Best Ways to Comfort the Gassy Baby

Comfort Your Gassy Baby

Swallowing air and passing gas is common in infancy. However, excessive intestinal gas can make a young baby miserable. A mother of one of my gassy little patients describes these bloated episodes:

When my daughter is trying to pass gas, it is like a mother going through a difficult labor.

How to Relieve a Baby with Intestinal Gas

Follow these tips to help with a gassy baby:

If breastfeeding, be sure baby’s lips form a good seal far back on the areola.

If bottle feeding, be sure baby’s lips are positioned on the wide base of the nipple, not just on the tip.

Tilt the bottle at a thirty-to-forty-degree angle while feeding so that air rises to the bottom of the bottle, or try collapsible formula bags.

Eliminate fuss foods from your diet if breastfeeding (see elimination diet )

Feed baby smaller volumes more frequently

Keep baby upright (at about a forty-five-degree angle) during and for a half-hour after a feeding.

Avoid prolonged sucking on pacifiers or empty bottle nipples.

Respond promptly to a baby’s cries. First and foremost, be sure to burp baby during and after feedings. You can also try the following techniques and remedies to relieve a gassy baby: Abdominal massage Baby bends. Lie baby on his/her back, bend knees and legs toward abdomen applying gentle pressure on tummy. Simethicone drops Tummy rolls (see coping with colic ) Warm baths Infant probiotics may be helpful with gassy and/or colicky infants.

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