Hi ladies!

My little one who is 3 1/2 weeks old has been very uncomfortable for the past couple weeks. At first, it seemed to be just bad gas pains but as time went on her fussiness increased substantially and her feeding and sleep schedule have been heavily impacted. Every time I try to feed her the bottle with my breast milk she either has a crying fit during or right after the feeding. She will cry loud, grunt, kick her feet, clench her fists, try to push from her stomach, congestion, loud gulping, regurgitating sound, putting her hands to her mouth because she is hungry but when she sips bottle she will cry more. Ultimately she is just absolutely miserable and it’s near impossible to console her. Not only that but her sleep pattern is completely off. We no longer have a schedule as she is barely napping through the day and will nap for around 1 hour tops and around 3 hours tops during on stretch of the night which use to be at least 4 hours. She seems overly tired but will just not sleep well and she will not let my husband or I put her down even during the day. I end up sleeping with her most nights because when she seems completely out cold and I go to put her down she usually wakes right up screaming so I just keep her on top of my chest to sleep.

The doctor had me put her on Mylocin drops during each feeding and giving her gripe water in morning and evening. Neither have been providing any huge relief and her symptoms seem to be getting worse. When I spoke to the dr last week she thought that she wasn’t eating enough to fill her belly in order to get a good sleep however I kept reassuring I feed her on demand but she is refusing the bottle and breast. She told me I could try her on one bottle of formula before bed at night and recommended similac alimentum. I really didn’t want to switch her off my breast milk but finally caved yesterday evening and tried the formula. At first she got two hours of sleep but during the next two feedings she did the same thing she did with the breast milk getting very fussy and crying with the bottle in her mouth, kicking, grunting, passing gas etc. it seems the only relief she ever gets is when she passes gas which is so much and so loud it sounds like and adult or when she has a bowel movement.

I called again tonight because the symptoms got worse and she is eating and sleeping less and she is now telling me it could be a food allergy to cows milk protein and to keep her on the formula for a week but we may have to try a more specialized formula. She isn’t positive this is in fact the problem but said we have to do process of elimination to figure it out. I began a dairy free diet today after reading up on it just in case but she also told me I should avoid soy as they usually go hand in hand. She also said it would take at least two weeks to get out of my system.

Has anyone else’s newborn gone through this and/or had similar symptoms? Does this sound like a food allergy, really bad gas or something else. Any recommendations on what I can do as I really want to keep her on my breast milk? Any suggestions for a dairy free diet?

I hate seeing my baby in pain and am willing to do whatever it takes to cure her of whatever this may be even if formula is the better option. It just seems odd that if it is a food allergy she would still have a negative response to the formula that is specifically for cows milk protein allergy and colic baby so wondering if it could be something else. She also has not had any blood in her stool which the dr said is usually a sign, however she has had a couple days of mucousy mustard yellow stools.

Any help/advice is GREATLY appreciate!

Thank you in advance!!!