My six week old son does not self sooth. It started when he was two weeks old and appeared to be colic as it was isolated to the hours of 12am to 3am. Then at 3 weeks old he contracted RSV and an ear infection and when he recovered his illness, the crying fits intensified. Now he is fussy whenever he is awake. During sleep, he is restless and wakes himself up after a few minutes. During his fits, he gets red in the face, increases his volume, and hold his breath if I dont immediately get to him. When I do pick him up, he is only content if he is held up right on my shoulder. He also wants to nurse constantly. I am worried there is something wrong with him. This is aggravated by the fact that his father has pernicious anemia due to lack of intrinsic factor and my sons pediatrician will not test my son to make sure he did not inherit this condition. Is my sons behavior normal?
Your sons' behavior seems to be normal colicsColic in newborns is defined as crying more than 3 hrs per day, 3 days per week, at least. You must be committed to your pediatricians well care visits, and a Weight Growth Chart is plotted to check for your babies feeding adequacy. Holding him on your shoulder and tapping gently till he burps, is very important; this causes the gases he swallows along with feeding to be collected at the top of gastric fluid and expelled (burped). Good feeding techniques is very essential especially for breastfeed infants.