Help!!! Burping my baby is a nightmare

[Par155]

I’m a new mum. Son was born last month. We had an awful delivery by emergency c section. Planned to breast feed but was unable to due to all the drugs and pain relief I was on…plus son is tongue tied and I have flat and inverted nipples. I’ve been working on pumping to get breast milk flowing (which is going okay) but son is more or less just on formula.

We have been referred to a tongue tie clinic back at the hospital delivery took place but at the moment I am having an awful time winding him. He gets so tired from sucking with the tongue tie that he falls asleep midway through his feed and then sleep eats…making it almost impossible to wind him. I will try for a good 15-20 minutes of rubbing and patting in every burping position to no avail. So I put him down then he starts thrashing around in his Moses basket. I pick him up do the routine all over again- we do this over and over again sometimes until the point he’s due his next feed, which is 2 and a half to 3 hours. It also doesn’t help that he is a big boy and quite strong (he was born 9 ibs 2). Im petrified of him getting colic as I am his sole carer and practically doing this alone and the head banging/head thrashing is making me worry as I don’t want him to damage his little brain. My wrists are also in agony from holding the little tub of lard!

Is there Anyone out there that’s been in a similar situation and can give any tips or advice on how to make this better or ease his discomfort? I’ve tried sitting him up while feeding and it makes no difference. Also using gripe water but we can’t use that every time he feeds.

TIA

Hello. My baby is four months now and was exactly like yours at one month, also tongue tied and also exclusively formula fed.

I think in hindsight sometimes he had wind but mostly the thrashing was actually that he didn't like being in the Moses basket or perhaps just his guts hurting him in general. What helped was

• cooled boiled water sometimes as he didn't poo often
• infacol definitely made his burps come up and made them big
• time

The last one I know is a kicker but I sit here now on my bed, baby been asleep for three hours and won't make up for several more, and I would have wanted someone to tell me to hang on in there as it does get much better.

Here’s something that I wish I’d known when mine were tiny. Midwife showing massage and wriggling a baby around for wind.

I spent ages trying unsuccessfully to burp DS (also tongue tied and also a very slow feeder - 90mins every 2-3 hours, catnap, then go again). I came to the conclusion he didn’t actually need to burp.

He thrashed when I put him down in his cot, but that wasn’t wind it was him objecting to being put down. Perfectly happy being held or lying in my lap.

I have a friend who worked in neonatal. Any time I met her she popped my DD across her knees on her tummy. This position definitely helped us get wind moved. She is now 5 months and every time I put her on her tummy across my knee she farts away like a trooper. I'm sure you are at your wits end. Just take a day at a time. Have you tried using a song to keep.baby a bit more upright after feed to help with discomfort and free you to do a few things,? Sending hugs x

And yep, time - it was about the 12 week mark for me when I felt things were under control. Still waking up a couple of times a night (honestly he did that until he was about 2), but we had his tongue tie divided twice (once at six weeks and a re-do at ten weeks), both of which helped, and he also just got bigger and happier to be put down during the daytime.

Try these for wind that's moved further down ...

Breast fed babies dont really need winding.

Ours was similar, dh had some luck with kind of sitting her leaning forwards and very big pats, but always seemed intensely uncomfortable lying down and mostly only slept while bf. Infacol helped a bit, but it turned out ours had cmpa.

My breast fed babies needed winding.

And they projectile puked.

and one has asthma

one had terrible eczema

and one had allergies.

DD was breast fed and definitely needed winding, she always fed voraciously and seemed to take in lots of air.

We tried all different positions, Infacol, gripe water etc, nothing worked. In the end we took her to see an osteopath (not usually my bag but we were desperate).

She had 2 sessions of very gentle prodding (she slept through most of it), the osteopath said that her diaphragm was apparently too taut. I'm not sure whether it worked or she had just got over it by herself but all I know is that I fed her immediately after the 2nd session and the second I put her head on my shoulder after feeding she did a massive burp for the first time ever.

We never looked back, and never had any issue getting air out from either end after that

Thanks for sharing your experience with your LO. It’s actually helped a great deal as I’ve come to the conclusion that my son just wants to be on my chest and doesn’t actually have wind. I’ve noticed the whole rubbing and patting for wind he finds soothing- no matter the position. I’m guessing after doing it over and over again trying to get him to burp, he now associates it with him sleeping.

So you’re right with the thrashing around in his Moses basket…it’s definitely a protest lol.

Still going to have more sleepless nights but I’m far less worried knowing that it’s just him wanting to be cuddled by me rather than him in discomfort.

It’s not compulsory to burp a baby! Only do it if you feel it’s needed!

Absolute rubbish.

DS was breastfed. Greedy little bugger. Needed winding every time or he'd scream blue murder.

Infacol for every feed really helped. And I used to sit him up and prop his chin and wiggle him side to side, forward and back. On the tummy, up against my chest. A few minutes lying down on his back (he'd scream...) and then UP straight and he'd do a massive burp.
It was a palaver every time... for a while. And then it just stopped.

Oh my tongue tied baby was a nightmare to wind

One thing that definitely helped was winding several times during a feed, not just at the Otherwise the air gets trapped under milk

Infacol helped bring up burps but didn’t help at all with the wriggling and thrashing crap sleep and wanting to be held.

Lying down for a bit and then sitting up did bring up wind but not till she was a bit older IIRC.

I agree that with hindsight it was part wind and part just wanting to be held.

Congrats on both the baby and the problem solving, @Par155.

some babies just like to be held. Enjoy it while it lasts.