DS had these pains severly for the 1st say 5 months of his life, and at times still does.
We had a few issues:
1. Dairy intolerance/allergy - this resulted in colitis and bloody stools with extreme pain - very distressing for a new mum. By cutting out dairy from my diet completely (ie read labels and avoid things like milk solids and whey and all cheese etc) the blood stopped immediately for us - we were lucky to identify what the culprit was straight away but other things to eliminate if it wasn't the dairy would've been soy, wheat etc. My 2 yr old DS still cannot tolerate any dairy.
2. i concur with the list above, even without the bloody poos once i went off dairy, DS had a lot of wind and i found his wind a lot less when i went for very bland food. If you're a foodie like me this is just devastating but so worth it when baby is happy, including sleeping for longer because not being woken with a sore tummy.
3. Overactive letdown/hindmilk foremilk imbalance. My letdown was gagging the poor dear and they really need the rich hindmilk more than the thirst quenching foremilk... i found awesome info on the le leche league website which totally described my sons symptoms an in changing the way i nursed his wind problem was HEAPS better. He still had more wind than your average baby for at least 5 months but in doing the following it was more managable:
- express off the first letdown (i used to take my hand pump everywhere and even though he screamed with hunger sometimes, i would stuff that pump up my shirt and express the first 20 mls or letdown before latching him on - this meant he didn't get the bubbles at the start of his feed which are so hard to get up once the rest of the milk is on top)
- only feed on one side each feed.
Well, this worked for me! I totally understand how worrying it is. We used to have to VERY firmly pat his back for at least half an hour each feed for months, it was exhausting. Used to make DH take him into our room to do it if we had visitors, thats how firm the patting needed to be. Good luck. For us once he was about 4 or 5 months and his tummy grew a little the wind became less of an issue - i stopped needing to pump off the first letdown and offered him both breasts about 5 months.