High-Needs Infants and Toddlers

hello! Im actually posting on behalf of my sister. She just had her baby Sept 1st and is on the brink of a major break down because she's having such a hard time. The pedi keeps telling her its "just colic" and that she "just needs to burp him better".... wtf?!

Anyway, he's always been kind of a fussy/cranky baby but it really kicked in after a hospital stay from a bout with jaundice when he was about a week old. She was having issues BF'ing because he was under the lights and the hospital refused to let her bf. He was getting BM from a bottle and after he got out of the hossy, started refusing the breast. Well, with my help and the help of a nipple shield, she was able to get him back on the breast (yay!)  Shortly after that, things started going down hill. He started crying ALL the time. He was spitting up a lot, throwing a fit when she fed him, throwing a fit when she laid him down... you name it, he seemed to hate it. He would thrash around everytime she would try to feed him. He wasnt sleeping at all--- like, he'd go a 12 hour stretch without sleeping at all. At first, it seemed like he had some colic and like it might be reflux....but she tried so many different things and nothing was working. THings got so bad she ended up taking him to the ER because he was crying nonstop for 12 hours like he was in pain.

Well, I guess they ran every test they could run and everything came back negative. He had a low-grade fever and from some x-rays they took, you could see he had horrible gas bubbles in his tummy. THey sent her home and told her to "burp him better" and told her she needed to switch him to formula because "something in her BM was causing the problem". They also said he had a slight virus and attributed his fever to that.

She didnt want to switch to formula but was so desperate, she was willing to try anything. So a week goes by and he's on formula... and things are great! he was sleeping well, eating well, he seemed like a changed baby! Until a few days ago. Then the crying started again. All day every day. He will sleep for maybe an hour at a time. But he has many days where he will only get 7 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. She noticed that he cries SO hard and gets himself so worked up that he stops breathing  and they have to actually tap him and call out his name to get him to breathe. Well.. it got so bad AGAIN that she decided to take him back to the ER for the 2nd time. His fever was almost 104 and they sent her home again and  just said he "has a virus" and now to switch him to soy to see if maybe its a milk allergy

Well, shes got him on soy and no difference. She has tried EVERYTHING with him: swaddle, movement, soy formula, regular formula, BM, colic calm, gripe water, colic tablets, white noise, propping him up, using a paci, burping him after every ounce, bicycling his legs to get gas out, etc etc etc. She seriously has tried everything and NOTHING is working. Shes about to break down and i'm soooo worried about her.

To me, it sounds like something other than colic!! Should she demand more tests? Or could this seriously just be a baby with severe colic? Im in some serious need of help here