When a baby gets upset or stressed they become tense and draw up their knees, arch their back and appear to be straining.
This is very stressful for parents who ‘diagnose’ their baby as suffering from wind.
After birth a baby swallows a lot of air which passes to the stomach, and a newborn does not yet have a developed enough gut to trap an air bubble (or a feed), which is why they burp and posset/vomit.
HOW LONG SHOULD I SPEND BURPING MY BABY?
Babies do not need burping. However a crying baby likes to be held in an upright position and enjoys patting and rocking. They enjoy this because it is comforting, not to help them burp.
A crying baby swallows even more air, so if you pick them up they may burp but baby is not crying because he needs burping – he’s burping because he’s crying.
It is normal for a baby to reflux, i.e. refluxing the contents of the stomach up into the oesophagus, as often as 20 times/day. That’s a lot!
The large bowel ferments the lactose to produce a hydrogen gas as a by-product, which fills the lower bowel. So it is perfectly normal for babies to pass a lot of wind with loose poo’s as often as 20 times/day. That’s a lot!
All babies are ‘windy’! Parents seem to suffer but the baby does not.
FOR PARENTS
Know this is normal
Answer your baby’s cry immediately. This is his only way of communicating and it is your job as a parent to pick him up and let him know you hear him, you love him, you are there for him, and you will do your best to work out what he wants.
Remember your baby has come from the world’s most perfect environment (the womb), and has entered a brand new, very strange environment with different sounds, smells, temperature, air quality. Baby mainly cries because he has lost his Mum. After-all he has been attached to his Mum for 40 weeks and now he does not know where she is. So keep baby very close, so he can hear, see, smell and ‘feel’ you very near to him AND don’t worry about the wind!
