Gas is a common problem among babies and can frustrate new parents. Fortunately, you can do a few things to help your baby relieve gas and feel more comfortable. In this article, we will discuss the causes of gas in babies, as well as some tips for how to deal with it.
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Why is My Child So Gassy?
If you’re unsure whether or not your baby is fussy, consider this: there are over 300 million parents in the United States alone. Most babies outgrow their fussiness within a few weeks; it’s just a stage all toddlers go through. If your child seems miserable and in pain from gas, they may need some relief. Here are some considerations as to why your baby is gassy:
Overindulging as a Result of Excessive Breast Milk or Bust Engorgement
A gassy newborn may be unavoidable if you’re nursing and have engorgement or an overabundance of breast milk. Your baby may naturally guzzle milk, causing additional air to enter the stomach. Later, these gas bubbles may form due to the existing amount of air in the stomach.
Food Level of Sensitivities or Allergies
It’s not unusual for newborns to have food allergies that cause stomachaches. A gassy, nursed baby is more likely to have these levels of sensitivity, which usually begin in the mother’s diet. True food allergies are rare; however, they might result in additional symptoms such as hives or hissing, so you’ll want to contact your child’s doctor immediately.
Lactose Intolerance
For nutritional value, many experts advocate using cow’s milk-based infant formula. However, if you use this formula and your infant is lactose intolerant, you may notice a lot more gas, bowel motions, nausea, and vomiting.
What Causes Gas in Babies?
There are a few reasons why your baby may be gassy. They may be fussy from hunger, diaper changes, teething, illness, or discomfort in the tummy. Below are some other reasons:
- Air ingestion when feeding or crying is quite common and typical among newborns.
- Food that passes through an underdeveloped digestive system, leaving it unbroken enough to go through quickly.
- Some infants are hypersensitive to one or more components in their mother’s milk, but those reactions are less common. Food allergies have also been linked to infant colic (though these are far rarer).
What Are the Signs of a Gassy Baby?
Every baby, of course, passes gas. However, watch for the following indications and symptoms of a higher-than-usual amount of baby gas:
#1. Your kid may shed tears and become fussy for an hour or two every day
Gassiness in newborns is frequent due to a tiny, immature digestive system. However, if it happens daily and does not appear to be getting better, you must still consult your doctor.
#2. Your baby is always gloomy
This could signify that your infant has a particularly gas-prone digestive tract and that you need to provide more support. A gassy condition that results in extreme discomfort is usually a symptom of an underlying issue.
#3. Your baby isn’t eating or sleeping much
Baby gas is a common condition that affects many infants and can be caused by various things, including resting or eating difficulties. Consult your doctor for a medical diagnosis if you have trouble sleeping or feeding your baby.
#4. Spitting up
Spitting up is a typical occurrence for babies, and this is generally caused by ingesting too much air simultaneously, which creates gas. Spit-up, on the other hand, is beneficial since it expels air from the lungs before traveling to the stomach and digestive system.
#5. Other signs
Other nuanced signs such as your baby getting red in the face or squirming as though he’s unpleasant may indicate they are gassy. Drawing their upper hands to his chest, especially during spells of fussiness, is another sign of gassiness because they tense up their belly.
Gas vs. Colic: What’s the Difference?
Is your baby fussy due to gas or colic? A newborn is frequently colicky since he has a hard time self-soothing. If your infant frequently begins wailing around the same time each day (often in the early evening), he is most likely experiencing colic rather than gas.
Gas in the belly might make infants fussy, giving the impression that they’re colicky when they’re not; nevertheless, colic and gassiness are two distinct conditions. Colic in youngsters is typically caused by an underdeveloped digestive system, overstimulation, and a premature nervous system.
Colic is a condition that causes severe crying, which can last for long periods. Colicky infants are often upset and experience episodes of constant, intense weeping that may escalate into screaming for lengthy periods. They’re or else healthy.
What Should I Do if My Baby is Gassy?
If your baby’s tummy issues seem to be a problem, try some of these steps to treat a fizzy baby:
Attempt the Colic Carry
Lie your infant tummy-down against your knees or hold him beneath his belly with your lower arm and gently massage treatment to his back. The pressure on his stomach might help relieve gas pressure (as well as the touch of his hand).
Mid-feeding Burping
Swallowing air during feedings is a common cause of infant discomfort. Try giving your baby a mild back massage mid-feed to eliminate swallowed air before it reaches the child’s stomach.
One sign that your baby needs a mid-meal burp: After a few minutes of feeding, he abruptly turns away from the bust or container, which is more likely to be caused by gas than fullness. If you’re bottle-feeding, burp your baby every 2 to 3 ounces. If you’re nursing every 5 to 10 minutes.
Consider Probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms that help your GI system function properly. They’re typically found in fermented foods like kimchi and yogurt, in addition to probiotic supplements and formulas designed for stomach problems in children.
According to research, probiotics may help decrease gassiness in people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by maintaining gut health however, more study is needed to confirm this. Meanwhile, while probiotics are generally considered secure, consult your doctor before giving your infant any probiotic product.
Tummy Time!
Tummy time is essential for developing the muscles your baby needs to lift his head and, eventually, crawl and walk. However, mild pressure on the stomach may assist with gas pain. Because some infants spit up if placed on their stomachs immediately after feeding, wait for at least 20 to 30 minutes (or until gas begins) before tummy time.
During tummy time, always keep an eye on your child. Finally, never allow your baby to go to sleep on his stomach since this increases the danger of SIDS.
Control the Airflow
Whether he consumes breast or bottled milk, try feeding your kid in an upright posture to limit the air he takes in. If you’re nursing, make sure your baby’s suck correctly locked. Anti-gas nipples and bottles for bottle-fed babies can modify the circulation of milk and minimize the amount of air your child consumes.
Ensure the nipple is always completely full with milk, so your infant doesn’t pursue air-filled bottles. Also, avoid shaking the bottle too hard, which can result in extra bubbles in the milk. Instead of powder, you may try using a concentrated fluid or pre-ready-to-feed formula.
Feed your Kid Ahead of Time to Avoid a Panic
Crying, of course, is a problematic issueparticularly for tiny children. However, the more your child cries, the more air he gets (and the more gas he builds). Try to understand early hunger signals in babies to avoid a gassy baby.
Try Baby Gas Drops
Although they don’t benefit every kid, baby gas reductions are generally considered safe for babies. Look for formulas with as few preservatives as feasible, and talk to your child’s doctor before continuing.
Consult Your Doctor About Drinking Chamomile Tea
Ask your doctor first, as some doctors suggest giving your baby cool or warm (not hot) chamomile tea via a dropper or mixing it in their milk if you’re bottle-feeding, which might help with gas pain and colic symptoms.
Do the Baby Bicycle Kicks
To assist in pushing out blocked air, lay your kid on his back and cycle his legs in a biking exercise towards his tummy with hands. Or softly press the infant’s knees up to his stomach and hold for 10 seconds before releasing and straightening the baby’s legs. Repeat as needed.
If You’re Nursing, Be Sure to Check Your Diet Plan
Speak with your pediatrician about whether you must try removing foods that might cause gas in your infant if breastfeeding. Dairy products, high amounts of caffeine, onions, and cabbage are all examples of items that can produce baby gas.
Massaging your Baby
Massage therapy can occasionally assist your kid in releasing gas. Start with your baby’s stomach and work your way up with a gentle massage around his shoulders, back, and legs. It may enable him to relax enough to pass gas.
Test Brand-new Formulas
Some formulas are intended to reduce gassiness in infants. Consult your healthcare provider about whether it’s worth trying a new formula.
Try Baby Gripe Water
On the other hand, Gripe water is a combination of sodium bicarbonate and herbs (typically fennel and ginger, to name a few), which may help with gas and quite picky children; however, the jury is still out on whether it works. Never give your infant complaint water without consulting your pediatrician.
What Effect Does a Baby’s Diet Have on Gas?
Breast milk is the organic benchmark for food for kids and is typically the healthiest option whenever feasible. Gas in an infant does not necessitate that you stop breastfeeding.
Gas can be a side effect of milk formula. Air bubbles may appear in an infant’s food if you combine infant formula, increasing the chance of gas. Alternatively, use a pre-prepared liquid formula or wait two minutes after feeding the baby before feeding him again.
Some infants may have an allergy to components in formula, such as soy or lactose. Lactose intolerance is actually uncommon in newborns and is usually transitory. Premature babies who are born may develop a deficit of lactase, which only lasts for a little while.
The claim that lactose-free milk-based or soy-based formulas reduce fussiness and crying in babies was found in a 2015 research to be untrue.
Before changing a baby’s formula, an individual should talk to their pediatrician. Keeping a food diary can help identify food sensitivity culprits that cause gas in infants when they start eating solid foods.
Gas Medical Diagnosis
Gas is not a medical condition but a brief-term yet distressing symptom in many children.
If you’re worried about the gas or if other symptoms develop, your doctor may advise further testing to discover the source.
Physicians may utilize the following procedures to determine the gas source and other symptoms and indications:.
- Requesting a soiled baby diaper to examine the baby’s feces.
- Ask someone to keep a food record for the kid and, if applicable, the mother.
- Analyzing the baby for current medical issues.
If the medical expert suspects a severe illness, they may acquire imaging studies of the infant’s digestive tract to assist with treating even more severe problems.
When is it Time to Visit the Healthcare Provider?
It’s usually best to trust your instincts as a parent. If you have a worry or your kid looks odd or is hurting, join the doctor in signing in. When an infant is fussy, other issues may come into play that necessitates examination and treatment.
Excessive Breast Milk Production
A surplus of breast milk may cause a solid letdown and/or flow that encourages your child to swallow in more air as they suck. This can lead to stomach gas, and you may usually fix it by pumping or hand expressing for a few seconds before nursing.
A surplus is when your body becomes accustomed to the amount of breast milk your child takes. If not, talk to a doctor or lactation expert about how you can manage your breast milk supply.
Excessive Quantities of Lactose
Lactose overload is another cause of gas in nursed infants. This happens when there is a difference in the quantity and quality of the foremilk and hindmilk. The baby’s first breast milk, the foremilk, contains less fat but has more lactose than the hindmilk, which floods after it.
If your infant gets full from foremilk and doesn’t absorb enough hindmilk, they may develop gas due to the surplus lactose in the breast milk. Green feces (showing their food is moving through their system quickly to be absorbed entirely), gassiness, and slow growth are all signs that indicate your baby has a lactose overload.
You may have an imbalance if you change sides frequently before your child reaches the hindmilk. A kid that consumes only foremilk can develop a condition where they are full-on foremilk. Switching sides halfway through the feeding might help your kid get hindmilk at each feeding since draining the bust completely before switching sides aids in this. Pump at the start of each session to drain off a few of the foremilk. Consult your pediatrician or lactation expert to assist you in balancing your supply.
Food Allergies
If your baby’s fussy, wriggling, and giggling, but these behaviors continue beyond their first few months, they probably have a food allergy or intolerance. The ideal solution is to see if there are any other major health concerns in the household.
Celiac Disease
Gastric illness, a severe gluten intolerance, can also cause pain in the stomach. This autoimmune disease does not exist from birth; instead, it develops due to something in the child’s environment “turning on” the genes that generate it.
If your child is experiencing growth problems, stomach discomfort, vomiting, loose stools, or irregularity in the bowels or bowel, or if gastrointestinal or other autoimmune diseases are present in your family, ask your doctor to check for celiac disease.
Infection and Other Medical Conditions
Ask your doctor about any gassiness that comes with a high temperature, urinary incontinence, looseness of the bowels, severe abdominal discomfort, abnormal development, blood in the feces, or other unusual symptoms. These indicators might be signs of an underlying sickness.
Final Thoughts Gassy Baby
Yes, a gassy infant is natural, yet you may still need to know how to assist your kid with gas. Because your newborn’s digestion system is growing and they are acclimated to new breast milk or formula diet plan, the problem is most likely temporary. Use the findings to figure out how to alleviate infant gas.
If the gas is making your baby sick or causing discomfort, see a doctor. Your kid may have an adverse food reaction or just require a different type of formula. Remember that infants sob to communicate, and you’re doing fantastic! Gas is standard, sobs are usual, and your child’s doctor will be there if needed.