thoughts on gas

Both my babies have had a LOT of gas these last couple of weeks. It's amazing how much their little bodies produce! It seems to bother James more than it does Charlotte, if that is even the cause of his woes. During the night mostly, but sometimes during the day, he moans, grunts, cries/screams, and toots. It usually goes on for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. We are so exhausted and feel so sorry for him. What makes me not totally sure it's gas is that it doesn't happen all day long, more at night. He also spits up quite a bit and has the projectile huge spitups/vomits/reflux? at least once a day. We've been doing Mylecon throughout evening/night feedings (he eats around every 3 hours). Yesterday I started using the Colic-Ease. I avoid the basics like broccoli, onion, spicy, citrus, but haven't avoided dairy (not sure I could give that up).

Do you have any suggestions? When does the gassiness or fussiness seem to subside?

 

Yes, breastfed babies do tend to be gassy. One suggestion that was suggested to me was to massage (gently) around their belly button in a clockwise motion. I hope it gets better soon!

 

Baby massage (like Jackie suggested), moving their legs in a bicycling motion, warm hot water bottles wrapped in a towel next to his belly - all of those things helped mine. Andrew was VERY gassy and had reflux as well.

 

If you think your babies might have reflux, I would talk to their pediatrician about it. As soon as I got my little baby H on Zantac she has gotten much much less fussy, and has a lot fewer spit ups. She is still pretty gassy, but it as at least helped with the other things.

 

We really found gripe water to help alot. I hope it gets better soon! We found if we didn't give it to them before bed we were in trouble. We had to do it till they were about 3 months or so.

 

My little guy had terrible gas - painful, it was so sad. We used Mylecon, maybe that helped. We also did the belly massage - just make sure you go the right direction, only clockwise. And do it pretty firm. We would bend him practically in half to help him squeeze it out. The combination of the massage and the bending really helped - he would let out the biggest farts I've ever heard. But what really made the big difference was dairy. I did not have to cut it out completely - I still have butter & cheese, and I don't avoid everything with some dairy content. But I just cut waaay back. I was a really big milk drinker, and I ate yogurt a couple times a day. I switched to soy lattes and soy yogurt (it's really good!), and just tried to go easy on the cheese. It definitely made a difference. I thought at one point that maybe I wasn't sure, and I switched back to regular milk in my coffee for a couple days - and his gas was back. So I'm sticking with the soy until we're done. I miss my glass of milk (soy milk is fine in coffee, but it's not the same for dipping oreas in!), but it's worth it not to hear him scream.

 

QUOTE(prairiemom3 @ Mar 31 2008, 12:12 AM) [snapback]696068[/snapback]
We really found gripe water to help alot. I hope it gets better soon! We found if we didn't give it to them before bed we were in trouble. We had to do it till they were about 3 months or so.



We did this too and it really helped us alot!!

Hope you find something that works for you

 

is coli-ease the same as gripe water?

 

A while ago there was a study of mom's taking lactobacillus while breastfeeding & it reduced colic & gas by alot. I am going to use it no matter what with my twins b/c almost everything I ate affected my son. I nursed him for 13mths but he was super gassy too. You can get it at a pharmacy it would be behind the counter in the fridge under the name Lactinex. I just got some at our wal-mart the other day so I am prepared. I'll try to look up the study when I have more free time, good luck

 

is coli-ease the same as gripe water?

 

QUOTE(jenanne @ Mar 31 2008, 02:49 PM) [snapback]697402[/snapback]
is coli-ease the same as gripe water?


Yes it is. In my case dd was very gassy, she outgrew it as she approached 4 months. I used gripe water, mylicon, good burping and bicycling the legs. i also found applying pressure with my hand to her tummy as she fell asleep also helped on rough nights.