Newborn stupid anatomy question

[JKDcot]

Hello

I feel a bit silly for asking this but. FTM to a 4 week old who is EBF. He has started to squirm and look uncomfortable while feeding. I assumed this is due to digestion issues

What I don’t know is if he has gas/wind and needs to burp OR if he is constipated and needs to poo? Assume it could be either? If they get tummy upset it impacts both? How can I help him and what is best - burping him more or doing bicycling legs? He just looks so uncomfortable

Thanks

Do both! I really really believe in burping. My first baby used to take anything from 1-30 minutes to burp properly. I learned that the hard way: weeks of terrible sleep initially because she couldn’t settle, her poor tummy hurt so much. She’d fall asleep alright but wake after 20 mins or 30 mins crying and clearly in some sort of discomfort. Didn’t realise it was because she couldn’t sit up to get the wind out. As soon as I started burping her after each and every feed, no matter how long it took, we’d get hours of unbroken sleep between each feed. This baby was mix fed.

Second baby was a very efficient burper. Came up straight away after each feed. EBF baby.

We bicycled first baby every now and then, but only when she hadn’t pooped in a day or so. Didn’t bother with second baby. Efficient burper and efficient pooper!

It would be very unusual for an EBF baby to be constipated. I'd do both burpingvand leg cycling though. It can't hurt.

I always liked to do 'I love yous' as well. Rub baby's tummy: 1) To the left of baby's belly button, in a straight line going top to bottom (I). 2) Above the belly button, from baby's right to left, draw horizontally across, then straight down the left (love). 3) Starting from lower baby right, draw an arc, going above the belly button, then back down to baby's lower left (you). I'd say each word with each action, and if she tooted because of it, it was her way of saying it back!

Thankfully the needing help with gas stage is only temporary, and now baby has better ways of letting me know she loves me back.

I'd also suggest trying different positions for burping as some where much more successful for my DC then others.

Would suggest googling and trying a few

Lots of burping. Try rubbing his back round and round (you're supposed to do it a certain way but I could never remember which, so did both), interspersed with back patting. You could also try Infacol, I never used it but my friends swore by it.

My baby used to squirm when breastfeeding and unlatch because I had a very fast let down of milk so I used to express a tad before she fed and it helped - could possibly be the same issue if it’s not wind etc.