Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 1/27/2012

Question
QUESTION: My baby girl was born at exactly 37 weeks. Since birth she seems to be a cry baby and very irritable that makes her sleeping time a troublesome. She cries the moment she wakes up and 90% when she is awake. We suspected colic since she can be sometimes be consoled when we hold her and arches her back in between feedings. She easily wakes up from sleeping in her crib and easily get startled so she sometimes end up sleeping on our chest and ends up sleeping on a rocker. She is very irritable most of the time so she ends up not having a playtime since she doesn't want to be laid on the floor. We try to play with her but she easily gets irritated and fusses instead of communicating back to us. It seems like she gets overstimulated by us that she easily gets upset when we play with her but I thought, babies at her age enjoyed being played with. She also hates tummy time. Generally speaking she is a very irritable baby that she doesn't even have time to explore and play. Aside from that, she also have congestion and cough most of the time and she is in daycare since she was 7 weeks.

There are time that she may seem settled but only for a few minutes. Maybe about 20-30 minutes. She would gaze around and look to our eyes. But since then, we haven't saw her smile back to us. She find other things interested and look at them (particularly the ceiling fan) I can say though that she si interested in the environment and looking at us whenever she is settled even for a little while but my concern is that she's not smiling back at us or to other things. My little boy who is already 3 years old now is just a very happy since birth and started smiling at 4 weeks. He was taken care of my parents until he is 1 year old and then we started him at daycare. I wonder if that makes a difference. I am very worried that my little girl might be showing signs of autism. Also during my pregnancy, I am stressed out by a family problem and me and my husband always ends up fighting and screaming at each other. I ave read that stress during pregnancy can cause autism. I hope you can help with my anxieties.I am so worried. Her pediatrician said to wait coz she will smile when she's ready and she said that she don't see any problem on her development at the moment. But Im still thinking that she should already be smiling by this time. She only smile when she's asleep but not when she's awake. She only look around if not fussing.

ANSWER: It may be a little early to worry about anything developmentally, but I would bring her to see a pediatric gastrointerologist to see if there is something going on that she can be helped with. It sounds like she is uncomfortable all the time because of her tummy issues.

Let me know what you do.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The pediatrician told us to switch formula which we did but did not seem to help also we used the gas drops. She still doesn't settle for a longer period of time just to play. Is this still normal for her age?

Answer
I really don't know. I would suggest that you have her checked by a pediatric gastroenterologist if you are not seeing any improvement.

If you don't see any change in her demeanor by 3 months, I would suggest having a developmental pediatrician have a look at her.

Take care