Windy baby

[fadingfast]

My 4 week old dd has developed what seems to be a problem with wind which is making her very uncomfortable and she's bringing up a lot of milk after feeds.

I think the problem might be due to my fast let-down and her gulping in air at the beginning of a feed as she struggles to keep up with the flow! Has anyone else successfully dealt with this problem? When can I expect it to ease up a bit? I am trying to take her off before she chokes (she usually pulls off of her own accord) but this hasn't helped much and I don't know what to do about it.

We also don't seem to be very successful at encouraging the wind to out itself, so any tips on that would be appreciated.

Thanks

My ds had problems with oversupply and fast letdown. I tried block-feeding or one-sided feeding. You feed the baby from one breast only for a block of time i.e 2 hours, so if your baby wants fed once or twice or three times within that 2 hours you do it from the same breast, then switch to the other for the next 2 hours. (You can up the time to 3 or 4 hours if 2 doesn't seem to make any difference)This helps with the overproduction of milk. The fast letdown can be helped by taking the baby off when the initial letdown happens and catching the flow in a muslin of somthing til it slows down a bit, then pop the baby back on. Both these things helped my ds, the block-feeding takes maybe a couple of days to kick in. Have to say though, it's time that will help the most, I noticed that when my ds got to about 10 or 11 weeks it improved dramatically as my supply was settling down and he was physically more able to cope with fast letdown. The wind also improved at this time, but before that I used to lie him on his back and sort of 'bycicle' his legs so he could have a good fart!! Have a look on kellymom.com under 'oversupply' for more info. It will definately improve!

Hmm, DS is now 8.5 months so will have to rack brains to remember, but he did have problem with wind (he now burps REALLY well ).

I tried a few things:
Taking him off after about 5 mins of feed to burp him, rather than waiting until he'd finished. Would re-burp afterwards. However sometimes this meant he cried, don't think there's much point in burping a crying baby as gut is not relaxed...
Using colycinth crystals (homeopathic remedy) - though I'm not sure how effective they were. I preferred them to infacol though. You can get some remedies free if you sign up to 'minor ailments scheme' at pharmasist.
Try different burping positions - there's the 'sitting with hand supporting chin' position (rubbing/patting back) which now works a treat, but was hard to do at first with floppy newborn. There's also the 'over your shoulder upright' position, again patting or rubbing back. Finally there's the 'sitting twist', with baby sitting you twist their torso slightly to either side.
A bit of jiggling on knees when slightly upright may help too - I used to keep DS upright after feeds for about 15 mins if he was awake, which helped keep milk down. Not problem if DS had fallen asleep though. Think you can also do a 'face down on knees' jiggle too, make sure the head is supported on your leg though.

However unless your DD is bringing up major amounts of milk there's nothing to worry about, it's pretty common for some milk to come back up, I think .

Hope some of this helps!

Ah, wind! What fond memories I have!

I spent many happy weeks figuring out the best way to help my DS with a similar problem. I found a mixture of Infacol, gripe water, excessive back patting and sleeping slightly tilted really helped.

I found the best combination for us was:
-infacol before EVERY feed, even in the night which reduce the problem- and helps them do cute little burps!
-grip water once daily as it provides a bit more of a clear out!
-feeding for about 5 mins, winding, then 5 more, winding etc til he was full
-putting a small cushion underneath the mattress of his moses basket so he was slightly tilted and less likely to be woken by trapped wind.

The problem did begin to ease at about 12 weeks, but wasn't gone until about 16 weeks when his burps suddenly came quicker and easier and I could stop the infacol etc (he still likes a lot of back patting at 7 mo though!)

This may not be the combo for you, but it may give you a few ideas to try! Good luck!

Would second what Peggoty says about bicycling legs for relieving wind, you can also try massage - see La Leche League article on massage for colic (I got the book recommended by the writer, very good book all round!!).

Re wind, other people have also recommended using Colief (you can get from Boots, I think).

Oh, numpty mum has just reminded me that jiggling really helped too- and lying down, sitting up to get the air to move... the list is endless when you start to remember!!!

BTW, are you really fading fast?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have tried burping after the first few gulps of air and have had some success with that, although DD less than impressed with being interrupted. I used infacol with DS but was hoping to avoid it this time as I find the synthetic orange smell highly offensive, but then it's not me that has to take it and he never seemed to mind, so will give that a go.
Tried the bicycling legs trick and whilst no wind was forthcoming, baby looked highly entertained by the whole thing!

Guess I will just have to tolerate endless piles of soggy muslins for a while yet.

yeti, after four weeks with a newborn and a toddler to contend with I am well and truly faded

FF, someone on another thread suggesting expressing for a few minutes before feeding may help with fast let down..

BR

Fadinfsast - we had similar problems with DS. gripe water and dentinox both worked well when it was really bad, but other than that it was all those different winding positions.

With the leg cycling we found that

a)we could do that without tears when DS had worked himself up. giggles often resulted
and b) the burps seemed to come out when we sat him up afterwards (or as farts instead)

We had a week of horrendous wind at about 14 weeks and then suddenly those burps came out by themselves, and still do. We still get random vomit in various quantities several times a day but never enough to worry me.

Good luck!