tips on winding for the incompetent!

[bodenbetty]

do you do it after every feed?
what position is best?
how long do you do it for before you give up & assume they're not going to burp?
do they always burp?
is it just 1 burp?
does farting count as wind relief?!
why are they windier at night?!

as youcan see I really am clueless so any tips gratefully receieved!

I can't answer all of your questions because my DS was quite good at getting wind up himself (still is!) but sometimes when it got stuck, we did a kind of dance with him, we put him high up over our shoulder, one foot right forward and one right back and sort of swayed our weight from the front to the back and back again, whilst patting his back, the effect was that he was was being swayed a bit (not too much, unless you don't mind being covered in baby sick!) and with the firm patting it came up no problem.

Don't bother making a big deal of winding. It's only some countries that make the song and dance we do about it! Most babies don't need any 'help' to burp if they need to, but rubbing the baby's back is a nice thing to do if you want to do it.....and no, they don't always burp

Never burp a baby without a muslin cloth to hand.

TBH, I never bothered much. I used to sit my babies up and they'd burp. And be sick. DD needed a little more help when little, I used to sit on the edge of the bed with her draped on one shoulder, pat her oin the back and bounce at the same time

There is something kind of soothing about patting a baby on the back or rubbing their back whilst they're on your shoulder (until they're sick down your neck)

I took on board advice when I was pg never to wind a baby who had fallen asleep. If the baby hasn't fallen asleep then they are usually being carried/ held/ sitting up in a rocker etc and will be able to burp naturally if they need to. As a consequence neither of my babies really ever got 'burped'. If I did or didn't wind them made absolutely no difference at all to how 'windy', colicky or unsettled they were.

so my advice - do whatever seems to make your baby feel comfortable. If he/she doesn't seem to need to be carried around and patted on the back for 15 minutes after every feed then they probably don't!

When ds1 was in special care after he was born the staff used to get wind up by,sitting them on you knee one hand supporting the back and the other supporting under the chin. (bib/cloth covering hand under chin) Then gently rock the baby backwards and then gently forwards it seems to help.
Put a cloth on your shoulder and hold them against you rubbing the back gently.
I think you'll know if wind is a problem as they draw their knees towards them.

I used to love lying my little ones over my shoulder, mainly so I could breathe in their newborn scent

I used to prop over my shoulder and rub and/or pat their back, then lay baby down on my lap, then back over my shoulder.

I was told that this up-then-down-then-up movement brought up wind and it seemed to work.