Granny's Advice

Dear Great Granny.

We are having the following difficulties with our six month old daughter.

1. She has difficulty sleeping for any stretch of time for over two to three hours. Usually she wakes up with bad gas pains and screams. During the day we simply wake her all the way up and distract her, but at night we give her a bottle so she'll fall back asleep. She is being both breast and bottle fed. We originally had her on regular formula and she had horrible gas pains. A friend suggested that we switch to low-iron formula and this has helped somewhat, but not entirely. Any suggestions?

2. She gets extremely upset when we put her in her car seat. We've put toys, drawings and other objects there for her to play with or look at. It doesn't make any difference if someone sits next to her - she just hates being strapped in. Unfortunately, she gets so upset that she screams until she throws up. Any suggestions?

3. She also throws up whenever she gets overly upset for any reason. We've taken to running to her any time she even begins to cry. Any suggestions?

As new, and obviously harried parents, we'd appreciate any advice that you could give us.

Thank you!

Dear friend

I hope by the time you receive this letter your daughter will have found another way to gat your attention, other than throwing up. Sometimes they hold their breath. That's quite a controlling habit,too. Find out what your doctor thinks about the cramps at night - maybe she has colic. Maybe it's over be now, I hope so.

All I can suggest is that you pay lots of attention to her at times when she is not doing the throwing up act so she will know she doesn't have to resort to that. As for the car seat - there's no solution. You just have to listen to her holler when you take her in the car. That's better than risking serious damage to your daughter if you should have an accident.

Do you sing while you are driving. We always used to, when the children were little. They would learn to sing along, or think they were singing along, and it passed the time nicely. Really, I have nothing to advise except to wait this stage out and see what comes next. It might get worse - or - it might get better. When we have these children, we don't get a guarantee that everything, or anything, will be easy. We just love them for what they are, try to make their life as wonderful as it should be, and carry on.

Good luck Yours sincerely,
GG

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