Why do I make such gassy babies?

[ThatDamnDog]

DD is 2 weeks 3 days old and I posted a few days back about her feeding until she was sick.

She's still doing it most nights, which is fine, but I think she's feeding loads because she's uncomfy. Like DS at this age, her abdomen has become distended, hard and bloated and she's spending a lot of time groaning/stretching/grunting. Now she's struggling to get settled sleep as the day wears on and then she wants to feed loads and I think the feeding makes her worse and it's spiralling a bit. Winding her doesn't shift a huge amount of gas, and she feeds very quietly so I don't think she's taking a lot in with a feed. My gut feeling is that she's generating gas in her intestines as it's mostly farts.

DS started off doing the same at this age and from 3 weeks he cried every night for hours until 5.5 months. He had a sore, hard tummy, couldn't sleep properly as a result and became hysterically tired as the day wore on.

Any suggestions? I just can't face that hell again, I really can't. :(

i am such a broken record about this but chamomile tea worked wonders for dd when she had trapped wind like you describe.

she was ff and we made her bottles up with the hot tea. As you are BF you could try giving her a few ounces of cold tea before or after a feed.

We made the tea up with 1 teabag per litre of hot water.

I'd be wary of giving anything other than milk unless on a doctor's advice.

Have you tried massage? There's a description of massage for wind on this thread

The crying every night from 3 weeks that your DS had was probably colic which a lot of people think is mostly to do with an immature system getting used to life outside the room, rather than necessarily anything to do with their digestions. Babies with colic have very irregular daytime sleep and get very overtired, but in most cases it's to do with more than just their digestion. I don't think you should worry that your DD will necessarily be the same.

is she breastfed?

She's breastfed. I agree that overtiredness is a likely culprit for colic. DS had the most awful trouble with farts though, lots of watery mucusy green poo and despite massage etc had very disturbed sleep as a result. I have a theory that oversupply might have been part of it because he gained weight incredibly quickly and he used to choke and gag at letdown. DD so far manages letdown ok but is REALLY gaining now!

I've had two very farty babies, and I think oversupply may have made DS2 worse as well. It helped to keep him up a bit more when he was feeding, so not just gulping everything back but taking what he needed. It did all settle down eventually, especially when my supply was more regulated around 6 weeks ish.