Best Sleeping Positions for Gassy Babies
Gas: it happens to everyone. Whether it’s you or your newborn baby, everyone experiences gas to some degree or another. And, of course, some have it much worse than others.
Gas can become an issue when your baby is small as they can’t move the gas on their own. Since they are small and immobile, they can’t move their body the way they need to to help work the gas out of their system. This is where you come in!
You are exactly what they need to help relieve their pent-up gas. They rely on you to pat their back and move them around so that they can burp (or fart) to feel better. If your baby is fussy at night and you think it might be from gas, keep reading to learn more about the best sleeping positions for gassy babies.
Why Does My Baby Have So Much Gas?
It’s not necessarily true that your baby has a lot of gas, but rather the fact that their digestive systems are immature and cannot digest liquid as well as adults can. Because of this, a little bit of gas might feel like a whole lot to your baby! Because of this, even the smallest burp or toot might help relieve their upset stomach.
How to Tell If My Baby Has Gas
Besides the obvious burping and farting, there are other ways that you can be clued in that your baby may have some gas! Some of those signs are:
Crying with a red face
Legs pulled to their chest and arms tucked in
Fussiness after eating
Difficulty sleeping after eating
Arching their back, accompanied with or without crying
Visible discomfort
If your baby is experiencing any of these signs, they may be feeling a bit gassy.
How to Put My Baby to Sleep If They Have Gas
If your baby suffers from gas, you may want to put them in different sleeping positions to help alleviate the pain. In the first year of your baby’s life, it’s important for them to sleep on their back as this is the safest position for them!
Do what you can to get their gas out before they go to bed. If they are rolling around the crib and won’t stay on their back, try removing them from their crib and try burping them again.
How to Reduce Gas in My Baby
While gas is a natural part of life that everyone experiences and cannot be eliminated completely, it can be reduced. This is especially helpful for babies as they cannot burp themselves! Try following some of these tips to help reduce your baby’s gas:
Burp throughout their feedings: You may think that you just need to burp your baby after they are done with their feeding, but it is actually much more beneficial for you to burp your baby throughout! Try burping them every couple of ounces. They may not burp every time you do it, but it doesn’t hurt to try!
Practice paced feeding: Your baby might want to chug their entire bottle, but try not to let them do this. Eating too fast can lead to more air in their stomach, so going nice and slow is the best way for your baby to eat. If your baby is struggling to eat at a slow pace, try using a slow-flow bottle if they are bottle-fed. If you breastfeed your baby, you can slow down the flow by squeezing your milk ducts.
Try a new formula: The formula that your baby eats might be making their stomach upset. Try different brands and kinds of formula to see if this helps their stomach. Formulas created specifically for sensitive tummies!
How to Help My Gassy Baby Sleep
The obvious answer to how to help your gassy baby sleep is to help them alleviate their trapped gas! The first thing you should do is to make sure your baby is properly burped after their feeding. If you tried burping in one position with no luck, try another!
When all else fails, lay them on their back and do bicycle legs. I would always move their legs while saying, “Run, run, run!” over and over again until they farted! This isn’t a requirement of this exercise, but it can definitely distract and bring a smile to your baby’s face!
If you’ve done everything you can to remove the trapped gas, try offering your baby a pacifier. This won’t help relieve their gas, of course, but it may just relax them enough for them to drift off to sleep.
Tip: If this is a recurring issue with your baby, consider trying gripe water. It is a liquid that consists of herbal ingredients that can help relieve the symptoms of an upset stomach.
Monitor Your Baby’s Health with Baby Connect
Most of the time, babies end up having gas from eating, just like adults! Babies who are bottle-fed are especially more susceptible to having gas as there is more air in baby bottles and no air through breastfeeding (unless the latch is incorrect). Because of this, your little one will need to be burped during and after each feeding.
Keeping track of a baby’s health is one of the most important things to a parent. From the feeding schedule to the amount of times they burped in one day, you want to monitor everything you can to ensure your baby is healthy. Using Baby Connect is a no-brainer, as you can track all the important aspects of your baby’s life in one convenient app!
