How to relieve gassy babies?

Hi!

My twins have been home for 3 weeks now & we are noticing that they are becoming increasingly gassy. We make sure we burp them after every feeding, but there are times we have no luck in getting any burps out of them. The pedi nurse told us to MAKE sure we get a burp out of them regardless, but you can imagine at 2 or 5am in the morning we aint gonna sit up for an hour trying to get one out!! NO WAY.. :blink:
Thankfully though that doesnt happen often..

So, can you offer any advice on how we can get rid of their ever increasing gas??

By the way my twins are mostly bottlefed.

Thank you! :good:

Denise

 

Mine were a little gassy in the begining and we switched from Avent bottles to Dr. Browns and I have not had any gas issues since. I would also suggest Mylicon drops.

 

Thank you!

I forgot to mention that my twins will only be term next week (37 weeks). Also, we were told by their pedi that Mylicon is out of the question for now. Something to do with them reaching their goal weights.

 

QUOTE
I would also suggest Mylicon drops.


Ditto on this one. Our pedi suggested it from the get go... she never mentioned anything about having a weight issue with it??

It does help significantlly.(sp?)

 

QUOTE(pink and blue mom @ Jun 22 2007, 07:33 PM) [snapback]303668[/snapback]
Mine were a little gassy in the begining and we switched from Avent bottles to Dr. Browns and I have not had any gas issues since. I would also suggest Mylicon drops.

Same here.

 

We started using Mylicon when the girls first got home from the hospital (pedi said to) and they were still only 4.5 pounds each. I've never heard about their being wieght issues with it.

 

We have found that if we lay our babies on their backs after eating until they start moving around, then sit them up, sometimes we get a burp without even trying. (we don't have reflux issues or anything, so if you do, that might not be good). Just a thought.

Good luck.

Erica.

 

Well our house was gas central for a while, so I'm a bit of an expert. Thankfully, as the babies' systems mature gas seems to become less of an issue. My babies are 4 months now and it doesn't trouble us much. Anyway here's what worked for us:

-Ovol drops in bottles, just before you serve them (you can see it working to take the bubbles out of the bottle, so it must do something for their tummies).
-About 20 min. before each feeding, do a tummy massage then lay a hot water bottle on their tummies - I know this is a lot of work but it really seems to relax their intestines and let out trapped gas. I wouldn't suggest doing this AFTER a feeding - this resulted in A LOT of puking for us (learned the hard way). Feedings seem to get their little colons moving and gas that's already there can cause pain.
-For some reason, and I can't figure it out, the liquid concentrate formula seemed to the better than the powdered stuff. I don't know why. I even e-mailed Enfamil to ask them if they knew why (they didn't).
-Try a pre-feeding burp (this seemed to work when ours were really little).
-Warm the bottles - seemed to be better than room temperature (I think it's easier to digest).

I know gas is frustrating, but I do think it gets better with time. Babies' systems are so "fresh" for the first few months and they have to work the kinks out!

 

Oh, and I used to little bicycle excercises with their legs when they were awake.

 

what helped ours was Mylicon (I don't know why the ped would have an issue - my DD was 3 lb 8 oz when I brought her home) and also from "happiest baby on the block" hold them on your knee in a sitting position and hold their head under the chin...bounce your knee gently as you pat their back - worked every time!

 

I used to put the gas drops right in the bottle before giving it to my DD, who seemed to have problems all the time. We also used gas drops afterward too. The doctor said to use them every bottle if needed. Oh and you can just buy the $3 or $4 bottle of Walmart brand gas drops and not the $12 bottle of Mylicon drops. As quickly as we went through them, the generic worked JUST fine!! As they got older, gripe water seemed to help settle her stomach rather quickly. I would check with your pedi though to see how early you can start using gripe water. I don't see why age and weight would have anything to do with the gripe water but check just to be sure. That is really strange that yoru pedi didn't want you using the gas drops though. One last thing, make sure you get all the burps out you can. Many times, we feed, burp and put them to bed. Well, DD would still be screaming and low and behold, she had another burp or two to get out!

 

The quickest way to burp my boys was to set them on my knee facing me, (I would be hugging them loosely) then jiggle my knees. (by "stomping" my heels on the floor) On the occasions when that didn't work for James, I would lay him really high up my shoulder so that his arms were hanging onto my back then pat him on the bum.

 

I also did the knee burping. Worked well for us. Mylicon never really worked too well for us either.

 

we had the same problem at about the same time as you - 3 weeks. We tried Mylicon but got only minimal relief. So, the pedi had us switch formulas to similac sensitive (we use rtf and powder - no difference for us) and that seems to be working well in combination with the drops. You might ask your pedi if s/he recommends switching formulas as well.

Being complete baby novices, the nicu nurses taught us a bunch of ways to burp: siit the baby upright on your knee with one finger under their arm and the others propping the head up, rubbing the back and pat (don't be too gentle) OR sit them upright, then tip them backwards into a laying down position, then sit them back up (the bubbles should rise to the top just as they would if you tipped a pepsi bottle up, down, then up again!) OR hold them up while they lay on your chest (in a few minutes, they should burp on their own). these work best if you get them to burp a few times during each bottle (at least once ion a 3 oz. bottle and then again afterwards) - you'll know baby needs a burp if they get a kind of reddish darkening above their lip (which sounded nuts to me when the nurses said that, but it really is true - burp when you see pursed lips, slowed sucking, and/or this slight color change).

HTH!

 

Besides what others have said already another way to get the gas out (they won't burp, but will pass gas) is to lay them on their back and straighten out their legs. Then you take both legs and bend them at the knee and bring the knees up to their chest and roll them up a little so the but lifts off of the floor. You may have to do it a few times but that always gets the gas out for us. Our nurses in the hospital taught us that.

 

I have used gripe water, has had a better affect than the mylicon drops. All natural remedy as well. Litte Tummy's brand can be found at BRU and local pharmacies.

 

Have you considered switching them to soy? I wish I had tried it first instead of listening to our pediatrician. We started having real problems with gas around 4 weeks. She automatically labeled them "slightly collicky" and offered little help/advice. Basically, that we would just have to live through it until their digestive systems developed more...So, we switched bottles from Avent to Playtex Nursers first. It helped some, but not enough. She suggested Nestle Good Start. Not much help. Then she suggested Enfamil Nutramigen. VERY EXPENSIVE and still problems with the gas and very difficult burping. I have been up for HOURS trying to get them to burp! NOT fun at all and with me in tears the whole time thinking, " Burping a baby SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT!" The advice about gently bouncing them on your knee and then bending them forward and patting them on the back is great advice and helped a lot! But, still - lots of problems with gas. For some reason, our ped is against soy-something about it causing allergies later on? Finally, after doing a poll of my friends and co-workers, I made the decision to try soy formula. What a huge difference! They are so much happier and are now sleeping much better and longer. They almost burp themselves!! When they get up to have their middle of the night bottle, they eat, burp, we change them, and are back to sleep in about 40 minutes!! AMAZING difference. Before, sometimes, one feeding session seemed to lead into the next one because of all the gas/fussing in between. No one was getting any sleep! If only I had tried it sooner, I could have enjoyed my time off from work with them more and would have been much more rested. Sorry, this turned out much longer than I intended. Hope it helps

QUOTE(Denise&Twins @ Jun 22 2007, 06:15 PM) [snapback]303595[/snapback]
Hi!

My twins have been home for 3 weeks now & we are noticing that they are becoming increasingly gassy. We make sure we burp them after every feeding, but there are times we have no luck in getting any burps out of them. The pedi nurse told us to MAKE sure we get a burp out of them regardless, but you can imagine at 2 or 5am in the morning we aint gonna sit up for an hour trying to get one out!! NO WAY.. :blink:
Thankfully though that doesnt happen often..

So, can you offer any advice on how we can get rid of their ever increasing gas??

By the way my twins are mostly bottlefed.

Thank you! :good:

Denise

 

QUOTE(Becky02 @ Jun 24 2007, 10:45 AM) [snapback]305044[/snapback]
Besides what others have said already another way to get the gas out (they won't burp, but will pass gas) is to lay them on their back and straighten out their legs. Then you take both legs and bend them at the knee and bring the knees up to their chest and roll them up a little so the but lifts off of the floor. You may have to do it a few times but that always gets the gas out for us. Our nurses in the hospital taught us that.


Ditto this one as well as Gripe Water OR Tummy Soother by Gentle Naturals OR Little Tummies AND Mylicon drops. If they are in that bad a shape, switching to Soy-based or one of the specifically formulated baby formulas might be a good thing to do as well. I know I had mine on Similac Isomil Advance Soy until the day they switched entirely over to milk. It probably wasn't necessary to keep them on the soy formula THAT long but since I knew that everything was fine with them on it, why mess up a good thing until the switch to milk takes place?

 

My little one had extreme gas!!! My PED had a son that had colic for an entire year. Here's what we did & what worked

1. Myelicon gas drops - worked for Kaylee but not Sarah (little one)
2. Swings, Bounceys, Car rides - worked sometimes, but not always
3. Different formulas - We tried Soy & Alimentium for extreme food allergies & colic (didn't see a difference with either)
4. Bland diet for me, I was pumping & supplementing at night.
5. RX gas drops - they worked pretty good.
6 Very warm/hot baths. Not to where it would scald the little ones. But warm enough to relax. My Ped recommended buying a sponge to bath them on ($5 at target). Fill the tub up to their sides with the very warm water. Take a wash cloth & dip it in the warm water & lay it on their stomachs. The heat will relax their intestines & help them to pass the gas. This worked for our girls better than anything!!! It was like flipping a switch! Sarah would be screaming her head off & the minute we would put her int he tub, she would calm down. I was concerned about too many baths that young. But my Ped said we could do that as many times a day as we needed to, just use soap for one of the baths & always rub them down with lotion/oil.

Hope this works.
Jess