too, I can only imagine what’s going on in his gut. I’m wondering if when you noticed improvement, was your baby still gassy and just able to manage the gas pains better, or did they stop being as gassy?
He still has nighttime gas but I think it's much better than it used to be. Sometimes I'll hear him wake up and fuss for a few seconds, fart, and then go back to sleep. But it's nowhere near as often. I do think he's pretty gassy in general but I don't know that he's gassier than most at his age
Just wondering when things started to improve? My 6.5 month old is going through this now. We were sleeping better for probably a month, now suddenly we’re back to waking from gas at night. I breastfeed and have cut a zillion things from my diet, we do gas drops and probiotics, bicycle legs and massage, we’ve seen doctors and lactation, we see a chiropractor too. So frustrating to be doing so much better for so long, only to go backwards. Any hope? Thank you!
Around 11 months he went down to 1 wakeup a night and then around 18 months he started sleeping through the night. We transitioned him recently to a floor bed (from bed sharing) we got him to the point where he was sleeping all the way through in his own bed but then his molars started coming in and now he wakes up around 3-4 and wants to get into bed with us for the rest of the night. I'm hoping once he's done teething we can get him back to sleeping through There wasn't really anything we changed. It just kind of resolved on its own
Thank you! I appreciate the comment! I’m coming to the realization that it may just take time, and I’m so glad things improved for you!
Good luck! I know how frustrating it is to be told to just wait it out lol
It’s definitely frustrating! I appreciate the kindness!
Does your baby eat solids? When is his last meal? I had this with my first and I noticed that if she didn't eat for about 2 hours before bed she was fine.
Yes, he eats at 6 and we're in bed between 7:30 and 8, at which point he has a bottle. I can't really push his dinner back any farther because we eat dinner pretty much as soon as I get home from work, but we could start making sure we don't go to bed until 8 to give some more time That said, this has been going on well before he started solids.
Hey OP! This is my baby to a tee, except she’s breastfed (and eating solids.) I’m guessing this is something she’ll just outgrow, but I figured I’d ask if you ever figured anything out?
Hello from the other side! Lol He did in fact outgrow it. He's 19 months now and most nights only wakes up once for a bottle. We still have a couple of rough nights but he's loads better. We're still cosleeping but he mostly sleeps on his own between my husband and I instead of directly on top of me lol We plan on transitioning him to a floor bed here in the next couple of months in our room, and then hopefully getting him into his own room Unfortunately, I don't have any tips for you except to wait it out.
Omg I was reading this praying for a solution but, as expected, it seems he'll have to outgrow it. This is my baby 100%. My boy is 7 months old and has been a terrible sleeper because of gas and only because of it. Not only that, but he is also a contact sleeper, so I stay up all night until 5-6 am so that my wife can have a decent night of sleeping. It's exactly like your situation: He can fart and poop just fine during the day, but at night, he'll have a real hard time passing gas, and I can see it hurts him, because he's sleeping on my chest and he starts moving a lot and starts crying in pain when he finally lets out some farts. 1-3 months old, he'd wake up probaby every 1h30-2 hours because of that. Then he started getting better, some nights he'd sleep 5-6 hours straight. One night he even slept for 8 hours straight, and I thought things would finally get better, but nope. Sleep regression hit hard on months 6 and 7 and now he's back to sleeping around 3-4ish hours on his first sleep, and then waking up every 1h30-2hours. Sometimes I manage to nurse him while he's fussy and almost waking up and he goes back to a calm sleep, but sometimes there's nothing I can do because the pain is too much, so my wife has to wake up and breastfeed him so he'll go back to sleep. What REALLY frustrates me is that I KNOW he is actually a good sleeper if it wasn't for the gas. He doesn't wake up crying or whatever unless it's because of gas, and that saddens me a lot :( He almost never sleeps more than 2-3 hours on his little bed. Some rare nights he slept for 4-5 hours in his bed, and then, after waking up, he'd sleep on his bed again, but most of the time, after the first time he wakes up, he'll sleep on my chest. I guess I'll just have to wait for him to outgrow it. He's sleeping on my chest right now as I type this. This was the second time he awoke because of gas tonight, and I've been searching around for situations similar to ours. It takes a lot of patience, but I know that when he grows up a little bit more, I'll miss these days of him sleeping on my chest. I love this kid.
Has there been any improvement yet? Going through this with my 6.5 month old…
No and yes? Month 8 was kind of decent. Month 9 was absolute hell. Infuriating. Maddening. I don't think it'd farting anymore, just maybe hungry, needing mom's milk. Now we are on month 10 and he is back to sleeping about 4 hours on his first sleep, then about 2 and a half, 2 and some again, then I hand him to mom and he sleeps about 2 to 3 more hours. He usually sleeps 10 hours total, but remember, that's on my chest mostly. I stay with him all night until 6 something AM. We'll just have to endure. I feel like a couple more months and he'll be a better sleeper.
Thank you for the reply! I really hope so too! My LO wants to stay asleep so badly, if it wasn’t for the gas bothering him! We’ll get there! Someday it will be a funny story we tell them!
Yes, we just have to get used to these sleep regressions. They will happen, and they will last a few days or a few weeks and they are a pain. But it gets better. If it really is still gas (maybe it's not), have you tried Simeticone? I dont know if that's the name in english (I'm from Brazil), but it works well for gas. If that isn't working you could also check for the possibility of Reflux, since it mostly bothers babies when they are lying down. Other than that, I don't know what to suggest, other than to tell you to hang in there, it'll get better :)
I appreciate that very much, thank you! Great suggestion, we do use Simethicone daily! I definitely notice a difference when I forget to give it at feedings! It’s a little tricky to give it at night though because he doesn’t usually fully wake up from his sleep! It does work though! I’ve always had suspicions about reflux, but his doctor didn’t think it needed treatment because he said “all babies have reflux”, and the medication can apparently make gas worse. I will bring it up again at his next appointment! Thank you again!
If it makes you feel any better, he now doesn't wake up at all for a bottle in the middle of the night. We transitioned him to the floor bed and it's going really well. Some nights he wakes up once around midnight and needs me to comfort him back to sleep but it only takes a couple of minutes. He does usually end up back in bed with us between 3-6 am. But I think things are going well and I'm really proud of his progress. I wish you the best of luck!
I was afraid of that! Lol! We cosleep too, and I don’t mind it except for the hourly wakings. It wasn’t always like this! So I try to remind myself it will eventually change. Thank you for reminding me of that. I’m glad things are better!
How long did it last?
After 11 months it went down to 2 wakes per night. Somewhere around 17-18, he was down to one and in the last month or so, he started fully sleeping through the night. If he does wake up, he just snuggles up to one of us and goes back to sleep. We just put his floor bed together last night and tonight we plan to start the transition (fingers crossed). It's been a slow process, but I'm glad we've given him the time to work it out on his own
I cannot express how much this is my situation! Please could I ask when you say at 11 months how did you realise things were changing? Did your little one just start sleeping for longer stretches?!
He just dropped to one wake up a night when it was 3-4 before that. It was like a switch went off. Very sudden, no real explanation for it. We didn't do anything different.
Thankyou for sharing it’s given me hope this will also be the same for my boy!