Newborn - 2 weeks old - Feeding and Burping

[Orissiah]

Hello.

I am very new at all of this. How long do you wind and feed your newborn baby before you put her down to sleep or nap?

When my 2 week old awakes, I feed her, burp her intermittently and then finish feeding her. I prop her over my shoulder for 15 minutes more to burp her again before putting her down as she's invariably fallen asleep. This cycle tends to last 45 minutes.

Recently though she is posseting up more and more of her feed making me think I am not burping or keeping her upright for long enough before putting her down to sleep.

Should I keep her upright for longer an hour or more in order to let all her feed digest? And if so, how do your shoulders stand it? Mine are really aching and she screams if put in the sling when still awake...

Advice gratefully received as I am beginning to suspect I am far too impatient.

Orissia
Baby 13 days old.

Sometimes you can tell by their tummies if they still have wind - they can feel a bit tight still if you squeeze very very gently. dd used to get wind up more quickly if I put her over my knees face down and rubbed her back. Didn't need to do it for very long - couple of mins, but I suspect this varies widely. Anyway, count this as a bump.

Firstly not all babies have wind; not all babies burp. You are doing just the right thing - IMO 15 mins is quite long enough.

Put her down asap. If she's got trapped wind she'll wriggle and wake up again.

Possetting is normal and not to do with winding technique!

Maybe possetting was the wrong word - she was throwing out loads of undigested milk. It was almost as if the milk was sitting on a pocket of gas so didn't digest properly and she "spewed" it up. I thought I had winded her properly. Perhaps you're right, Gagarin - perhaps I simply should have let her lie down and be still. But then when I do this often she frets and I have to hold her again... and again... and again.

I think I am being impatient and need to be more patient with her as she's only new.

O
Baby 13 days old.

Habbibu, thanks for the over the knee tip. I was wondering also that I should put her on her tummy for a while...

Oh, dd did the heeyuge vomiting thing from time to time. Only ever in a carpeted area. Usually it was in the morning, after she'd had a longer stretch of sleep, and my let down was fast - she was hungry, so gulped, let-down was fast and it was a bit of a wicked combination - too much too fast, and it had to go somewhere...

I get this with dd3 (now 7 weeks), a couple of times a week she almost projectiles undigested liquidy milk out, the HV thinks it is because she's greedy and overloads herself and tbh, I actually agree at agreeing with HV....The thing is, after doing this she is usually content and definitely not starving hungry which makes me think it is just excess milk that she's getting rid of.

When she actually possets when burping, the milk is usually of the curdled, cottage cheesy variety. It's all a bit of a guessing game though...agree with gagarin, lay her down asap, she will soon start twisting and wriggling if there is wind there!

Habbibu, yep, dd3 does it in the morning too! Greedy little tikes!

Thanks Snooks - and H and G - for the fast response. I will continue feeding and winding as I am doing (adding in the tummy one) and then settle her down. So when you little ones refuse to settle after this do you all pick them up?

O
13 day old baby.

My DS used to overflow with milk, always puking when little. I put it down to the fact that he was just a guzzler!

I don't think you should worry about not burping for long enough. I used to just bring DS up to my shoulder, if he burped he burped, if he was settled I'd try to put him down. At 13 days old tho its really normal for your baby to want to be held all the time.

God, yes, I'd always pick up an unsettled little baby - do not listen to the rod for your own back brigade about that one...

Yes I pick her up - I can sort of tell that it's still wind (am finally starting to learn something with this baby lark - with baby no.3 )

Starlight - is this the June/May thread under the Pregnancy forum?

You sound just like me when my dd was tiny. In fact she did this until she was 6 months and went onto solids.

She would puke up after every feed between 10 to 50ml and I always thought it was wind. (Try measuring a small amount of cows milk and spilling it on the floor, then you'll be able to tell how many ml your lo is bringing up). But went for loads of tests and saw numerous doctors and was told she had silent reflux or she was eating too much. In the end the only things that really helped were these -

Keeping her upright for 40 minutes after each feed. I let her sleep in her bouncer or her car seat as those were comfortable.

Infacol, I know it looks and tastes fairly horrible but it helped my dd no end. She would have massive burps or farts instead of loads of tiny burps.

Birthing Ball, I would sit on it with dd on my shoulder and bounce gently. It helped her bring up the wind.

Baby Massage, especially tummy rubs and bicycle legs.

I wish I had taken her to a cranial osteopath but I thought it would pass after a few weeks.

Anyway, I know every baby is different so yours might not be a long term windy pop like mine was.

Sushipaws, such great tips. I will try and keep her upright for longer and also start her sleep off in something that has her at an angle for a bit. I like the birthing all idea for burping. She took Infacol this morning so we'll see how that goes.

Starlight, thanks for the links!

O
14 day old newborn.

Glad I could help, oh and remember infacol takes a few days to start working, we would normally notice a difference on the third or forth day.

I asked my dh if there was anything else he could remember that we did and he reminded me we used to put a couple of books under one end of her moses basket stand so she was always at a slight angle.

Another guzzler here, DS would feed and feed and feed until he literally couldn't swallow anymore, then do a big vomit of undigested milk and settle off happily to sleep.

I didn't mind it so much when he was feeding from the breast but it used to piss me off when he would do it with expressed breast milk, that stuff is like liquid GOLD dammit!

BTW I never bothered burping him, he was (and is) always quite a star at getting rid of any wind - from both ends...

Quick update on this. Am now giving Infacol and have slightly elevated the head side of her mattress and she is burping and farting really well now with not as much problems with gas. it means she's settling into sleep much better again. Whoopy! Long may it last!

Yay, thats fab, hope it continues.

Orissiah

You might want to look at a thread on the AIBU board - the one about chamomile tea. (Sorry I haven't linked). General consensus of opinion seems to be that chamomile/fennel tea can be really good for windy/unsettled babies - not for a newborn, but something worth bearing in mind for the future? I'm certainly going to keep it in mind Lots of people seem to swear by it.

Really Snooks? I will definitely consider that when she's on solids - I guess I will have to wait for that time don't I? In the meantime, Infacol is our new best friend :-)

Hi I am a new mum to a 10 day old boy, he sleeps, feeds and burps well during the day but once night time falls he feeds as normal but wont sleep and crys on and off till about 3am. I've tried burping him throughout the night but it does not seem to help. Does anyone have any ideas or tips that can make life better for both us and baby.

MIRACLE CURE FOR MY BABY'S TRAPPED WIND!!
I am a mother of a 2 month old baby girl.
I have been really upset by her constant crying/lack of sleep
for us both.
She kept making pushing noises like she was in pain and tensing her body up and
it really made me feel so helpless!!
I had tried all the different ways of holding her & bought Infacol and found none of them to be very helpful.
I spent a while googling it one night and someone mentioned that proping the baby up on a
few pillows so they were in a sideways sitting position helped them,
I tried it with not much hope but OH MY GOD!! I am so glad I did as she has
not been in pain since! It's a bit of a pain at night as I can't lie down and feed her I have to be as upright as
possible but it's well worth it as she is such a happy baby now!! now I can enjoy her!