Feeding at night - do you burp?

[Leah67]

So, one of the benefits of breastfeeding is that you are just supposed to be able to pick up the lo, put to breast whilst in bed, and quickly feed and put him/her back to sleep.  This is what I do and it seems to work, (5 week old).  My question is, are you supposed to burp them afterwards?  I worry sometimes that he'll spit up later and choke if I don't, but I am very tired at night.

Also, baby is pretty much asleep when feeding at night, so I loathe to wake him up with a burping session.  When I do try to burp him, nothing really happens other than both of us falls asleep in the chair.  Futhermore, it means I have to get up and go TO the chair, which kind of eradicates the "benefit" of breastfeeding as noted above.

So, are you supposed to burp them?

[deenz]

If your baby has no problem with gas, then don't worry about it.  I think Tracey says when they're that sleepy that they don't take in so much air, so there's no need to burp them.  With my first dd I never worried about burping (once I got that feeding-while-lying-down thing sorted  ), but my second dd definitely needs it.  However I am feeding her in her room now in the chair, so it's no problem to burp her.  She stays sleepy pretty much as I just have her over my shoulder.

[annamum]

I didn't burp my dd at night, either. She never seemed to need it and I was able to put her straight back in her crib. If your lo doesn't need it, don't bother .

[Sylvia.]

i never really burped at all, so no i never burped at night, but here is a question as we only have two bedrooms    this next baby will be in with us for the first bit, that's the plan anyway, with dd i always did a nappy at night after a feed, what are other new mothers doing? does anyone remember? i seem to remember but not really sure, don't they always have a bowel movement at that age between feeds

[JacobMarksMummy]

I never burped my DS at night, he used be quite gassy in the day but we never seemed to have a problem with it at night.HTH

[Leah67]

To Russyl,

We are in the same situation - new baby with us for a bit.  We have extra bedrooms, but they are on different floors. which I don't want.  Our ds is about 5 weeks old, he did need changing after each feed for a while, but by about 2-3 weeks, that changed, and usually we can get away with no changes.  Depends on each baby, though.  I'm certain I remember our 17 month old son having a poop after every feeding.  This one doesn't seem to poop as often.  That said, last night, he wouldn't go back to sleep, and finally I discovered he was soaking wet.  We've set up a 'changing' area on our dresser for the time being, so it seems to work.  Other nights, when he's up a lot, baby and I both go to the guest bedroom so dh can sleep.  That's what's working for us (if you can call it working.... , right now.

[deenz]

Russyl - dd2 was also in the room with us for the first three months or so, however I got up and fed her in 'her' room (so as not to disturb dh so much).  But when we went away and had her sleeping with us, I just set up a temporary change station on the floor or whatever.  With dd1 I wheeled the change station into our room at night.  After the pooing slowed down I didn't change at night (and invested in really good quality nappies for night use!).

[momtoelise]

I never burped by dd at night either - I always figured it would wake her up more, which I definitely didn't want.