Colic & Top-Ups

[aproudmum]

Firstly, my boy is about 4 and a half months old... I still think he suffers from a bit of colic in the evenings... he has trouble expelling gas anyway. (His digestive system is definitely better than what it was though... so he is getting better at it)

With this in mind, (I am breastfeeding) will BF top ups make him worse or not necessarily?

Using tonight as an example... I fed him at 6:30, with a plan to put him to bed about 8:15... so I gave him a top up around 8pm. I kept him up for about 20 minutes after that, making sure a few burps came out etc, and I even gave him some homeopath colic relief just in case too... anyway, he was pretty whingey on and off for the next hour and I finally settled him around 9pm. I put it down to stomach upset because he was fed again too soon after 6:30pm...

What are your thoughts?

And is he too old to have colic? Should I avoid top ups?

Also, probably a stupid question, but with a top up do you keep going until they pull off? Or do you only go for 5 minutes or so? We kept going until he'd had enough (and he took a lot more in than what I'd expected him to)

Thanks in advance!

[reAllytee]

More than likely the excess wind is coming from him sucking on the bottle .... I take it this is the only time he suffers & its only been with the bottle ?

Is there a reason why you arent just b/f of a nite ?

He may be taking in more than he needs because its easier than sucking from the breast as most teats just have it where it pours out.

If you are sticking to the top ups i would suggest changing teats to a cross cut or variflow teat because these require bubs to suck to get the milk through rather than just pouring into their mouths.

Have you also tried things like a wind down in the evenings to help de-stress him so he relaxes. The problem with colic/ wind is that they get themselves so tense they cant let it pass. So my suggestion would be a nice snuggly feed then a luxurious bath with some lavender oil let him kick lots as this helps move the bowel then a nice relaxing massage & concentrate on his tummy going clockwise then right down towards his bowel & in this area you can press in fairly firmly without doing damage & this massages the bowel. Then dress, read him a book, feed him again or his top up then off to bed.

Hopefully this relaxes him enough !

[aproudmum]

Oh sorry, I meant a B/F top up... not from a bottle...