When do babies digestive systems improve?

[newmum234]

My 8 week old baby’s life is a constant cycle of burping, posseting (though he hasn’t done this for a while), passing gas, working on a poo, doing a poo. I also suspect he may have mild silent reflux.

Anyway, my question is, when do babies digestive systems get more efficient so that processing and digesting food is easier and more comfortable for them?

I'm not sure.

However, my baby is almost 8 weeks old as well. I don't burp him very often. If I do burp him, he possets up. If I don't burp him he doesn't and seems happy to not need it.

I give him a tummy massage each morning when getting him changed, and he seems to poop not long after

Usually things are a lot easier by 3-4 months. I can’t really remember burping mine after that.

About 3 or 4 months, I think being able to hold their heads up helps for some reason. This was the worst time for mine. They often go through a phase around this age where they feel the need to fart and respond by clenching everything and then getting cross. That was a low point.

4 months was a turning point, I seem to remember. It wasn’t immediate but things did start to improved lots of ways, digestion being one of them.

For the first 3 months babies aren’t really fully functioning humans, not yet fully cooked!

They often go through a phase around this age where they feel the need to fart and respond by clenching everything and then getting cross. That was a low point.

@SnuggyBuggy do you mean 8 weeks was a low point? This is exactly what my LO is like right now!

Farting and pooing was a whole body event at that age. Add that to the fact that the wee soul was constipated by the infant gaviscon we gave him and it's little wonder he was a riot. I think 3/4 months got better and better again when we started weaning at 6 months but I don't know if that was a weaning thing or a 6 months thing.

I'd say 8 weeks was my lowest point, DD was so gassy and the adrenaline from the birth had definitely worn off and I was just exhausted.

2-3months is very hard. But after that it slowly gets a little easier. But make the most of the long nap times.
Mine is coming up to 5months and yes the digestive system issues seem to have settled, but now we have overtiredness and reluctance to sleep.
8w is tough.

6-8 weeks was by far the hardest time for me. Things started getting much better after that and dramatically improved between 12 and 16 weeks.

2-3months is very hard. But after that it slowly gets a little easier. But make the most of the long nap times.

Long nap times? What long nap times?

@PippinStar in what way was it the hardest time for you out of interest?

DD had silent reflux, several people told me it would ease at 12 weeks when the muscle at the top of the stomach strengthened. I was sceptical, but they were right.

8 weeks was a low point for us too.

Well, DS had reflux but also lots of gas, wind, and constipation. He also fed constantly at that stage, but he couldn't latch so I was exclusively pumping.

Because of the reflux, he had to sleep upright on our chests at all times so we barely slept for fear he would roll off. It was a nightmare and I was exhausted.

But I made a few changes and things naturally calmed down a lot quite quickly after that due to his digestion improving.

Also, by 12 weeks he was sleeping 9 solid hours at night! (This only lasted until 5.5 months unfortunately but it was nice while it lasted!)

When my son was 8 weeks pooing was a whole body thing. Hes often put so much effort into pooing he'd vomit at the same time.

Hes now 13 weeks old, feeding is good but hes now hard to get down for daytime naps and is very wakeful - sleep has defo got worse.