Anything I can do to help with bottom wind (lovely!) and discomfort in 1 mth old?

[newmummy100]

My 1mth old keeps crying and is very unsettled due to bottom wind.

I can hear him trying to push his bowels and grunting... and he looks very uncomfortable. After a lot of pushing he will eventually pass wind/poop... and then the process starts again.

He is breast fed (+ one expressed bottle during the night). Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to help (I wind him... but he never burps.. all the wind seems to go down below and then get stuck). Patting his bottom does not seem to help.

Any techniques or help would be fab.

Thank you!

make sure he is in a good feeding position and not guzzling air when he latches on to you...

i always found my kids would let go of any wind (either end!) if i sat on a chair with my feet flat on the floor with my knees together and lay them tummy down across my legs widthways if that makes sense. i used to rub their backs in a circular motion....it just worked...try it!

or, you can read up on a few baby massage techniques...there is one where you rub their tummy in a circular motion, but it has to be a particular direction to help with digestion, and i can't remember which way!!

are his poos nice and squishy? is he constipated at all?

could he be intolerant to something in your diet?

could you try a week completley dairy free and see if that helps?

My ds was the same. Time was the healer I'm afraid. A sling was also a godsend. I used a stretchy wrap and he always wanted to be in an upright position. I also tried cranio sacral work, but it didn't help much. While he was there he farted lots, but overall it didn't improve. I also used a bounchy ball (the pregnancy/exercise ones).

I found laying DS on his back and bringing his legs up so they were bent at the knees, then going from side to side and up to his belly very gently for a little bit each nappy change helped.

Also loosening his nappy - still do this now and he is 6 months.

I don't know the age limit on gripe water, but that is also great

Laying DS on his front on my chest or over my knee was also helpful.

Congrats on your LO

Can second the last post - gently bring his knees up to his chest and go from side to side and down and up a bit - it seemed to do the job for DD.

Also, although breastfed babies don't need burping as a rule, give it a go after feeds and see if it makes a difference. If it does help then he is obviously taking in too much air when feeding (probably not latching on properly), in which case I'd pop down to your nearest breastfeeding group (all the Children's Centres run them) and see if you can get some advice.

I was advised to give up garlic and onions for a few days to see if that helped. it is surprising how much of these were in my diet, I now try to keep them to a minimum. I also try to limit any other 'farty' foods in my diet

I also drank lots of peppermint tea and I mean lots, about 8 cups a day.

Bicycling legs after feeding helped as did bending and flexing both legs together whilst feeding.

A HV told me that some bum-wind is caused by tummy wind going down not up, so you could try infacol before feeding and then burping afterwards or even during feeds. My mum told me bf babies don't need burping but mine really does - I think it is a bit of a myth TBH!

My DD is 14wks now, she had terrible tummy trouble as a newborn but she has improved as time went on. It is so distressing though, I really feel for you.

what sir boobalot said, also see if you can get hv to get you some baby massage training that really helped dd until i learnt baby reflexology which was a god send for everything.Still use it now dd 2.5 when she is sick.

Upright in a sling if you have one.

I did baby massage with both of mine, and the advice for dealing with any kind of stomach complaints was to rub in circular motions on their stomach. You're supposed to do clockwise direction (as you look at them lying down), and particularly focus on rubbing on the right hand side of the stomach in a downward motion - but getting to a class or finding a book will probably give you clearer information than I can.

I think someone else has already mentioned but bicycling legs, and also very gently pushing their knees up towards their chest can also help.

Some of these may work some of the time, but I never found a foolproof solution unfortunately.

Actually, one other thing which I also found with mine was 'if in doubt, feed'. I often found that if they were struggling in the bottom department, getting more in the top end seemed to help it all come out the bottom end - not very scientific but it did work for me!

My daughter was / is the same. Heres what I tried: good effective winding after feeds (lying her on tummy / over shoulder / sitting up - all of the above), bicycling legs and tummy massage, cutting down on onions garlic and dairy, peppermint tea, cranial osteopathy, gripe water, infacol, tilting the cot up, using a dummy. The best remedies so far are getting good burps out and then popping a dummy in, which helps get the gut moving and the parps come out. Good luck, I feel your pain!

I agree with responses about baby massage, I did classes at my local children's centre and it really helped with 2nd. With 1st i used to swaddle her til about 16 weeks which helped her - i got swaddlease blankets online although if baby is "small" a muslin or crib sheet work just as well.

Also with regards to your diet, your baby could have reaction to something you're eating. My youngest was like that (but lots of other symptoms) and I had to cut dairy before finally giving up bf. Talk to HV and/or GP if other tips don't work.

Good luck! Oh and bf babies can still have colic and as such it should stop by 16 weeks - don't buy colic drops, my gp and paediatrician told me they have been soley made to make mums feel better but no evidence that they do anything!