Breast feeding and wind in babies

hi everyone,
my dd is almost 6 weeks old and is BF. She seems to have terrible trouble getting rid of her wind, especialy at night. I offer her regular burps throughout the feed and i have to take her off quite frequently in the first few minutes as my let down is quite strong and sprays everywhere, (today i got 30ml into a bottle while i waited for it to stop shooting out). During the day a feed can last for anywhere between 10min to 30min but at night the feeds just run in to each other.
she has also started bringing some up after a feed as well but a few minutes later she wants to go back on. I'm not sure if this means she is still hungry or if she has a pain and thinks that she is hungry!
The last two nights she has a feed around 9pmish but then no settled to any real sleep until 1am and during this time she is on and off the breast. she doesn't have a dummy and isn't seeming to need to feed to sleep so I am not sure what is going on. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to help get rid of her wind. a friend suggested infacol but it seemed to make it worse, i have also heard that a visit to the chiropractor can help. I would be interested to hear peoples opinions on this as well.

thanks in advance

I'd love to see what people say, Amelia's having the same trouble :(

Yeah, it may be that she's feeding for comfort and actually making it worse in the process. Is she refluxy? DS had silent reflux and was like this. I had to sleep sitting up in bed holding him as he just couldn't get comfortable lying down. How is she for sleeps during the day?
Hopefully once she's a bit bigger she'll handle the forceful letdown better. Chiro can't hurt.

Hi,

it is really hard to deal with this sort of thing. Doe adults, your little one keeps very unsociable hours. It is when we are at our lowest ebb. For them, midnight and beyond means nothing. *colic* is our word for babies who have nothing medically wrong but are super unsettled, feed frequently and cry a lot at a certain time of the day. Culturally, we call it wind - but it's probably just *being a baby*. The good news is - things are about as bad as they will get, and will generally resolve by 3 mnths.
I wonder, how many times does she feed in 24hrs? How is her growth going? There is so much more to breastfeeding than just milk - babies are hardwired to such - to help them relax and go to sleep, to feed, to relieve boredom and to give them a connection with their mum

subbing as having the same issue. Baby be asleep then all of a sudden scream fart and be unsettled.

I defer to anything Barb might add but my midwife (who attended Rose's birth) suggested to me that babies actually feel better if they suckle when they have wind. I was so keen to constantly burp my first two but once I tried just feeding Rose through all her newborn pops and farts she settled much better than the boys ever did. HTH.

ETA: One thing I did with all my babes when they were tiny was try to remember that the early breastfeeds are the first time their tiny tummies have ever experienced anything but amniotic fluid. So it will all be strange and unsettling for them - the taste, the feeling of milk in their mouth, the sensation of poo in their bowls, the feeling of wind in their belly. So I tried to love them through these early discoveries, and I mean "love" in the active sense. I looked at them and cooed at them and tried to empathise with their little moments. If nothing else it helps pass the ......hours...........!! you spend feeding a newborn. And I found it helped me "tune in" to their individual languages. Each one had a different way of "telling" me what they needed.

My dd is terribly windy to. The darts that come out of her, she will be horrified when she is older lol. This is what I have learnt. Chocolate very, very bad. Her wind improved ten fold when I cut it out. Dairy, also not good. I cut out most of it except for a little milk on my cereal. Improved lots. LC said adding extra protein to my diet will help with wind but make sure you have enough zinc to absorb it properly. And a visit to the chiropractor did help a huge amount. He showed me how to get the wind out of her easily. She's still a windy bub but she has improved heaps by doing those few things.

In regards to the feeding lots of little feeds sounds like comfort feeding from reflux. I have now had 3 refluxers and they all feed like that. You can always try some infant gaviscon see if it makes a difference. I know what its like dd has been waking at 4ish every morning and it takes nearly 3 hours of on and off feeding to settle her, its exhausting. Good news is generally by about 3 months it does get better.

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I defer to anything Barb might add but my midwife (who attended Rose's birth) suggested to me that babies actually feel better if they suckle when they have wind. I was so keen to constantly burp my first two but once I tried just feeding Rose through all her newborn pops and farts she settled much better than the boys ever did. HTH.

ETA: One thing I did with all my babes when they were tiny was try to remember that the early breastfeeds are the first time their tiny tummies have ever experienced anything but amniotic fluid. So it will all be strange and unsettling for them - the taste, the feeling of milk in their mouth, the sensation of poo in their bowls, the feeling of wind in their belly. So I tried to love them through these early discoveries, and I mean "love" in the active sense. I looked at them and cooed at them and tried to empathise with their little moments. If nothing else it helps pass the ......hours...........!! you spend feeding a newborn. And I found it helped me "tune in" to their individual languages. Each one had a different way of "telling" me what they needed.

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I totally agree with this post...just cuddle them through it!

also, i too had a very windy baby (haha that sounds really funny...or is it just late and beyond my bedtime :think:) and the best bit of advice i was given and one that has seen me through both girls was to not burp! totally went against all my other ideas of babies and feeding, but i have found it to be awesome and like Rory mentioned we just feed on through. that said, both girls pretty much only fed off one boob per feed. drain it baby drain it :lol:

even at 6.5 months Marta still is a one booby at a time kinda girl...and never been burped...

just a thought...

i have found a teaspoon or 2 of cooled boiled water after a feed really helps to settle Hazels tummy. I have also taken both my baby's to the osteopath which i find really helps and sleep them on their side supported by nappies front and back. with DD1 i also raised the top of her bassinet but Hazel is in the cot so this is tricky.

Everything everyone has said sounds spot on. DD2 is a super windy baby too. Biggest difference I found was to cut out all caffiene and I started drinking camomile tea instead. But as Rory and Cassius have said. You just need to go with what your baby wants. I find doing the same thing over and over does not work. Sometimes I lay her on her back and drum softly, sometimes I bicycle her legs, pump her legs. roll her side to side. DD2 has a dummy though and I find this to help her, it gives her a focus other then getting upset about the wind. She Only has it at these times though. I also use infants friend. Seems to work for her, again though I think it is more a distraction for her. I can say that now at 4 months ols she has improved big time. like previously said their bodies have a huge adjustment to undertake and it just takes some time for things to run smoothly sometimes.

Thank you for all of your replies, i really appreciate it. Last night was a little better, i have stopped offering regular burps throughout the feed, now i wait for her to break herself and come off then i offer her a burp (apart from taking her off for my initial let down). Last night when i did offer her the burp i laid her across my lap and this seem to help. I did the same thing today with each feed. I got some infants friend from the chemist today and gave her some just before her last feed at 6pm.
I agree Barb she probably is just "being a baby" but i felt bad for her as she seemed so uncomfortable. She generally has between 8 and 10 feeds per day. During the day she goes about 4 hours between feeds but at night she will look for it more regularly (my DS did this to) I'm not one to go by the clock for feeds too muhc, if she is gving me signs she is hungry i offer her a feed. Could this be causing more wind???
I raised the bassinet a few weeks a go and this seemed to help, she definately likes to be more upright.
Thanks again for all your advice. Hopefully tonight will be good as well.