Burping Help and Gas Relief for a 4Mo

I had similar trouble with my son (who's now 1) and tried many different things. First, let me say that I DID breastfeed and still had similar experiences. So, alleviate that "I didn't breastfeed" guilt! You might have had the same problems!

For my son, liquid formula worked better than the powder. He was able to digest that better. I also found out that he has "silent" acid reflux, so he had some heartburn and indigestion that I was unaware of. You might be careful about the over the arm and over the lap burping. My doctor prescribed some medicine for stomach pain and gas called Carafate that helps a lot!

When he was older (about 8-10 months), I started making fennel tea, and this helps more than the medicine. It helps him release the gas and prevent the pain. I make it with about 2-3 cups of water and about 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds. Boil for 15 minutes, and give it after meals. Your daughter might be too young for this now, but it might help her later. Good luck!

Have you tried Dr. Brown's Baby Bottles? My best friend swears by them! Also, is your baby lactose tollerant? They found that little Morgan can't have milk products.

Another suggestion is from my mother. I was a very gaseous baby. She would add a pinch of baking soda to water and give me that. Of course she didn't know I was lactose intollerant until now.

I hope this helps! I had issues burping until I was in HS. Good luck to your little one!!!

While my little one is only 3 weeks old, we've had the same problems since day one. Our peditrician suggested the Mylicon (about 4-5 times a day, as needed). He also suggested sitting her straight up to burp her, aligning her back as straight as possible will almost help her burp without any further help. This has worked well for us. We just sort of sit her up and pat her back if needed. Sometimes she burps without us doing anything. Hope this is successful for you.Please pass any other good advice you get on to me, I'm sure I'm going to face this problem for a while too.

Our second daughter had a lot of the same symptoms you seem to be having with your sweet girl and she also was on nutramigen. We had to frequently use mylecon and we had to put it in her bottle to help. One way of burping her was rubbing her back in circles instead of patting- it's worth a try. Also, the faster flow nipples may help because she may be getting to much air from having to suck harder. I hope that you find a solution because I know how trying it can be when your child is hurting. Blessings on you and your family.

Have you tried giving her gripewater? It is an all natural tummy remedy that you can purchase at Whole Foods. It has helped my 3 month old tremendously. It smells like licorice, so we tell my son it is his dessert! Good luck

Hi P.,

My little one has a history of horrible gas. One thing that really helped us is gripe water. It is all natural combo of fennel and ginger. The brand we by is Baby Bliss. If you look it up on line, you can read more about it. It you go to their homepage you can find places in the metroplex that sell it. We swear by it. Anderson, at first, did not care for the taste (like black licorice), but now takes it without trouble!! Good luck and I hope this helps!
~A.

Hi P.,

We experienced the same problems with our little girl who is now 9 months old. What really did the trick for us was actually dropping the Mylicon drops (Target has the equivalent drops for much cheaper) into the bottles of formula. It actually makes all of the bubbles in the formula disappear so they don't get all a lot of that when they are drinking the formula. I was also worried about giving it at every feeding but it really seemed to do the trick.

Good luck!

Jamie

hello, P.,
I am a mother of 22-month-old boy. He used to have lots of gas too. We tried Gripe water. You can get it in Sprouts Farmers Market. Or if there is a shop called "Right Start", you can find the product too. Also, you can try lactose free formula by Enfamil. (some babies are having immature digest system and can't tolerate the lactose found in dairy products.) Just from my experience and those products helped my son a lot.
Meng-chi

Hi! I am sorry for your troubles!

It sounds a lot like my friend's situation, and her baby ended up having acid reflux. She too worried terribly about giving her baby too much medicine, but after seeing how happy her baby could be, she has been happy to give the meds. Tough, though, I know! Are you sure your daughter does not have acid reflux?

If it is definitely gas, you may want to try a big yoga ball...one you can sit on and bounce her. Also, I always gave the Mylicon before feedings, so it had time to get to the stomach and start working before the gas had a chance to form.

I hope that helps!!

Good luck!
Sherri

Hi there - we also had a similar situation with my son except he would spit up some too - we put Mylicon drops in each bottle we give him - if we do not it is not good for him as he gets all crampy, etc. so he is almost 9 months old and still needs to be burped and still needs the Mylicon but doctor says it is fine - hoping he gets better as we move him to milk in a few months and solid food - good luck and congrats on your daughter - they are a joy - I continue to work outside the home but hope to maybe in a few years be able to cut back :)

hey P.-
sorry to hear about your little one's troubles!
you may want to try some physical movements to help get the gas to move through her better. when my little guy has a problem i lay him on his back and just move his legs like he is riding a bike. you can also just bend her legs up toward her nose and make playful sounds as you do it to make it fun for her. this helps to move along things that may be blocked in her system.
as far as the mylicon--use as much as you need. my pedi said it may not help a lot, but definately would not hurt anything.
nipple sizes - apparently you're supposed to change the size to match the month of your baby. i use avent bottles and nipples. we stayed on #2 for a long time and switched to #3 at about 4 months. we tried #4 but it had too fast of a flow even now for our 6-1/2 month old.
good luck!!
M.

hi i have two daughters 2-1/2 and 1-1/2 the first one i could breastfeed give bottles of formula and never had a problem with gas. my second daughter same prob.as you! i had her on similac horrible!!! switched to carnation good start excellent! she still had gas somewhat but i did find that if i put her face down but with her behind higher in the air the gas came out better. i wouldn't want to give my daughter mylecon that much either even though they say it is safe. you might try the faster nipples because they still aren't that fast also i noticed when i used the avent bottles she seemed to do better. good luck i'll pray for you! it's so hard especially if this happens during the night and your not getting much sleep. that always seemed to happen to us. also be very careful about the foods you start feeding her some of the veggies can cause gas too! i would stick with the rice cereal and mix apple sauce or pears obviously one at a time for 4 days then so on. or you could start with the oatmeal cereal not the mixed! well hope this helps! A.

P.
I am Not a big fan of all the stuff on the market so I do Homepathic Remedies Only---I have used Mylicon and it didn't work it only created more gas and constipation. I used Gripe Water--the only way to go and my Daughter 3 used it and my Twins Boys now 2 used it--it saved me many nights, look for it at your local Vitamin store--but I would Call ahead to confim--or go online and read about it--if you need any other help let me know!!

Again Gripe Water---trust me it taste beeter and works 10 times faster!

My 10 month old son rarely burps, and also had a lot of reflux. If your daughter seems to have that too (arching, burping up acid) you could take her to a GI specialisthas that - but what helped Bodi is Neocate formula 1-800-Neocate. His GI recommended it. We still use the slow nipples as he chokes on the fast ones. If you want to incrementally get faster, try poking holes with a needle in some nipples.
There is something called Gripe water with ginger, anise, and some things that might help too. I dont know a recommended Brand though.

Blessings!

You are doing all the right things. I had the same problem with my son when he was really young. He spit up a lot too, and it turns out that he has a problem digesting lactose. I am not sure what kind of bottle you are using but you could try to switch...we had to use the Dr. Brown's....they help a lot. Also, if you are on a milk based formula, you may try a soy based formula. My child did much better with soy. Also, Idid actually breast feed, and I had to stop eating dairy because it was affecting my milk...then when I stopped that is when I put him on the soy formula. He is 1 yr. old now and he drinks soy milk because if I give hime cow's milk he has horrible diarreah and he spits up a lot....hope this helps.

I've been an in-home child care provider over 20 years, have raised two daughters of my own and now have 4 grandchildren.

My advice to you would be to try rice cereal and pears (first foods) to begin with. Then, if the gas and discomfort continues, I'd try her on a formula without iron in it. Your pediatrican may not agree....but at one time we didn't give infants formula with iron unless they specifically needed extra iron for anemia and such. I know it's old fashioned...but generations after generations of infants have survived on old fashioned advice. If an adult or child does not need iron then it can create stomach discomfort. So many many infants have to use mylacon and other drops for gas now. In fact, it's rare that they don't use them. So, if she's truly uncomfortable and the rice and pears don't seem to help. I'd be certain it's the iron in the formula she's getting.

See what you think. Follow your gut instinct. It sure won't hurt her for a few weeks to drink the plain formula. She's YOUR baby. A doctor can only give you an educated guess.

Also, if you think she might have a milk allergy, you can try one of the soy based formulas...but they contain iron, too.

Years ago, one of my daughters couldn't tolerate anything other than goat milk (which is also sold canned over the counter). I mixed it just like formula....half water. It's much easier on the stomach. But, I doubt you'll have to go that far.

I had the same problem. We also used the mylicon, but we used the formula made for gassy or fussy babies. It seemed to help too. This might sound strange, my brother taught me this. Turn her upside down (while holding on tight of course), it will separate the food from the air....I know it sounds strange, I didn't try it until I was absolutely desparate and then it worked, we had to call and thank him! Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck!

Randa

My daughter was the same way. I know you don't really want to use the gas drops as a long term resolution, but we found that by putting a couple of drops in every bottle we fed, it really cut down on gas issues. And the more solids that are introduced to her diet, the less the gas will be an issue so that by the time our daughter was 6-7 months old, we no longer needed the drops at all (she was also burping herself by then). Hope this helps.

Try getting "gripe water". You can buy it online or in health food stores. It is natural, made from ginger and anise. That helped my daughter. Your daughter may also have acid reflux. Mine had to take Zantac. Possibly discuss this with your dr. Also I would mix the formula ahead of time, not with each feeding. (If you aren't already doing that) Good Luck

Hi P.,
I had the same problem. FOr 3 months my poor little boy couldn't burp and he had terrible colics. From 4 pm to 11 pm he was crying none stop. We change his formula to soy formula and that created more gas, the only thing that worked was changing the bottle to Dr brown, they work wonders! THe other thing is how you burp her, once she is done eating pad her back to find the gas trapped, you can actually hear it/feel it.. sounds different, it's hollow. Once u find it rub on it for couple of seconds. Your baby might start moving like a worm and that will be a good sing of gas trapped. Just then oce u found it tap wiht ur fingers instead with ur hand and you will hear her burp. I promise it will work. I will also recomend if she curls her legs a lot and spits a lot to check her for acid reflux. We mistake the colics with the pain they fill from the acid. they just cry, observer her.. does she burp and makes bitter faces? does she spit a lot? does she make bitter faces? all that.
I hope i can help you, i understand it's horrible to see them in pain.
I have a 8 month andthe first 4 were terrible.

good luck
S.

Hi, I don't know if this will be much help with the actual burping but it is GREAT for gas and gas pains. My son had colic--what a nightmare. We started infant massage. I just researched on the internet for gas and infant massage and found some great little 10 minute routines. The BEST thing for gas is lay her on her back. Take her legs and bend them at the knees and rock them up to her chest. Rock the legs over and over for a minute almost like you are rolling her into a little ball. Also, the massage where you use the palm of your hand and do clockwise rotations on her belly was one of my son's favorites. It helps to manually move the gas through the intestines and out through her bottom. It was very soothing and both of those techniques would help my son release gas. The knee rocking technique is appearently an old one. I told my friend about it and when she mentioned it to her mom, her mom said,'of course' that she had done it to them (her kids) 30 years ago. In any case, do a quick internet search for infant massage and find a few techniques for your daughter. The two previously mentioned ones worked fabulously well on my son.....
Hope that helps. :)
L.

Oh I'm so sorry to hear she's having a hard time...it's so hard to see them be uncomfortable. My first was not a very good burper and HATED having gas but I've had THREE pediatricians tell me those Milicon drops are for the birds and that they're just to make you feel like you're doing something to help them... pressure on the tummy is one of the best ways to just help it either out or to move its way along. Unfortunately the best advice I was given and that I hold true on (and I have 2 kiddos) is that this too, shall pass!

Lots of luck!

Have you watched her eat? Is she getting a good latch on teh bottle to prevent the least amount of air in? Have you switched bottles? I have friends who have sworn by those ??? Dr. Browns or something like that.. they completely get rid of the air supposedly (I nursed so never needed them)... If it'd help, I'd certainly try! Couldn't hurt!

My son had a lot of gastro problems when he was little. Rather than gas he spit up almost constantly. Once he reached the 9month mark and the spittine up just wasnt improving I started asking around. A freind of mine reccomended Dr. Browns bottles. I was sceptical but the bottles are designed in a unique way to prevent the baby from swallowing air while nursing. After switching to those bottles the spitting up almost completely when away! I was really amazed that simply switching the bottles we used would make such a difference! They are also supposed to be great for gas. I got my set at Burlington coat factory in their baby section. I expected them to be pretty expensive but they were only 10 for a pack of 3. I would definatley give them a try.