Help - intestinal gas in newborn

[Lemondrop99]

My DS will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. He's breastfed but we had a rocky start and are currently using nipple shields and he gets two (Mam anti colic) bottles of expressed milk at night. I have a fast let down and he gulps a lot.

He's a very windy baby but nothing we do seems to help (rubbing, patting, upright etc). He occasionally burps but his big issue with gas is farting. He farts a huge amount in the evening and overnight, and it's clearly uncomfortable for him. He scrunches up, kicks and cries while farting. His tummy is quite hard. He passes numerous poos a day

He's been on Infacol for a few days but might be too early to say if it's helping - although I think his farting is worse since starting it.

Hate seeing him so uncomfortable. It's keeping us all up at night. He's desperately trying to sleep but this disturbs him for hours. He's more comfortable upright on my chest. When I lay him flat in his crib, he starts farting almost immediately.

Any ideas how I can help him or who I should ask about this? We've been discharged by the midwives, the HV wasn't much use and the GP check isn't until 6-8 weeks.

Can't offer any help, i have a very gassy newborn too but from midwives discharge you you under care if health visitors and they are availible anytime. Doesnt need to wait till 6 week visit. Just give them a call first thing monday morning and someone will be able to help one way or another! Hope you ans he find some relief soon.

We also use infacol, and mam anti colic bottles with slow flow teat.
The infacol did help a bit but no where near as much as we hoped/expected.

have you tried propping up cot with books?

have you tried bicycle legs?

I have had what sounds like the exact same issue with my 4 week old son. We lay him down after a feed for 5 minutes ish, until his legs tuck up and he starts to wiggle and look uncomfortable, and then lift him quickly to my shoulder and 9 times out of ten he lets out a big burp and the farting seems to stop! It’s tempting to pick him up before 5 minutes are up, particularly as he starts to look uncomfortable, but if any sooner than that it doesn’t seem to help him.

Congratulations on your baby

Newborns do tend to have wind or some possetting, it's fairly usual. It isn't anything to worry about and Infacol should help immediately with burping straight after a feed.

In my experience it goes away after a few weeks and you just have to wait until the babies' digestive system has matured. A GP might prescribe infant Gaviscon if there's a problem putting on weight and you can also see if they are taking on too much air when feeding if you're breastfeeding but other than that there's little you can do except wait it out.

Biocare have probiotics which can be given to baby from birth - you just add a bit of water and give it via syringe. Definitely recommend this. There customer service is fantastic too if you want to give them a call to discuss/ ask questions before buying.

I had a similar thing and posted on here about it I think. As PP said it was time- by 8/9 weeks it passed.

One thing that would reliably free a fart would be putting the baby on his tummy with his knees sort of tucked up under him. sometimes turning him side too side gently from the same position also helped.

YOUR DIET is probably the problem. Go back to nursing books and Web sites for list of bad foods for breast feeding.

I had to watch my diet and I drank a lot of mint medley tea. You can express a bit if you let down too fast but I think it's your diet.

I let down so much that I soaked through breast pads and sprayed out a couple inches but dc didn't have trouble. Nor that we are all the same.

Seriously, be careful not to eat strong, spicy or gassy foods.

It sounds like you are doing some really practical things, burping, feeding upright etc. I would try colief rather than infacol if he's very farty as the way that infacol works could make the wind more uncomfortable and it could be a temprary . It is often trial and error, let down and gulping will start to settle itself as he grows but for relief right now i'd try colief which can be added to his expressed milk. Reducing the amount of excess air swallowed when bottlefeeding and winding during as well as after feeding can sometimes help. I'd try these first and if its still an issue i'd minimise caffeine, avoid spicy foods and if all else fails try try a few days without dairy to see if that makes a difference.

Personally, I doubt it’s your diet. Have a read of this on windy babies on Kellymom

Congratulations on your new baby too

Probiotics solved this issue for us as a pp says. We used the biogaia ones - pricey but worth it. Our DS was a bit older (10 weeks) when we started him on them and within 48 hours was no longer having issues. It might not be quite such a miracle cure for a younger baby but it should improve things hopefully!