BF baby with trapped wind - any suggestions?

[DDDixon]

My lovely one week old is suffering from wind (the screamy colic sort).

She's still feeding well, every 3 hoursish, and I've started giving her infacol before feeds. I'm trying to feed her in a more "upright" position and we are doing lots of backpatting and holding upright, just wondered what else we could do to help her? (and us!)

[tiktok]

DDD, what makes you think it is trapped wind?

Not saying it isn't....but why?

[DDDixon]

She's fine otherwise - wet/dirty nappies, taking her feeds, looks well - I know it sounds stupid given how little she is but she's not a whingy baby, after the one awful night with her last week we started co sleeping and she's really settled, she loves being held/carried generally but is ok in the car/pram/bouncy chair and when we propped the head of her carrycot up she was able to settle in there. It's not like she's crying to be held if you see what I mean.

You can sort of see it as well, her tummy growls and she wriggles and screws her little face up, then if you're lucky enough to get an explosive fart or maybe a burp she seems a lot happier for a while. She feeds really well and I have been guilty of letting her go straight to sleep from the breast, I didn't realise it was a bad idea until yesterday when she started with this.

I just want to help her! She's so gorgeous and she had such a long difficult journey out (two day labour, EMCS, yada yada), it's not fair that she's uncomfortable. I want to sleep as well, and more than that I want her dad to sleep! She is sleeping on and off but waking easily and looking really uncomfortable. I'm hoping to get to baby cafe tomorrow for some advice on feeding postions and stuff.

[tiktok]

Good that she's fine and thriving

OK....all human beings have stomachs that make noises, including growls. You tend to be aware of it more in small babies as there is not much insulating fat over their tums and you have your ear closer to their tums. But if you put your ear right next to anyone's stomach you'll soon hear all sorts of weird sounds.

Wriggling - normal. Screwing face up - normal. Neither of these are signs of discomfort in a baby. If she was in real distress she would either i) scream in pain or ii) 'switch off' and be difficult to rouse.

It is fine and good to let her fall asleep at the breast. We have some sort of daft idea that babies need 'winding' come what may before they are allowed to sleep. This is cultural, not physiological. Some babies may need this, but it's not a given for all babies.

So you can see, it doesn't really sound as if this is trapped wind, but more likely the normal wrigglings and writhings and face pullings of a new baby with little control over her limbs and facial muscles

I think it's prob a good idea to go to the baby cafe, as I'm sure they will offer support and hopefully you will see your baby is ok and not windy, or no more than most.

Mostly, when babies really do seem distressed, they just need holding and feeding and soothing. It's got nothing to do with air in the stomach

Of course maybe she is windy - but the evidence for this is not in your post as everything you say is just what new babies are like

[OnEdge]

Sounds exactly like trapped wind to me, especially if a fart or burp releives it. The leg wriggling and face too. Infacol is good, my freind swore by coleif. I was advised by my MW to lie baby on back, and gently rotate legs round and round a bit like a froggy position. He did tend to respond to this. I will try and find you a link to illustrate.

[Morloth]

Both my DS's have enjoyed being carried around on our arms.

So you lie them face down with their head near your elbow and then rub their backs with the other hand. Swap arms sometimes so that you don't get unevenly developed biceps.

I don't know anything about wind (both my boys have been champion farter/burpers) but this often settled them when they were having a "Oh crap WTF is going on?!?!?!" sort of moment (which is fair enough when you think of it), I also use a hugabubg for getting stuff done around the house - think it is called a moby wrap here, holds them upright and snug against your chest.

Can't think of any reason why you shouldn't BF them to sleep? Have done this with both and it was fine.

[mum2JRC]

I always found bring their knees to their chest repeatedly helped to release wind

[Sara13]

My 11 week old developed collc at 9 days old where she was inconsolable(breastfed). I went to a Cranial Osteopath and after 2 sessions she was a totally different baby still windy but able to bring up any wind easily (at both ends) It was an amazing transformation and now people comment on how relaxed she is. I tried colief/infacol/dentinox and nothing seemed to work for her. Hope this helps!

[DDDixon]

Thanks all! Just had a chat with a friend who is a mum of two and a midwife, she reckons the broccoli I ate yesterday is likely the culprit...going to stay away from cruciform (??) veg and hopefully baby will cheer up She's had a nice afternoon being rocked by her dad and we're now looking at buying her one of those horribly expensive rocking hammock thingies to save our arms.
There have been some quite exciting trumps heralding periods of calm, there's an upside to everything

[dizzyem]

Also avoiding grapes can help I have been told but not unitl my DD2 had bad colic too.

massaging the tummy when she is relaxed can help too in a circular clockwise motion gently with 2 fingers as can playing "grand old duke of york" gently pushing her legs up to her tummy and extending them again

My DD2 grew out of the windiness at about 17 weeks of age so there is hope :-)

[AllSheepareWhite]

Food you eat are important in early stages, later on hopefully you can become more adventurous. Best thing I found for easing wind in my DD when she was newborn and now at 11 1/2 months is to put my mouth on her back around the stomach area (mid spine) whilst holding her upright on my knee (hand supporting chin and head) slightly leaning foward and then make low sounds (bit like a didgeridoo) the vibration and the warmth got the wind out faster than rubbing/patting and often she would fall asleep whilst I was doing it! Found winding on knee better too as when over shoulder stomach is not free to move when wind moves and if they are sick it goes on floor not down your back.

[theboobmeister]

I think tiktok is absolutely right. And she knows what she is talking about.

I had exactly the same concerns as have been mentioned here, ended up going on all sorts of exclusion diets and giving DD loads of medicine (Infacol, Calpol and Gaviscon). Pointless. At the time, I never even thought about any other possible explanations for screamy-colic-stuff - like holding, over-stimulation, tiredness, feeding position, or just normal baby behaviour. Wish I had paid more attention to non-medical/physiological factors - she ended up having so much medicine at such a young age, none of it helped in the slightest and you really worry about the side effects ...

[AllSheepareWhite]

ps cruciferous veg is all those of the cabbage family, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, watercress etc♦

[tots2ten]

try swaddling, some baby's dont like the new amount of freedom they have. It was the only way I was able to get my dc's to sleep when they were babies.

[sarahjones80]

If you drink something like baby stomach ease tea it will help your baby to digest and even broccoli would be possible for you to eat :-)You pass the effect on through your milk. I had the same with my LO and it really helped a treat.

[SuperSandy87]