Gas and reflux in babies – well, eating is their favorite thing to do and their little digestive systems need to learn how to handle the feedings. Babies get gas in two different ways – they swallow air during crying and feeding times, and have harmless bacteria breaking down the indigested sugars in the large intestine.
Sometimes babies who are breastfed will produce too much gas when their mommy has eaten broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, onions, beans or very spicy food.
( You may want to limit these foods if you notice your baby is not too impressed!).
Giving your babies fruit juices can also cause gas and tummy pain especially when they are younger than 6 months old. Babies really don’t need to drink juices at all.
What can I do to help my babies and reduce gas and reflux?
Some of the things you can do to help is to feed your baby regularly, before she is screaming for a feeding, and to keep everyone calm and relaxed during feedings and sucking quickly and gasping can increase the amount of air they are taking in. If you are nursing your baby, make sure your milk isn’t having too intense a letdown where she need to gulp to try and keep up – you can try expressing some milk first to take the pressure off. If you are bottle feeding your baby, make sure that the hole in the nipple isn’t too large and make sure the nipple is positioned so that it is full of milk and not air. Bottle fed babies tend to take in more air than breastfed babies.
If your babies seem very fussy after feedings and you’ve done your best to eliminate the air problem, you can try massaging their tummies in a clockwise motion while they are laying flat on their back.
Reducing gas and colic using infant massage
You can try holding your baby facedown over your arm while patting her back, sometimes holding them this way can help release the excess gas. There are also over the counter medications that can help – gripe water works wonderfully , we used it exclusively with our twin babies and they really like the taste! Natural Medicine for Infant Colic, Gas and Reflux There are also simethicone drops that can help move the gas through.
Burping baby
Burping your babies halfway through their feeding is a good idea as trapped air can result in them feeling full before they are done, as well as feelings of gas and reflux. Watch your babies for slowing down or starting to squirm, usually a good time to stop and try for a burp. Some different positions good for burping are:
– holding your baby upright over your shoulder and patting them firmly on the back.
– sitting them up on your lap, holding their chin with one hand and leaning them forward slightly, rub or pat their back.
– laying them across your lap on their tummy with their head elevated and rub or pat their back firmly.
You should be rewarded with a nice juicy burp – if not, try feeding some more and try again later.
Why does my baby spit up ?
Hm , good question. I think I walked around every day with baby barf on one of my shoulders. I got used to it! They say about half of all healthy babies spit up on a daily basis. The medical term is gastroesophageal reflux or GER. It usually occurs right after eating when the lower esophageal sphincter muscle that separates the esophagus from the stomach relaxes. This tends to be the worst around 4 months of age affecting breastfed and bottlefed babies. It is usually outgrown by 6 – 12 months once they are eating solids and sitting up to eat. Keeping your babies upright after feeding as much as possible helps, rather than laying them down when their stomach contents can back up. Avoid lifting them up too fast as well as more than one dad has scooped his just fed baby up and over his head, only to get barfed on !
What can you do about GER?
Have lots of burp cloths and towels handy at all times 🙂 And – keep your baby as upright as possible during and after feedings if this is a concern. Try not to feed them so much that they are too full, smaller feedings more often work well with babies with gas and reflux. Make sure you don’t bounce your baby around afterwards, putting them in a swing or an infant seat for a while after eating can help. Tobacco smoke has been linked to GER, so make sure that no one is smoking around your baby. Check their diapers to make sure nothing is too tight around their waist.
If you are using formula to feed your baby ask their advice if GER is becoming a big problem. You may need to thicken the formula to help it stay down or switch brands.
GER is common and normal in many babies so don’t panic. However, if the spitting up is so frequent that your baby is not getting enough nourishment, or the stomach acids are injuring the esophagus, then your baby may have a complication called gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD.
GERD
GER and GERD occur more often in preemies, infants who have some sort of developmental delays, babies born from traumatic delivery or those with lung disease or gastrointestinal birth defects. It is more severe than just gas and reflux. Some babies have ‘silent reflux’ where the stomach contents back up into the esophagus and cause painful irritation, but don’t reach the mouth, so you don’t see what is happening.
If one (or both) of your babies is crying all the time, having trouble sleeping, is not a good feeder ( arching their back, pulling away often,) you may want to have your doctor look into GERD.
Other symptoms can be coughing, wheezing, choking and gagging. Pneumonia can become a complication if the constant gas and reflux cause stomach contents to enter the windpipe.
GERD is treated with usually with feeding changes and medications. Sometimes there may be an allergic reaction to cow’s milk which can look like GERD , typically the suggestion will be to try a soy based formula to see if the reaction goes away. If you are a breastfeeding mother, you may be asked to stay away from cow’s milk products, to see if that is the culprit.
Vomiting – not spitting up
Just as a side note, vomiting is not spitting up and is not caused by just gas and reflux . It can be caused by a stomach virus , allergy to cow’s milk, a blockage or a head injury. It is a concern in infants. If it starts to become projectile vomiting it may be due to a thickening of the muscle where the stomach empties into the small intestine called pyloric stenosis and requires immediate attention and surgery to repair it.
If you baby is vomiting constantly, has blood in the vomit, has yellow tinged vomit, swollen stomach , refuses to drink call your pediatrician immediately.
