Pain and intense flatulence in infants only at night. What to do?

Question

Hello My son is 8 weeks old and I am wondering why he has painful stomach aches/gas but only AT NIGHT! During the day he sleeps well. He usually sleeps a good 3 hours. On the other hand, at night, he wakes up at 3h maximum, the time to drink is not a problem, the problem is the pain in his little belly afterwards... He wriggles, "forces", grunts, cries and sometimes cries until the morning I have to massage his belly (clockwise), bend his knees on his belly while pressing gently, move his pelvis and finally he will fart very loudly and sometimes even for 5 seconds in a row! This obviously relieves him but it has to be done again after 30 seconds and it lasts between 15 and 20 minutes! Obviously after all this "nocturnal stimulation" it is very hard to put him back to sleep... And once he's asleep, he'll go on for 3 hours and will ask for a drink again, followed by other very painful flatulences, but especially difficult to make him go (so again massage, "bicycle", folding of legs, etc.) At the beginning I thought it was food that I could eat when I was breastfeeding, but after I stopped breastfeeding, a month ago we changed to Similac enriched with omega 3 and other, pain in his little belly still present. For the last 3 weeks, he has been taking Similac powder, low in iron, and the pain has diminished, but he still feels very sorry for himself at night. Why does it only happen at night? Is it the famous colic? Lactose intolerance? I see his family doctor in 1 week. Should I try ovol for infants? The alimentum? Change his bottles (natural advent at the moment). I don't really believe in the magic of homeopathy... Thank you very much for your time, have a nice day From a mom who wants to sleep more ???? Allo Alexander, he usually drinks 4 oz around 10-11pm at night then sleeps until 2-3am with no problems. I give him another 4oz at that time and then the pain/ flatulence starts until 7-8am. ( he drinks another 4oz around 5-6am )

Alexandre Chagnon · Accepted Answer

Good evening ma'am, This is a very strange situation indeed. Do you give him a "bigger" bottle before bedtime? Thanks for the details. So I understand that the amount of milk consumed in the evening is not really more (per drink) than during the day. The other avenue of solution would then be to see if burping is not enough after the 10pm drink. So, if the burping is not effective enough, it could be that at the next feed (the 2 o'clock feed), the pressure in his digestive system will rise a lot, causing the discomfort you describe. In short, we would have to make sure that the child doesn't fall asleep while drinking at 10pm and that we burp effectively (more efficiently). I would try this technique until your appointment next week, but not attempt to change the milk at this time. We're also dropping Ovol™ and homeopathy. Happy day and good success with this technique 😊 Alexandre Chagnon, pharmacist