Gas Pains Keeping Babies up at night...HELP

Massage is good. Gripe water worked really well for us as did the chiropractor. Funny to use the chiropractor to relieve gas but it really worked!
Good luck!

S., If the mylicon is not working maybe try a different brand. Mylicon worked great for my daughter but baby gas-x did nothing to help her.

Gas is created from the foods we eat. You can eliminte 1 food group a week and see which food it is. That could take a couple months or you can find an intuitive homeopath and find out in 30 seconds which food it is.

Hi there,
My little guy had terrible gas pains his first couple of months. I was not a fan of the gas drops--they didn't seem to do anything for him at all. However, massage and lying him on his stomach helped immensely. Also, try to the "bicycle" move with their legs--this also helps to push those gas bubbles out. Good luck!

One thing that seemed to help our daughter was heat. I would put a heating pad on low and hold it against my belly/chest. I'd put a blanket over the top of it and then hold our daughter tummy down to my belly/chest. Be sure the heating pad is on LOW and that you have something between your baby and the heating pad. It is possible to cause burns. You also don't want to use the heat for more than 2-3 minutes. You can also use a hot water bottle or the "rice bags" that you can heat in the microwave. Again be sure they are only warm and not hot and never leave the babies unattended with the heat source.
My sister-in-law and I both has good results with using baby massage with our daughters. This web site has some good instructions for how to do massage to help with gas pains and colic. http://www.slumbersounds.com/colic-massage-info.htm
Good luck!

S.,

There are a few holds that you can use to help work the gas out. Lay baby on her back. Take your first and second fingers and lightly, but firmly, draw circles around your baby's stomach in a clock-wise motion (the same direction the colon runs twists through the stomach). Make 6 circles, then lift baby's legs in the air.

Another hold is hold baby in your arms with her back against your stomach. One arm supports her legs at a 90 degree angle and the other arms across her stomach, lightly again rubbing the stomach.

I hope these make sense. A nurse/doctor could show them to you in person the next time you're at your doctor's.

Heat and motion helped expel gas in our son when he was around your babies' age. Good luck!

Skip the gas drops. Massage is the best aid. Do gentle massages on their tummy areas while holding them in different positions (laying on your lap, on their tummy on your forearm with their head near your elbow and your hand on their tummy). You can also give them tummy time on a slightly deflated beach ball. You help stedy them on top of the beach ball on their tummy and gently roll the ball back and forth slightly. This was a trick the ECFE volunteer taught me in the hospital when I had my son.

Also keep a journal of what you eat and how gassy they are that day/night because often foods you eat might have an effect on them. Especially monitor veggies like broccoli, different dairy, spicy foods, peanuts, etc.

Try giving them an 8 oz bottle of warm water, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a drop of mint extract. Mint is a great stomach relief at any age. My Mom used this formula with all of my family and I used it for my kids. It usually works pretty well to get the gas out and it is cheap and easy. Good Luck!

Hi! S. this is T. My oldest son had gas really bad. What worked for him wasbringing knees to bellyto make a right triangle. Make it fun by saying lets get rid of those gas ouchies and counting 1,2, let's get rid of gas ouchies. Rub belly, or even belly time.

Good luck

about me: working single mom of two boys 14 and 10.

I haven't tried this, but I read in Parenting magazine to try Gripe water. I think you can get it at Babies R Us... They also said to try having them lay on their backs and gently bend their legs toward their tummies to relieve the gas. Might be worth a try!

What helped my baby was to give her gas drops directly into her mouth in the middle of a feeding. I would feed her half the bottle, then burp her, then give her gas drops and continue feeding, then burp again. I did this at every feeding, and it really seemed to do the trick. Also, bicycling the legs seems to help.

It is very normal for babies not to be sleeping through the night yet. I would give it a little more time... Good luck!

My babies were/are lactose intolerant. My oldest was the worst. He would projectile vomit several times a day and had terrible gas. At that time he was mostly getting breast milk and little bit of formula. I switched him to only Lactose-free Enfamil and everything went a lot better.
My youngest didn't have any problems until we switched him to whole milk after his first birthday.

Are you putting the Gas Drops directly into their mouth or into a bottle? When our oldest was a baby he had some gas issues and the nurse told us to squirt the gas drops directly into the inside of his cheek because they have a tendency to stick to the side of a bottle and baby doesn't get the amount they need to make a difference.

My firstborn had this, and turned out he was sensitive to dairy. SO, once I got him on alimentum, and I quit the dairy in my diet, he was like a new baby. good luck.

You have tons of great answers here already, however, I want to re-state what worked for us. yes, running the legs worked great for my hubby and just bending at the knees towards the tummy worked good for him, but I never got that quite right. What worked for me was to hold my girl with her head /cheek on my forearm and on her tummy on my wrist/hand. She calmed down and I could carry her like this to comfort her. I had a time getting used to holding her this way, but once I say my mom do this a number of times and how well it worked I figured it out and carried her that way often up until she was close to one. The tummy pressure and closeness is what i think worked.

Babies are probably reacting to something in your diet. Milk and milk products are a common source of discomfort for baby. Try eliminating different foods from your diet and keep a log. Both my boys doctors eliminated Milk products first (very difficult for Mom!) Good Luck!

what is STTN??

hopefully nursing is balancing out the concentration of the formula to prevent any constipation issues. however, if you are breastfeeding, there isnt really a need for formula - im just hoping here that no one has told you that you arent producing enough milk, cuz that would be a lie. but its working for you - thats fine.

i used the drops also, and it seemed to bring immediate, if only temporary relief. pump their little legs... try to cut out any gassy foods from your diet and slowly introduce them back in (i couldnt eat any green peppers especially) you can also rub their tummies. dr williams sears's 'the baby book' has a little picture to show the direction to massage but im pretty sure it is from the baby's right to left. kinda rub up toward their head, then to the left, then down toward their feet, the part going to the left should be under belly button. at least im hoping thats the right way.

www.askdrsears.com should have some good info for you...

My daughter is now 8 months old and had several rough episodes at night with gas. Contrary to much of the response you've received, the Mylicon drops were my savior! They worked almost instantly. Bicylcling the legs is also very good practice to get into and I do that on ocassion when my almost 3 year old son tells me he has a tummy ache. He even tells me 'mom, I need to bicylcle'

Also check in with your diet, fresh veggies are often a culprit.

Well, I know every baby is different,but to help mine out, I had to adjust my diet. The main culprit for me was milk. I had a friend recommend Lactaid (w/calcium), since it was the closest to the taste, only a little sweeter tasting. I had to drink it until about 7 mos, when his diegestive system matured. Also avoid the gassy veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, anything leafy green, tomato based foods, onions... that's all I can think of. It seemed to take forever before I could eat them again, but it helped a lot, and we seldom had to go for the gas drops after i cut those out. Good Luck!

When my little one has gas, I hold him on his side tightly against my belly and I pat his upper butt/lower back until I can feel the gas moving through. We have also used Gripe Water (little tummies) which seems to help.

I also want to mention it is completely normal for babies of that age (and much much older) to not sleep through the night, if they aren't sleeping for larger periods of time (3 hours or more) that is when I'd be concerned (for my own sanity :) ) but otherwise, if they are waking to be fed every 3 hours, then it is completely normal.

You may want to try and change the formula to a non-dairy based formula like Nutramigen (Enfamil with orange label). My daughter had the same issue and it was due to a milk protein intolerance. I had to cut all dairy out of my diet, be aware it takes 7-10 days to be completely out of their system (and yours too!) Once we corrected this, my daughter began sleeping through the night on the 8th day. Good Luck!

S.-
I had the same problem and I brought my son to see my chiropractor. She also does CRA, which is a non-invasive form of allergy testing. (Also known as muscle testing). She helped me figure out that he was sensitive to my eating certain things. It was a pretty random mix of things, so it would have taken me forever to figure out the combination on my own. (Dairy, raspberries, tomatoes and a few other things that I can't remember since he is five now.) My Chiro's name is Dr. Jodi Fidler and she works at Davis Chiro in St. Louis Park. I highly recommend her! Good luck! J.

A large part of the problem is that babies are forced to sleep on their backs... let them sleep on their tummies and their gas will pass. I know, I know - SIDS... Tummy sleeping is healthy for digestion and healthy babies don't smother themselves. My girls both slept face down, and sometimes right ON their faces, and they breathed just fine and survived (now 20 and 13).

Also, if you are eating any of the following your breastmilk is also gassy:

eggs
beans
broccoli
cabbage
chocolate
coffee
raw foods - salads or not completely cooked vegetables

Go to your local natural food store and get some Beano - digestive aid drops you can put in their forumla. It's safe and non-pharmaceutical.

Good luck!

For my daughter we did mylacon drops before and after each feeding and that worked wonders. Also I tried to stay away for spicy and acidic foods, cantaloupe was the worst. But please keep in mind that my daughter did not completely sleep through the night until about 10-12 months old. She just wanted to eat at the midnight feeding.

I see you have a lot of good advise, I would agree with the dairy sensitivity, it can make a huge difference. I noticed that there was a recommendation to switch to a non-dairy formula I do agree that can help but just an FYI on the formula mentioned I believe was nutramigen, it is dairy based and says so on the label and the ingredients, the difference is the protein is broken down more to be more readily digestible, the only truly dairy-free formulas are soy-based or amino-acid based like neo-cate, I am mentioning this b/c I was under the impression that nutramigen and alimentium were dairy-free as I have a daughter who was severely allergic to any dairy as an infant and couldn't figure out why she was still reacting to the formula and called the manufacturer and that is when I found out.

Also remember going dairy free means all dairy in foods as well, you would be amazed at what they put dairy in.

Best of luck.
S.

My oldest son had a hard time with the milk based formula. We switched to the Target brand soy formula and he was a whole new baby! Also, Mylicon didn't work for him either. We used the Gerber brand gas drops, which are all natural, and they worked wonders. You can find them at Cub, or try the website. They have a product finder that allows you to put in your zip code and it will tell you where in your area you can buy the drops. Good luck!

Try eliminating all dairy from both your diet and their diet for at least two weeks. At the two week mark, you would begin to see improvement if there is a lactose intolerance issue.

Cutting out the dairy DRAMATICALLY reduced my son's gas pains and improved his sleeping. I saw results around 2 weeks, and he continued improving for about a month. As long as we keep him off dairy products, he sleeps fairly well.

I would give this a try if you have tried everything else already. We waited WAY too long to try this, because the doctors all said it wouldn't help! But it turned out to be the only thing that did.

S., I'd be willing to bet it's cow's milk. Either in the formula, through your diet or both. Try avoiding dairy products and the formula both for a week. Then add dairy back into your diet. If they are problem free, it's probably the cow's milk in the formula. If it is that, they may grow out of it... but avoid it until they turn one before trying it back. My daughter is 4 1/2 and lactose intolerant. Her doctor had a funny comment. He said, "You know what they say about cow's milk.... it's for baby cows...." :-)