Restless @ 4 months

[Surprised2]

Hello, not sure if this is the right thread for this area but hopefully someone can give me their opinion.
My 4 month old boy is always unhappy/irritable at home, the only time he is happy and content is either in the car driving(where he instantly falls asleep) or in the pram when we go for walks or the shops. No matter what we do he isn't happy... put him on his back to look up at toys, he cries uncomfortably then rolls over, then cries again. He also wakes every 2 hours for a feed at night, but during the day he doesn't want to eat at all, always pushes the bottle away or tries to get away from the bottle. Any ideas?... :wave:
Thanks all.

[BabelFish]

My DD was much the same at this age - an absolute nightmare and really difficult to manage. I came on here and found that many other Mums with babies the same age were having similar problems.

They have a growth spurt at three months that is not only physical, but a huge mental one as well. Their brains literally develop a whole lot of new neural pathways and they become much more aware of their surroundings. This overload can really freak them out.

It was incredibly socially isolating for me because she was so cranky all the time I couldn't take her anywhere. She was impossible to put to sleep during the day and feeding became so difficult. A friend came round one day and we spend an hour trying to put her to sleep - it was awful!

It changed the day I put her on solids at 4.5 months. Literally that day. The night before I'd finally lost it and taken her to hospital. She hadn't eaten all day, had hardly had any wet nappies and was screaming and screaming. They said she was quite constipated but other than that she was fine. They were great. The next morning when she refused her bottle again, I decided to give her some baby rice cereal. She absolutely nailed it, every last mouthful, and went to sleep for three hours. She was a different baby from that day. She slept during the day, she started sleeping through. She stopped crying and fussing, she learned to self-settle. I was astonished.

So for her, she was hungry, amongst other things. She was also getting overtired and not coping, no matter what I did. I used to walk her for hours in the pram, drive her around for hours in the car, just so she'd get some sleep!

They can also start refusing the bottle when it's time to go up a teat speed. I would perhaps try going up to the next speed of teat - if it's not coming fast enough and they're hungry, they can get very frustrated. He might be frustrated about other things too - wanting to be more mobile than he is, for example. It might not be hunger with your little man, but if it continues take him to the doc just for a check up (especially to check for reflux) and if he's ok then you just need to do what works until it passes - and it will pass! It's a difficult age but they get better, and things tend to look up a bit from about 5 months on - that's been our experience anyway. :hugs:

[Surprised2]

Thanks for that Chesby.... thought it might have possibly been those things. Already considered silent reflux because he doesnt vomit but has the symptoms, asked my girlfriend to take him to Dr to get some medication to see if that helps.. With the rice cereal, at the moment he is only on #2 teat, wanted to get him used to #3 first before doing that. Mentioned to my Gf he needed to move up a teat size but she didn't want to.. I work away for a month then a month home, so when i get home I will move him up a teat then after a week of that give him rice cereal using the teat with the 'selectable' higher flowing.. the one with the 3 small vertical lines on it :)
Thanks for your help... i hope everything is going well with your family and little one.
Cheers.