We are always worried about the comfort of our babies. From the day that you get to know about your pregnancy, you will start to research and buy the best items to assure the comfort of your baby from day one. As parents, we control all the factors we can control to keep our little ones happy. But physical discomforts such as gassy tummy seem to be out of our control sometimes. If you have ever had a gassy tummy, you know how it feels like when you are bloated. Nobody wants their newborn to feel the same as it is an utter discomfort.
Parents spend a good amount of time trying to take gas out of their baby’s digestive system. Taking a burp or a fart out from your baby is not easy and that struggle is real. Sometimes a burp or a fart will not be enough to relieve your breastfed baby’s discomfort. If you came here searching for an answer for your breastfed baby’s gas problem, continue reading as this article will tell you what causes gas in breastfed babies and how to deal with a gassy baby.
CONTENT
1. What causes gas in breastfed babies?
2. How to help your gassy baby to relieve his discomfort?
1. What causes gas in breastfed babies?
If you wonder what you did wrong to make your baby gassy, there is no fault with you. The babies have an immature and developing digestive system that is prone to bloating despite they are breastfed or formula-fed. So they will need help to get extra gas out of their body.
Identifying the reasons for your baby’s gassiness and avoiding them is the easiest way to prevent this discomfort. When babies take in the excess gas inside, they are more likely to end up bloated. There are many such ways that can make your baby breastfed baby gassy.
- Babies who do not latch their mother’s breast properly will always swallow more air than a baby who latches well. If your baby is constantly bloated, meet your pediatrician or a lactation consultant to ensure that your baby is latching well.
- If you are feeding breastmilk with a bottle, the baby can swallow the air trapped in the nipple. The size of the nipple and the speed of the flow from the nipple may increase the gassiness of your baby. So make sure you have selected the right nipple for your baby’s bottles.
- Your baby will be forced to swallow breastmilk fast when you are having an oversupply or strong letdowns. Quick and fast gulping also commonly causes gassiness in newborns.
- When your baby cries out loud for longer durations, it can make your baby extra gassy. All that gasping while crying will collect gas into their tummy.
- The changes in the bowel movements of your baby which happens with the age is another reason for extra gassy baby tummies. If your baby farts a lot with spaced-out bowel movements, this can be the reason.
There is a belief that the diet of breastfeeding mothers can make babies gassy. It is also believed that acidic food and dairy consumption of the mother affects the gassiness of a breastfed baby. The mother who ate such food may get bloated but the nutrients which made her gassy will not be passed to the baby through breastmilk.
Research has proven that cutting off food types from a breastfeeding mother is unnecessary and it has no impact on the gassiness of the babies. Therefore, consult your pediatrician before restricting food from your diet as breastfeeding mothers must eat a healthy and balanced diet to ensure the wellbeing of both the mother and the baby. You can maintain a food journal that includes the foods along with your and your baby’s reaction to them so the pediatrician can make the best decision based on that information.
2. How to help your gassy baby to relieve his discomfort?
Burping
Burp your baby before switching from one breast to another and at the end of the feed. For bottle-fed babies, burp them after every 2-3 ounces of milk. If it is difficult to burp your baby, try different burping positions and choose the one which works the best for him. You should burp your baby during and after every feed does not matter it is day or night.
Tummy time
You can start putting your baby on his tummy from the first week of their life. Tummy time has a variety of benefits and relieving gas problems is one of the major advantages of giving your baby a tummy time.
Start with a shorter duration of tummy time and increase the period gradually. Give toys to your baby, play or talk with your baby while he is on his tummy so he will enjoy his daily tummy time. Being on the tummy for about fifteen minutes a day will develop the neck and upper body strength of your baby which are important to reaching developmental milestones like rolling over and sitting up.
Baby massages
Massaging your baby can help to get excess gas out of their digestive system. You can make this a daily exercise and a bonding movement between you and the baby. Massage your baby with special massaging patterns that are known to relieve gas pains using oil or without oil.
Bicycle legs
Lay your baby on his back and move his legs as if he is riding a bicycle. This exercise will create a gentle pressure on his tummy helping him to pass out gas. If your baby is constipated, bicycle legs will make them poop soon.
Feed your baby right
How you feed your baby can impact the amount of gas he swallows during each feed. To slow down the eating process of the baby, feed him while he is upright. Follow the paced bottle feeding method if you have not tried it yet.
If you doubt whether your baby is latching properly, meet a pediatrician or a lactation consultant and get it checked. You will have to work a little bit on teaching your baby to latch but it is all worth it as your baby will be relieved from his gas problems.
Allergies and reactions
In some cases, your baby can be allergic to a food you ate before. Such scenarios will result in extra gassiness of your baby. Gassiness which happens as an allergic reaction to certain food can only be fixed by removing that food from the diet of the breastfeeding mother.
Usually, a food allergy will appear within few hours from consuming breastmilk with the allergen. But the symptoms of an allergy in babies can differ in intensity and will not be much observable in most cases. Below are some other symptoms to identify an allergic reaction to a food other than gassiness.
- hives
- rashes
- changes in bowel movements
- Swelling of the tongue and throat which is not common among babies. When it appears it is almost always caused by a cow’s milk allergy)
- itching
- nausea/vomiting
