Self feeding wind - Help!

[Fifidedeal]

My DD is just a year old and will only eat well if allowed to have her own bowl and spoon and feed herself finger foods. So far so good except that when she does a lot of the feeding herself she gets terrible wind during the night. I don't want to take a backward step with her feeding but the broken nights and seeing her in pain are doing me in! Any ideas?

Are you sure it's the self-feeding that's giving her wind? Just doesn't sound probable to me. More likely perhaps the types of foods she is eating, or perhaps her bedtime drink.

I've more or less eliminated all other possible causes. Like you I thought it must be the food at first but when I give her the same food but insist on feeding it to her we have no problems.
She still has milk from her bottle last thing, same as always, so it definitely isn't that.
When she is feeding herself she sometimes takes tiny amount but does big swallows so I think she is swallowing a lot of air. I know it sounds odd but I really can't think what else it could be...

With babies anything is possible!

How about actively winding her? I know it sounds ridiculous to wind a 1yo, but I had to do that with mine. Even now 3yo ds2 sometimes needs burping during the night - almost always when he has had a bedtime drink or has woken from thirst and asked for a drink.

Something that often helps to dislodge wind is to either change the nappy or just go through the motions lifting legs etc. Also tipping them through vertical onto one side, then back to vertical onto the other side. When you return them to vertical you are often rewarded with a great rasping burp. I sometimes do this to ds2 in his sleep.

I meant BTW winding her before she is distressed, as part of the evening routine.

Thank you for your advice PrettyCandles and sorry for the delay saying ta. Things have been manic and the wind has been better so I've not logged on for a while. I will try what you suggest. xx

How weird to find this thread today! I had been wondering what was wrong with DS (20m) - he sometimes wakes in the night and I lie down and nurse him, but he doesn't always drop back off straight away - sometimes he pulls away, arches his back and makes groaning/straining sort of crying noises. After a while he does go back to sleep but then wakes up again. It's always the time after he gets himself out of bed and walks to the top of the stairs and cries that he goes back to sleep for good - he must have been winding himself! I never even thought to wind him, so I will definitely try that tonight, though I am not sure how logistically it is best to do it, now he's so big!