Burping Your newborn is one of the first skills you’ll get a lot if you’re a new parent. All newborns experience gas, the air that has become trapped in the digestive tract and has to be expelled. The best method to assist your baby in doing this is to encourage burping.
Why do babies need to burp
Your baby may wiggle or cry when gas bubbles become caught in his or her stomach since they can quickly make him or her feel full and uncomfortable.
- Digestion: Gas can naturally be produced by the large intestine’s bacterial digestion of some meals. This covers the food and drink the mother consumes or drinks and passes on to the infant through breast milk.
- Allergic reaction or food intolerance: Your kid may have increased gas production if he or she is breastfed and has an intolerance to certain of the items in your diet or a particular kind of formula. The most frequent cause of this is dairy intolerance.
- Your diet: It’s conceivable that anything in your diet is making your infant uncomfortable if you’re nursing. The National Institutes of Health reports that dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream), beans, certain vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts)
- Allowing too much air to enter your baby’s formula: Shaking violently after adding water to a formula actually causes the liquid to absorb a lot of air, which might subsequently result in an overabundance of gas.
- Nipple flow: The flow options for bottle nipples are often categorized by age (preemie, newborn, 3-6 months, 6+ months, etc.). When you use a nipple that is too sophisticated for your baby, the milk or formula may be released too quickly.
When to burp your baby
Babies often swallow air when they feed, either from the breast or bottle, which hurts their little tummies and can make them fussy. By burping your baby frequently during and after each feeding, you can hopefully keep painful gas pains to a minimum. At New Baby N You, we recommend burping your baby during feeding breaks and when he/she has finished eating.
4 best positions for burping your baby
- Hold your infant upright with his/her head on your shoulder: Support your infant’s head and back while using your other hand to give him or her a gentle pat on the back.
- Sit your baby on your lap: With one hand, support your baby’s head and chest by placing the heel of your hand on his or her chest and cradling their chin in the palm of your hand (take care to grab their chin, not their throat).
- Lay your newborn face-down on your lap: Pat or rub your baby’s back while supporting his or her head so that it is higher than their chest.
- When your baby doesn’t burp after a few minutes, change the position and try burping for another few minutes before feeding again: When feed time is over, always burp your baby and keep him or her upright for at least 15 minutes to prevent spitting up.
When to worry that it’s more than gas
Babies’ burps, gas, and spitting up are all perfectly natural. It is not projectile vomiting. Contact your physician to find out if there are any other causes if your infant is throwing up a lot of vomit after feedings.
Want more guidance about burping your baby? Come see us.
Please come in and see one of our New Baby N You pediatricians if you have any questions about your baby’s health and well-being, including whether you’re burping your baby correctly, whether your baby seems excessively gassy and you want advice on what to do, or if you have any other concerns.