Gassy 4 Month Old

My daughter did this too. We found out that she is allergic to dairy. i am comepletly off dairy and she is doing great!!

We always used homeopathic Hyland's Colic Tabs, safe and usually worked quite well for us; we prefer non-chemical options, so it was great.

Also, I would cut dairy completely. It is so dreadful on a baby's system.

You're a great mommy for seeking answers... good luck!

Ive read that studies show a moms diet doesnt actually give gas- thats just an old wives tale. We did do infant GasX and it worked everytime!

gripe water does wonders!

My favorite for each one of the babies is Chamomilla (Chamomile). You can get the safe & effective tabs at Whole foods, Sunflower, etc. A MUST HAVE FOR ANY FAMILY!!! Great for teething too. ;0)

We have had the same problem with our three month old since birth. We finally tried Colic Calm. It's expensive, but without it, I was up every hour at night. We had tried everything that everyone recommends as well as everything we could find online. This has given him some relief, but it took about a week to help.

You may need to completely eliminate gas-causing foods from your diet, try eliminating a food such as all dairy for a week and then do a trial re-introduction to see if it was the culprit. I hate to scare you, but my mom had to stay off dairy for a year when I was a baby because I reacted so badly to it! Just make sure that if you do have to eliminate a food or two that you are still gettting the nutrients that you need. Good luck!

Ditto on the dairy thing- DD is extremely lactose intolerant (I'm mildly so, but was much worse during my pregnancy) and WIC switched me and then her when she weaned to Lactaid and it helped so much.

Hi Becca - congratulations on your new baby!

If you can pinpoint her distress to certain hours during the day, then it probably is something in your diet. It will be trial and error - start logging what you eat at dinner and during the evening and then eliminate something for a time - you might find something right away. Dairy is common.

My chiropractor is able to do allergy testing - he checked both me and my little guys after they were born and treated us. Results were dairy, corn, tomatoes and shellfish.

I'll look for a post I did a while back on baby massage and send it to you. My first had lots of pain and problems with gassiness and these techniques helped alot. They are easy enough that you can do them at 2 in the morning with your daughter on your lap.

good luck!

EDIT: Here is part of that old post for you on baby massage:

My first was very gassy and had problems from his first weeks. Baby massage worked amazingly well to relax him and many of the movements are geared toward helping moves things along in the digestive tract. We used Mylicon drops with a lot of success as well.

Here's a couple of things to try when your little one is gassy:

1. during tummy time fold her knees up into her belly and let her lay there with her bottom in the air. You can also do this when she is laying on your tummy. The warmth will be comforting.

2. with your baby laying on her back on the floor or in your lap, loosely ring your thumb and fingers around her legs just above the knees. Gently press her legs into her tummy and slowly roll her legs from left to right in the direction of digestion for about a count of 5 then let her relax then repeat the motion a few more times as she will allow. Her bottom will rise up a little and she may even turn a little red in the face. She will most likely toot more than once and will be happier when it's over.

What I use for my children of all ages, from newborn +, is called Kid-e-Col made by the Dr. Christopher company. It is a purely herbal formula that you can get at health food stores. I would recommend giving 1/4 dropper every 15 minutes for a four month old until there is obvious relief from the discomfort. This formula tastes great and is completely non-toxic, so if they happen to drink the whole bottle (like my 3 yr old did because he loves the flavor) there is no harm done other than you have to buy more. I also walk around holding my baby and bouncing him. This action is like massaging the area and helps to stimulate the intestines. Withing 20-30 minutes he's back to sleep again. You could also try giving your baby the formula before you put her down for the night. Good luck. I hope you find some great help.

cut dairy out completely. sometimes even a little bit can be enough to keep that coming.

My niece had the same problem and my sister did something similar to what Colleen mentioned several times a day. It seemed to help a lot.

Babies are naturally lactose intolerant - their intestines don't do well digesting the sugar in milk (all milk, even breast milk, so it's not from you eating dairy) and it causes gas. The more fat in the milk, the longer it stays in the stomach, and the more broken down the sugars get (meaning less in the intestine, so less gas). In breast milk, its the hind milk that has the most fat, so make sure she is completely draining one side before you switch. That may mean she eats only on one side at a feeding, but your breasts adjust really quickly.
Since it's mostly in the early morning, I would guess that it's a night-time mursing where she isn't getting to the hind milk, so be extra sure to not switch until she's drained the first side.

Hope it helps!

I love Gripe water and my pediatrician told us to use Maalox. 1 t. of gripe water or 1/2 t. of maalox. We use either depending on the time of day and the amount of gas. I also use carbo veg homeopathic tablets. I love them but some people are looking for something more mainstream. Mylicon didn't ever work for us either.
Good luck

Yes, thankfully it is just a passing stage, and remember, it can only get better (since it probably can't get worse...). Don't ALL babies have gas in the middle of the night???? Both my babes did this, and they both were on breastmilk and formula. So it may not be anything at all in your breastmilk. None of the traditional stuff worked--gas drops, gripe water, switching to exclusive formula, switching formulas etc. A Mom on here told me the gut is working the hardest from 4-6, which is when both of mine had it bad bad bad. My DD slept through it finally at 12 weeks, and my son at 15 weeks. Sometimes feeding them at 3 am would actully exacerbate their gas (my son ended up having acid reflux to the point of needing medication) so once they got big enough to sleep through the 3am feed, we helped them to do this. I think it's tempting when you're breastfeeding to just stick a boob in her mouth, but at a certain point (8 weeks/9 lbs) they are ready to move past it.

I had the same problem with my daughter when she was a baby. Her dr. suggested I try cutting chocolate, broccoli (and other gassy greens) and dairy completely out of my diet. Some baby's digestive systems simply can not handle those foods at all. It worked like flipping a switch. The gassiness was more or less gone in a day. A few months later, when her digestive system had matured a bit more I started adding those food back into my diet, at which point she seems to tolerate them fairly well.
Good luck. Hope you can figure out what's wrong.

She might grow out of it. My 6 month old was the gassiest baby I had known after we brought her, and boy, did some of those toots stink!I was strictly breastfeeding as well. Her pedi said some babies are just gassy no matter what you do. And my baby girl is happy all the time. She rarely toots now.Once we knew she was fine and there wasn't much we could do, we just blamed Dad or the dog. :)

I used Gripe water with both my kids and swear by it. My son has horrible reflux, and this worked well for him as an infant before discovering the reflux.

Good luck, that is really hard!

Hello Becca,

Congratulations on your little one! When my daughter was a baby (11 years ago) we used gripe water. She was the gassiest baby ever from both ends. Also, she had the hiccups all the time and she still does. Gripe water was the best thing for her. Well, little did we know, but this year, she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and that was the reason she has always been such a gassy child from both ends. I don't know if that is why your child is gassy, but I don't want your child to have to suffer as long as my child had to suffer with stomach discomfort. Now that she is on a gluten free diet, she is not as much gassy, which is such a nice relief for her and the rest of the family. :) Good luck and I hope you find some relief for your little one.