Painful wind in bf baby

[islandbaby]

I am exclusively breastfeeding my 2 week old (3.1kg) son. In his first week, he farted a lot. But for the past 5 days he has been having trouble expelling the wind. It looks very painful for him, wakes him up, and makes it very difficult to settle him as he only is comforted by being held.

He also will only sleep at night lying on his front on my chest, making it very uncomfortable and difficult for me to sleep. The minute i try and put him in his moses basket on his back he wakes up crying.

I think he would sleep on his front in his basket, but all the SIDS advice says that's a big no-no, but is it really so bad for a few nights until he gets through this?

Does anyone have any advice for this painful trapped wind?

Yes a bit random but it works even on very little ones. First wind baby sitting upright on your lap - you should lean baby slightly forward and support their chin with one hand and rub or pat their back with the other. Then bend over and put your mouth (open wide) against the middle of their back and make low sounds (a bit like a digeridoo). The warmth and sounds seem to help it move. Alternate with pat and rub of back. You can also lie them on their back at bring knees up to chest and down again repeatedly. Lastly you can rub the belly lightly in a clockwise motion with slightly more pressure on the downwards motion over the right hand side of the abdomen.

Hope it works for you.

Also regarding the lying on front thing - my DD was exactly the same. She's now 8 weeks and goes down much better on her back. I would never advise you to do anything against regulations etc but what works for me is lying her on her left side (aids digestion apparently) with a blanket rolled up behind her back and dummy in mouth (dummy can help with wind, took us 2 weeks to get over the anti-dummy snobbishness and realise how lifesaving they can be!). She tends to shift round in her sleep so she ends up on her back anyway but it's almost magical the way she instantly goes down on her side.

Hope this helps! Oh and I second everything AllSheep said - didn't know about the back didgeridoo one, will definitely try it!

:)

Was going to post my tips but AllSheep pretty much has it covered. The only things I would add is that my DS was like this and the minute I cut out caffiene it stopped. It could have been a coincidence though and I do know lots of bfing mums who drink caffienated drinks.

The one thing that helped our DD was the Tummy Tub bath. She trumped like a trooper

My HV gave us the side-lying tip the other day but advised us to move her onto her back once she had gone to sleep.

It worked a treat, amazing. Bit annoying waiting 10/15 mins in middlle of night for her to drop off but so much easier than unsettled baby for potentially hours!

The sleeping on you maye be more about being close to you rather than being on his tummy. Your heartbeat, smell etc will be very comforting for him. Usually they grow out of it pretty quickly and you may find he will settle in the moses basket soon.

Personally I wouldn't put my baby down on his tummy. MW told us its ok to let them sleep on their tummy on you as your breathing stimulates them to remember to keep breathing.

Have you tried Infacol? It's suitable from birth and has helped with my Ds' wind.

In terms of sleeping, I think the reason for not sleeping on their sides is (and I could be wrong!) is that if your baby goes on her front she is too young to have the strength in her neck to move her head if she rolls face down and this could restrict her breathing. Again I am no expert this is just what a friend told me.

Instead I would try and I am using, with success, a miracle blanket. Available from Mothercare. Basically it's a swaddling blanket that's easy to use. It's turned our non sleeper into a regular sleeper from the day we first used it.

I would also recommend using White noise (eg an iPhone app for babies / buying a Slumber Bear which has womb noises/White noise/lullabies). Again this worked for us. Our DS would sleep on us and be fast asleep but as soon as you put him in his Moses - scream city!!!!

use infacol every feed, it does work
try massage to expel wind, you can see on you tube but one thing is to do the movement of his little legs like he is cycling

and wind him!

this shall pass....both mine were super windy

We used a miracle blanket too, just graduated from it at 8 weeks, into a grobag. We have found that over the last few weeks, his wind has settled down a lot. I still play wave "music" when he goes to sleep, and I found that putting a hot water bottle in his cot really helped with transferring him from a nice warm body. Just use it to heat the cot, then remove when he goes in. Or leave it there for a little while against him if that helps.

The cycling movement does help with wind too.