Trapped wind - any magic solutions, PLEASE!

[Skillbo]

DS is 3 and a bit weeks and ebf. He seems to be suffering really badly from trapped wind - both ends :)

He manages to drop off pretty easily (he's knackered btw!) but he then squirms and squiggles until he wakes himself and looks in lots of pain..

We've been using infacol for about 5 days and must spend HOURS patting backs and bums and sitting him over my hand and so on...

Any magical wind bringing up and getting out solutions would be soooo welcome. He just can't settle so he has proper bags under his eyes and I'm obviously not getting much rest either (get down when he's down, my arse!!)

Lucky he's cute

Also... any suggestions of things that I could cut out of my diet to help would also be fabulous.

This is an interesting article on the phenomenon of trapped wind.

There isn't really anything you can cut out of your diet - the old wives tales of onions/greens/beans seem to rely on the idea there is something that can get into your milk from the food that causes the wind when adults eat those foods, but it's not what's in the food it's the way the bacteria in our (adult) guts digest them which causes the wind. Hope that made sense.

Do you have any reason to suspect a dairy intolerance?

Glad he's cute though - I think it's a survival reflex - look cute and Mum won't leave me!

Thanks - really interesting article and mirrors a lot of what he's doing so perhaps am just overstimulating the poor lad..?

Also interesting what you said about the way we digest things... I figured his bowel issues are probably because his innards aren't developed enough yet so will put up with his explosions for now...

We are obsessed with wind in the West - and on mumsnet, I think :)

No one can really tell if their baby has 'wind', trapped or roving free :) Or if it is 'wind' causing pain....the blogpost TS has linked to speaks a lot of sense.

The obsession with wind interferes with mothers picking up their baby's early communication efforts :(

It's not anyone's 'fault' we are obsessed with it - it's in the culture. Every time I do an antenatal class with parents (I am an NCT bfc) the issue comes up. First time parents who may know very little about baby care and babies needs all 'know' this one thing - that babies 'get wind' and 'have to be winded' because they 'have to get their wind up'. Some awkward babies 'hang on to their wind'.

Most of it is bollocks, it really is :)

Babies do get tummy pains, for sure, and I suppose some of these could be described as wind pains. But none of it justifies the assumption that all babies need to be 'winded'.

Rant over :) :)

Yes my HV seemed obsessed by wind. She came round the week after DD was born and she wanted to watch me BF her. I had literally just fed DD just before the HV had arrived. HV was adamant that the reason why DD wasn't eating was because she had wind.

She then went on to say that I should never eat beans as it would give DD wind.

STG - That goes to show just how little your HV knows about bfing - as I mentioned above - the wind is caused by the way the bacteria in your gut digests the beans you have eaten so you'd have to manage to get the bacteria and the beans into your blood stream and then into your BM for it to affect baby.....

we tried gripe water and found it to be really useful

We thought DD had trouble with wind when she was a few weeks old, she'd squirm all night and make all sorts of noises. Raising the head of her crib seemed to help a little, as did moving her from her moses basket to a larger crib. And then one night she just suddenly stopped making the noises!

Joyful, don;t take this wrongly, but how do you know your baby takes in more wind than any other baby when feeding? How do you know this is linked to him having 'trouble'?

Thank you all so much for your replies..

Interestingly, I tried some of the tips mentioned in the article linked to by Truthsweet and have to say it made a huge difference to our night.

He was much more relaxed, managed to sleep in three big chunks (only 2-3 hours at a go but much improved and meant I got close to 6 hours myself) and just seems happier. Think the fact he was totally pooped helped but I think focussing on wind was certainly not helping and whilst he still squirms, give him a few minutes and a good cuddle and he is much more likely to calm down and snooze.

Soo - will see how we go as he's still very little but if nothing else, it's made me realise I need to listen to him a lot more (good advice, Ticktok!)

I bicycle dd's legs, with her lying on her back in my knees. The farts this releases are enough to have earnt the poor love a new nickname : squeezebox! It's strangely satisfying though.

Colief has also helped a lot, the nights when we haven't given it have been back to rigid crying so I can be fairly sure it's down to these drops.
Good luck.