Very gassy baby and can't burp at night!

[marty]

Hi, I've been almost exclusively breastfeeding my 3 month old son.  He is a very gassy fellow - we call him Marty McFartsALot (thus my login name).  It's not too much of a problem during the day and we do tummy time and bicycle legs to try and get the gas out.  Occasionally he will cry out when he farts or burps, but that is getting better.  The biggest problem is at night.  He is very sleepy during the feeds and when he is sleepy or actually asleep I CANNOT burp him, no matter how hard I try.  Then shortly after I put him down he is grunting and lifting his legs, then usually spits up, which often wakes him up.  Is this normal?  In the book, Tracy said some babies don't need to burp at night since they are so calm during the feeding.  This doesn't seem to be the case with our LO.  His longest stretch at night is currently about 3 hours and I am thinking the gas may be one reason why.  Any suggestions???

[SallyDom]

Hi there,

I also had a lot of problems with my little boy and his gas problems when he was younger and the way I got his gas up during the night was to hold him upwards, supporting the back of his head so he was quite firmly held against my shoulder, and then to jig about like a mad women around the room. I had to literally jog from one foot to the other for a good few minutes sometimes and I usually got a good burp in the end. I would then feed him a little more to chill him out again after all that jigging and then put him back down.

Not sure if you've already tried this but thought it might help anyway

Sal
x

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Hi there,

I also had a lot of problems with my little boy and his gas problems when he was younger and the way I got his gas up during the night was to hold him upwards, supporting the back of his head so he was quite firmly held against my shoulder, and then to jig about like a mad women around the room. I had to literally jog from one foot to the other for a good few minutes sometimes and I usually got a good burp in the end. I would then feed him a little more to chill him out again after all that jigging and then put him back down.

Not sure if you've already tried this but thought it might help anyway

Sal
x

Dito, i did this too. Like sal said it always came up in the end.

Kate x

[marty]

OK, thanks.  I'll give it a try tonight.  I've definitely done some heavy jiggling, but without much luck.  I'll try for longer this time.

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

To start with it did take a while (seemed like forever) But just stick with it. Better to just be up for the once and longer, than several times

Kate x

[fiona1274]

Not sure if there is anything in this but my LO burped and farted like Barny from the Simpsons. I stopped drinking carbonated juices and she has stopped. I know it probably shouldn't make a difference but my friend was the same with her LO, she had real gassy problems with carbonated juice, baked potatoes and peppers!! Not educated enough in these things to know if there is any medical proof but worked for us.

[knackered]

I also had a very gassy baby - he'd squirm aroound usually from 4 - 6 am obviously in some pain. AFter trying various things I decided to give up wheat in my diet as I've often suspected that I had a slight intolerance to it. Overnight he stopped! And hasn't done it since. It was quite amazing.

This may not be applicable to your situation but it may be he's reacting to something in your diet?

Best of luck.
Anna x

[marty]

Yes, it could be something in my diet.  I'm actually diabetic right now because of a medication I'm on, so I'm pretty limited in what I can eat, so eliminating foods is not easy for me.  I suspect lactose, actually, since I am a bit intolerant, although I suppose it could be wheat or something else.  I don't drink carbonated beverages ever, and eat baked potatoes and peppers pretty rarely.  I suppose I could get rid of lactose - that is so tricky though because milk products are in everything.  I will give it a try.

PS - Last night I did some acrobatic jiggling and got burps out each time.  No wakings in between feedings, so that is good, although he still wakes every 2-3 hours to eat.  That is so annoying.  I thought by 3 months he would be doing better.  Oh, well.

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

lol to the jiglling and the burps

Regarding the nwing's for food have you tried squezing some feeds in the day?

Kate x

[SallyDom]

I was suprised how things got instantly btter once we got a couple of burps out of Zac. With regards to nw's, not sure if I should say but Zac is 6 months old now and is still up once or twice to feed (don't want to depress you!). I feel like Zac will never ever ever sleep through. He is on 3 meals a day and eats tons but I do think he is genuinely waking through hunger, rather than for any other reason.

x

[marty]

I'm not convinced that extra feeds during the day make a difference to how long he sleeps at night.  I have kept a meticulous EAS log since he was born and I don't see any correlation.  Maybe it's just my kid, or maybe it's just he wasn't old enough???

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Lots of lo just don't go a full night without 1 nwing it really is the norm!! Like you say it could just be that he is not old enough, when hes ready it will happen

As for the extra daytime feeds, it was just an idea that worked for me but again not for everyone. By the sounds of it your EASY works well, i would just go with the flow .

Kate x

[knackered]

My DS is now 3 months and has been waking at least twice for food in the night. BUT the last 3 nights he's only woken once  - what a difference that makes. I haven't been doing anything differently - it just seems like he's ready to go down to one feed at night. Fingers crossed that happens for you soon.

BTW I bf'ed my first DS until he was 13 months old and he always woke for a feed until I stopped breast feeding!! As soon as I stopped he slept through! So somewhere along the line he stopped waking out of hunger and was just waking out of habit or for comfort. How you know when they're ready to go through the night without a feed I don't know - but I'm not sure I can do 13 months of night feeds with DS#2!

Anna x

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

 

[marty]

Thanks, knackered.  Great to hear that I have something to look forward to (soon I hope).  He woke at 1am and 4am last night.  Could be worse! 

PS - I didn't even have to jiggle that much last night and the burps came up, even though he was already pretty much asleep.  I hope this is a start of a trend! 

Thanks, all.