How to help a gassy baby sleep better at night | Infant gas relief home remedy exercises
If your gassy baby is having trouble sleeping, you may not know what to do or why this is even happening. But first let’s talk about whether or not this is actually a gas situation.
How to help a gassy baby sleep better at night | Infant gas relief home remedy exercises
Until your baby is 2-3 months old, their digestive system is still immature. So anything that’s going into their digestive system may upset it and they may just have trouble passing gas or pooping or whatever it might be, and this can all also cause your baby to wake up more frequently during the night. You’re probably wondering how you can tell if it’s gas or if they’re just tired or if they just can’t get themselves to sleep or what the situation might be.
Signs that your child is struggling with gas:
- Their stomachs are going to look distended or bloated.
- They also may be clenching their legs closer to their stomach, getting more into that ball fetal position
- A lot more crying and it may sound like a more painful different cry than any other cry that they may have.
One of the biggest things that you can do to help your baby move the gas through their body is to burp them. Sometimes babies burp very easily and sometimes they don’t. So if your child hasn’t burped and you’re still trying to give it 5 to 10 minutes, if you’re burping them over the shoulder, try putting them on the other shoulder that can sometimes help. Another thing that you can do in terms of burping is to stop feeding them halfway through and burp halfway.
The second thing that you can do to help your baby relieve their gas pain is by doing bicycles with their legs. Having that bicycle movement is really helping their stomach in their diet system, get a move on it because obviously your little tiny baby is not mobile yet. So being able to actually make that mobile yourself is going to help move any air through their system to help it come out the other end.
The third thing that you’re going to want to try doing is massaging in a circular motion. Now, generally what I have heard is clockwise, is the best way to get the gas moving. But I’ve also heard that you can do both ways but I would just try clockwise first. I am not a medical professional disclaimer, so do not take my word for which way you should be rubbing your child’s stomach. However, in my newborn sleep course I do go into a lot of detail on exactly how to give your baby an infant massage and any type of massage that is getting your baby’s body moving and getting all those air bubbles out is going to help your baby. So, head over and get the newborn sleep course!
Another thing that you can do in relation to having the bicycle leg going and the stomach massage is by doing the press and release with their legs. So you want to hold them around their knees and then press it up to their stomach. Just hold for a second and then release you’re not pressing hard, you’re just doing a little tiny bit of pressure just to kind of get those legs and body moving.
Now, here’s another one that a lot of new parents don’t really think about. And what you need to do is make sure when you’re feeding your baby, you have them on an incline, so you want their head up here and the rest of their body down here so that when they’re eating, there’s just a natural flow downward. I’ve seen situations where families are just laying their baby on the couch or on the floor or wherever it may be, where they’re lying flat and they just watch it dribble right out because they’re not having that inclined position where it’s going to go straight down. So if you have them on an incline while you’re feeding them and this can be bottle or breast, then you’re more likely to have less air going in and more gas coming out.
The next thing that you want to do is check your child’s nipple size. If you’re using a bottle, you want to make sure that it’s not too big, not too small. Generally with gas if the nipple is too big and it’s going very quickly and they may be sucking in more air when they’re done with the bottle. Also, if the nipple is too small and they need to put a lot of effort into sucking, they may just be taking in more air as they’re sucking and putting in that effort.
If you’re breastfeeding and you’re still noticing a lot of gas issues, you may want to talk to your doctor about any kind of diet modification that you may need to consider if your baby’s stomach is still upset and they’re really gassy and frustrated after they’re done eating.Then you may want to consider cutting certain things or eliminating them temporarily from your diet in order to identify why your child is having these tummy troubles.
Now of course you can get some over the counter gas drops or gripe water, but you definitely want to talk to the pediatrician first. They may have other suggestions or want you to try some of the other things that we mentioned before taking that route.
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Missy Yandow
Pediatric Sleep Consultant
Potty Training Coach
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