Stomach keeping baby awake

Mousewar · 16-01-2019 02:16PM #1

Hi, I wondered if anyone has experience with this.

Our daughter is 20 months and has never slept through the night. We trained her older brother but our daughter had such a rough start to life (hospitals, surgeries) we decided to just coddle her and figured she'd eventually get there herself.

However, no joy. The thing is I don't think it's a sleep issue, I think it's a stomach/poo issue. Often when she wakes up she's very squirmy and farty basically. On her worst nights she usually has a movement early the next day and her form usually picks up afterwards as well. Often her stools are very solid and those ones clearly cause her distress but not always. We had her on dufalac for a long time but I don't see that it achieved anyway. We've had her off it a month now and the problem certainly hasn't gotten worse.

The Dufulac was recommended by the doctor when we went to her about this. I may go back but was just wondering what others might have tried (both in terms of drugs and also foods) and whether it was successful.

Milly33 · 16-01-2019 02:34PM

Oh bless her, doesnt sound very nice.. We had a few issues which i think all do too, but it was mostly wind would keep herself awake. For some reasons doing squats with her really worked... Once she got the wind up, there was peacefull sleep. Or this rubbing her belly clockwise to kinda loosen out any trapped wind or poops that may be there..

I know a friend of ours her little fella used to get constapated a lot and after trying a lot of things, it was dates juice that finally solved all the issues

catrionanic · 16-01-2019 02:36PM

Prune juice is very very effective. If she won't take it, you can mix it with some lemonade (not ideal but better to get it into her in whatever way you can).

Rubberchikken · 16-01-2019 02:38PM

has she a good diet? as in fruit/veg?
orange juice from an orange is good

catrionanic · 16-01-2019 02:43PM

Rubberchikken wrote: »

has she a good diet? as in fruit/veg?
orange juice from an orange is good

Also just on that note, my two year old eats a ridiculous amount of fruit (5 portions a day of fruit alone, and he would eat more if I let him) and has never once been constipated. I think due to his fruit addiction.

ainy · 16-01-2019 03:06PM

Op I find the duphalac can cause cramps/ bloating and lots of farting (this is on me anyway!).
My 3 year old went through a phase of constipation, the doctor prescribed movicol for her and it worked wonders, she took it every day for about 3 months and progressed to reducing it to every couple days until she didn't need it anymore. Its worth a try revisiting your gp.

brokensoul · 16-01-2019 10:12PM

catrionanic wrote: »

Prune juice is very very effective. If she won't take it, you can mix it with some lemonade (not ideal but better to get it into her in whatever way you can).

I put prune juice in a calpol dropper as they fecking love the taste of calpol!

Lizardlegz · 17-01-2019 06:58PM

Mousewar wrote: »

Hi, I wondered if anyone has experience with this.

Our daughter is 20 months and has never slept through the night. We trained her older brother but our daughter had such a rough start to life (hospitals, surgeries) we decided to just coddle her and figured she'd eventually get there herself.

However, no joy. The thing is I don't think it's a sleep issue, I think it's a stomach/poo issue. Often when she wakes up she's very squirmy and farty basically. On her worst nights she usually has a movement early the next day and her form usually picks up afterwards as well. Often her stools are very solid and those ones clearly cause her distress but not always. We had her on dufalac for a long time but I don't see that it achieved anyway. We've had her off it a month now and the problem certainly hasn't gotten worse.

The Dufulac was recommended by the doctor when we went to her about this. I may go back but was just wondering what others might have tried (both in terms of drugs and also foods) and whether it was successful.

OP duphalac (or lactulose) is really terrible for causing bad cramps. It does this in adults aswell!! Movicol is much better for constipation and to get the bowels going. The cramps cannlast all night with duphalac! Talk to your gp. Obviously only if you have tried the more natural methods like prunes and prune juice etc first. I find a purée pear works wonders for our constipated wee one.

Milly33 · 17-01-2019 08:18PM

very true too loveinapril... another one is parsnips cant give bad belly aches and wind

Mousewar · 17-01-2019 08:44PM

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad I took her off the duphalac now! That was originally recommended by a nurse.
With regards constipation, she's not really constipated. In fact she usually has about two movements a day and only sometimes are they firm. But, as I say, it's clear that she struggles a bit with stomach cramps and they wake her up and after she poos she perks up.
I'll try the natural suggestions first and may look at the movicol in time.

Toots · 21-01-2019 08:00PM

If she was on dufalac for a long time, it may just take a while for her little tummy to get back to normal. My little one has sometimes had hard poos, and I had no joy with the prune juice - she just spat it out - but I got the Ella’s Kitchen pouches of puréed prunes (it’s just prunes and nothing else) and she loves those. They were the next best thing to the juice and definitely worked to soften her poos and she was more comfortable.

shesty · 21-01-2019 08:13PM

Also stewed fruit like apples, preferably with brown sugar, stewed rhubarb and the like, and lots of exercise help too.The movement helps keep things going!!
It is absolutely a problem I have had with two out of three of mine, but it probably didn't continue til 20 months quite so severely.My second definitely woke a lot at night for months on end with wind, you would sit her up beside you and within minutes a load of gas would come out and she would settle.No.3 is only 8 months and poos definitely disturb him at night....if there has only been one in a day, I know it's going to be a rough night!But as I said, they are/were much smaller.

Mousewar · 21-01-2019 08:17PM

Toots wrote: »

but I got the Ella’s Kitchen pouches of puréed prunes (it’s just prunes and nothing else) and she loves those. They were the next best thing to the juice and definitely worked to soften her poos and she was more comfortable.

I gave her one of them on Saturday and the poo was flying outta her! Might have worked too well!

Toots · 22-01-2019 11:29AM

Mousewar wrote: »

I gave her one of them on Saturday and the poo was flying outta her! Might have worked too well!

Yeah they're quite potent alright! We gave my daughter one at 6 months and the place was destroyed. She's nearly a year old now and can take a full pouch but if it's too effective a half pouch will do the job.

Mousewar · 04-03-2019 02:23PM

Thanks for all the replies to this again. As an update, I actually did the mildest sleep training with her and the results are amazing. Her stomach is still at her occasionally but she doesn't really bother waking up as she knows I'm not going to pick her up anymore (I just sing instead which is enough to make anyone want to stay unconscious). I'm down to an average of one wake up a night which is great!

Stomach keeping baby awake

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