Does my Baby Have Wind or Colic? Am I burping him right?

This type of feed / crying cycle is very distressing and can be hard for a parent to nut out what is going on. Partly because some of the symptoms they see in their baby - like making gut noises, passing wind, drawing up their legs and squirming - go hand in hand with having a dialled up sympathetic nervous system. This could be from crying for any reason or simply as a result of waking from sleep and wanting a feed, which kicks the SNS into action.

But parents describe the discomfort as much worse than this.
So, what could be dialing up the SNS? Or what else could commonly be going on?

What we know as fact, is that gut disturbances seem to commonly occur as baby adjusts to a diet of milk instead of the amniotic fluid of the womb. Only very rarely is this associated with medical conditions and allergies that need treating.

We also know from research, where ultrasound probes have visualised inside the mouths of baby's feeding at the breast, that they don't swallow air. So, the windy discomfort is not coming from there.

We no longer talk of colic as being something a baby 'has got' if he is crying unhappily for 3 hours a day, at least 3 days a week for at least 3 weeks.

So, what is behind a baby's discomfort?

At Newborn Home Care we can work through with you whether any of the following may be at play:

1. Firstly, it is very important to rule out whether there is an underlying feeding problem, as this will always unsettle a baby after a feed. Is your milk supply satisfactory? Has it properly established yet? Is bub gaining weight steadily and having 6 good wet nappies a day?

2. Is bub being held to the breast in a way that gives him stability to transfer the milk he is wanting? Is there a deep face bury and are both cheeks symmetrically on the breast? Is the baby's body wrapped closely onto the ribcage and right on his side? Is his head in a direct line with where the breast and nipple naturally fall? Is it evident that bub is sucking strongly and swallowing milk? Is breastfeeding comfortable for the mum?

3. Has bub been crying a lot, which puts his microbiome at risk of disruption?

4. Is an over-supply of milk evident, which can set up a condition called Functional Lactose Overload? This is where the sugar content of milk called lactose, exhausts the level of lactase enzyme in the gut which would otherwise break it down, resulting in fermentation further along the bowel and causing gas production. These babies tend to have quite oval distended bellies, stack a lot of weight on, pass an excessive amount of wind and have explosive frequent bowel movements.

5. Could there be a low-grade inflammation of the gut from recent formula use or a cow's milk sensitivity?

6. Is there a presumption that a baby must burp and bring up wind after a feed, causing him to become unsettled? Are you holding baby up on your shoulder, patting and patting him, in pursuit of this?

7. Taking a history of the pattern of your baby's stooling is important and can help work out whether constipation is a problem or whether bub is having trouble passing his stools for other reasons.

Any of these situations can be causative of a baby's distress, however, all of them also contribute to setting up a loop within the SNS that can continue to drive the windy, uncomfortable gut symptoms that parents see.

Parents are as responsive to their crying babies as they can be and fortunately over time, these episodes settle as a baby's gut matures.

Bottle fed babies will benefit from a paced feeding approach where the milk is offered to them sitting more upright, with the bottle held horizontally with just enough milk in the teat for them to not be drinking in air.
In this way they will draw the milk from the bottle at their pleasure, instead of having it running readily into their mouths forcing them to swallow quickly, as can happen when the bottle is held at a downward angle.