Farter not a burper

[LondonEm]

I am breastfeeding my 6 week old (which is mostly great apart from when he is ravenous and bites down like a stapler so I have been using nipple sheilds from week one for this).

The issue I have is that he doesn't like to burp during/after feeds, it's almost like he prefers to hang on to those bubbles which makes his tummy hurt with trapped wind and then the screaming (oh the screaming!) begins. Its ages later that the proper comedy effect farts happen and he settles down. On Saturday we had proper sobbing and tears from it (from me as well as him!). When he does burp, its usually once and he almost always gets hiccups accompanied by vom.

Does anyone have any advice on how to help him move the trapped wind? I've tried Infacol (not much effect) and gripe water (gave him tummy upset and violent green nappies)

Thanks!

Hi, my DD is now 6 months. She only started burping 6 weeks ago, and it's only really one big burp after a BF. It troubled me too in the first few months when all she could manage was uncomfortable farting. Infacol didn't work, however I gave up dairy for 6 weeks and that may have settled her tummy for a while. But it could have been just her digestive tract maturing around the 3 month stage !

My DD now 2 never really burped after bf. You can try rubbing his tummy into a clock work motion for about 10mins this works for helping to get rid of constipation so might help move the gas through quicker (although if you do it the other direction then it works in the other way so make sure if you do it its clockwise).

Also if you hold both babys feet in your hand and work his legs up to his belly so its sort of in a pike or 'v' shape and then straighten them again this is meant to help move things along.

Also look at your diet as GPG said it may well be something there. I remeber someone brought me a pacl of cough mixture type sweets and I ate them over a few days and that upset DD.

my 7 week old was like this and also had colic from about 2 weeks old

we tried infacol for the colic which didnt really work and then colief which cured colic and made burps a bit easier. (she still sometimes gets a really trapped one though)

She has been seeing a cranial osteopath since 3 weeks old (but had her last session on tuesday) to sort her head from the trauma of birth & colic, but this week, having sorted all that stuff she did some cranial osteopathy to do something to her tummy, and we havent had any trapped burps (yes proper screaming for an hour plus that we just cant shift) since

worth a try?

Thanks all for your advice! :)

I'm hoping he has a better 2nd half of the day - lots of screams and hurty tummy.

He is cluster feeding today so i guess we've hit another growth spurt so I am prepared for more trapped nasties.

xx

We ended up at the gp with a number of issues including this. His advice wad to try to Burp DS every couple of minutes into a feed. Even if there is no burp it makes the bubbles coalesce and makes them more likely to come up not down. Three days unto this regime it seems to be working for 4 week DS.

Hi Golemmings

I have started burping him every few minutes, when he lets me! So far, he has managed to get rid of a few of them. He is due another feed in about an hour so I'll give it another go.

Daisy1986 I tend to do the legs thing when changing him - "In with the good and out with the bad" which makes him smile and distracts him from the pains for a short while.

Right, I'm going to enjoy a hot cuppa and a bit of supper before he wakes!