How To Cure a Super Gassy Baby

Now, I don’t mean to brag but one thing I’ve proven to be really good at is making super gassy babies. Okay, so, hold the phone (does anyone remember that saying?). I know, we all what to be the best at something and you might be sitting there feeling just a little envious that I managed to find something to excel at while you still figure yours out. BUT (there’s always a ‘but,’ isn’t there?) this may not be the skill you want to excel in. No. I’d say, be happy to leave this one to me.

Anyways, you’ve probably started reading this because you have a super gassy baby. I mean, it makes sense. If you were somehow blessed with a baby that isn’t gassy (you have a unicorn-baby, by the way, and now it’s my turn to be jealous of you), there’s really not much reason why a post about newborn gas would appeal to you. So, I guess, it’s safe to assume that I’m talking to someone in the midst of walking a similar path to the one I’ve already walked three - count ‘em three - times before. Before I get into the gassy goods, I just want to say: Mama (or Papa!), I get it. I understand your struggle here. I understand how it hurts your heart to see your sweet little baby wrenched up and screaming in pain. I know that you’re here because you just want to try something to help relieve them of their discomfort. And to relieve yourself of the discomfort that comes along with caring for a super gassy baby. Also - even if you wouldn’t describe your baby as a super gassy baby, I don’t discriminate. You are still very welcome to use these tricks to alleviate general infant gas! Here we go.

How to Know it’s Gas

The super gassy baby has some pretty obvious tell-tale signs once you know what to look for.

• The easiest one is to feel and observe their abdomen. A rock-hard tummy that is distended-looking (rounded) is a great indicator, even when they’re settled (ie. not crying) is a great indicator that there are some gas issues at play.

• Another obvious tell-tale sign? Crying. A lot of it. Especially after a feed. I swear that my kids had a distinct gas cry as opposed to their “regular” crying (but don’t ask me to explain the difference because I couldn’t if I tried!).

• Excessive spitting up could also be a sign of digestion troubles - which is not to say that it’s real trouble, per say, just that nourishment is having a hard time settling. Same goes for hiccups.

• Does your baby pull their legs in to their tummy/chest often (especially following a feed)? You guessed it - another sign of gas.

Anti-Gas or Anti-Colic Drops

If I could have given my babies Ovol through an IV drip for the first twelve weeks of their life, I might have. IV or not, they certainly got their fair share of Ovol and gripe water - balanced out, of course, with the wide variety of homeopathic options marketed to appeal to the desperate parent of the super gassy baby. I’m not going to go through the pros and cons of these here. I’m not a medical professional, and don’t pretend to be, so you definitely should not be taking anything I write here as sound medical advice. But I can (and will!) write from my own experiences - and in my own experiences, Ovol was met with a satisfactory level of success and would probably be my go-to recommendation over all the others on the shelf. Although there were some of the homeopathic stuff that maybe worked - not one better than the other, though.

Probiotics

In totally simplistic terms, the idea behind giving a baby probiotics is the belief that their immature digestive system may still be lacking the good bacteria required for a well-functioning system. Probiotics are billed as those “good” bacteria. If you’re heavy into empirical research, you likely won’t be swayed by this option but if you find anecdotal findings persuasive you’ll be more open to giving this a go. As always, when purchasing supplements, quality matters - and yes, that translates to spending a little bit more dolla-bills to upgrade from the generic version.

Bodywork

Honestly, when you think about it, it just makes sense that digestion issues on this level could be remedied through the central nervous system - which is the foundational practice of chiropractic care, Bowen Therapy and Craniosacral Therapy. Infant treatment involves very gentle manipulations of the body. There are no sudden movements and none of the cracking many of us often assume is involved with all forms of chiropractic care. If you can’t warm to the idea of taking your infant to a chiropractor (please recognize this as an unfounded fear, though!), Bowen or Craniosacral Therapy is a great place to dip your toes into the infant bodywork water. However, those two treatment methods are typically not covered by extended medical plans - whereas chiropractic care is covered by most extended medical plans (where I live, in Canada, at least).

Burp, Burp and Burp Again

Pockets of air bubbles are one of the main culprits for infant gassiness. I know, I’m not making any super surprising revelations with that one but the reason I’m saying it at all is to, hopefully, reinforce the importance of a good, old-fashioned burp. This might sound like a simple solution but don’t discount it. A good burp could totally change the course of your super gassy baby’s digestive experience. And, by association, yours as well.

Ideally, you're burping several times throughout the course of a feed and not necessarily all at the end of the feed, either. Share the love. Spread the burps out. A couple in the middle (if breastfeeding, when you switch from one boob to the other is a natural break and a good opportunity to encourage a burp) and then try for two or three at the end of your feeding session. Even if you’ve gotten out one really good one, keep trying for just one more. With a bit of coaxing, you usually can encourage a follow-up burp and that can be the one that makes all the difference! The reward is worth the effort. I also want to mention that burping is a type of art form. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s not really. But it is something that takes practice, repetition and a willingness to experiment with different burping strategies - there are a few! Like everything with babies, one size does not fit all.

Fridababy, Windi the Gaspasser

I demand a refund on my own experience(s) with my super gassy babies because this very intriguing little contraption was not around when any of mine were babies and one look at the slick packaging really makes me believe that it would have made all the difference (great job, Fridababy marketing team). Straight from the Fridababy website, the Gaspasser is a “single-use tube that helps babies get rid of excess gas.” Sounds AH-MAZING, right?! (Side note: what kind of world am I living in where I’m literally excited by a product with such a description?) So, yeah, what you can take from this is that I have no idea if it actually works or not but I’m pretty convinced it would have solved all my problems and I’m a little bit bitter for missing out on the opportunity to find out. If you have used it, maybe you could leave some feedback in the comments.

Tummy Time + Strategic Carrying

Your baby needs tummy time to help strengthen their neck muscles. Tummy time puts constant pressure on their abdomen which helps to ease the discomfort caused by gas pain. In other words, two birds, one stone - something I know you, my multi-tasking mama, can really appreciate. Baby-wearing works equally well if tummy time isn’t your babe’s cup of tea and there are also some other baby holds (the Football hold, for example) that keeps pressure on baby’s tummy. The tummy pressure can work two-fold. It can help them pass the gas and it the counterpressure can be a source of comfort to an otherwise uncomfortable ailment.

Warm Bath

Great at relaxing an abdomen that might be tense due to gas. A relaxed abdomen provides the necessary groundwork to promote flatulence… and that’s the goal, my friends!

Infant Massage

You know all those times someone’s told you “Google’s not your friend?” Okay well, in this case, Google is your friend. Google the “I Love You” infant massage (after you’ve finished reading this, of course! Don’t leave me hanging) and start incorporating it into your daily routine. Post bath time at our house always included a nice, naked, gas-relieving tummy massage in front of the fire (don’t make it weird, I’m talking about the babies). This massage really works wonders at pushing any gas bubbles through intestinal passage and out le derriere.

Bicycle Legs

You know this one because you’ve probably done it yourself once or twice in your life - although, I highly doubt you were doing it with the intention of gas relief… not in your adult life, at least. With your baby on their back, pedal their legs, knee to chest, slowly. Let their knee rest against their chest for a beat before alternating the opposite leg. Do this multiple times throughout the day.

The Super Gassy Baby and the Breastfeeding Mama

If you’re breastfeeding, you might be wondering if something you’re eating is the culprit of all that gas in your baby. While this is a matter still hotly contesting by varying experts, in my (totally not-expertise) opinion, it kinda makes sense that the gassiness could be caused by something you’re consuming. If you’re desperate-desperate, you’ll try anything. So, it might be worth giving your diet a good examination and making changes where necessary. With my third super gassy baby, I finally committed to eliminating dairy and cruciferous vegetables when he was around two weeks old and I noted that I felt like I noticed and improvement in his gassiness. This was so motivating that I continued with it until I stopped nursing him. If you go all cancel culture on dairy, remember that there’s no sliding scale to dairy consumption. It’s all or nothing in order to get the effect and dairy can take two to three weeks to completely leave your system (although you likely will notice an improvement in gassiness sooner). In the hopes that baby would reap some of the benefits, my naturopath also suggested drinking an anti-gas tea, like fennel or a “Smooth Move” digestive tea. If you’re so put out by the idea of having to rearrange your diet that it’s making you second guess breastfeeding, ignore this advice. There are many infant and breastfeeding experts who say a breastfeeding mother’s diet does not affect her baby’s digestive system.

Check ‘Yo Latch + Manage ‘Yo Letdown

Again, for breastfeeding mamas: make sure your baby has a good, tight latch to ensure they aren’t taking in too much air when sucking and, if you suspect you have a strong letdown, manage it. A strong letdown could mean your baby is gulping quickly trying to keep up with the flow and, in doing so, is (again) taking excess air. By now, you know why this is important but, just to reiterate: air causes gas bubbles. Too much air is going to mean an increase of gas bubbles. And that’s bad news for those of us who are trying to reduce our baby’s gassiness. If you aren’t sure if what a “good” latch or “overactive letdown” is (or even if either of these apply to you), schedule a visit with a lactation consultant (there are private options or some available through your hospital) or visit your local La Leche League chapter. This is truly one of the most empowering steps you can take in your breastfeeding journey and, likely, you’ll only need one visit to sort things out.

The Last Point - TIME

When babies are born, their digestive system needs a bit of time to mature. That means that nearly every baby goes through a period of gassiness, although degree and the duration of time varies widely. For some babies, you will exhaust everything on this list and see no significant change and, while I know this is not what you want to hear, for those babies, it really is a matter of giving their digestive system the time it needs to mature. That’s the key - time. Most babies’ digestive systems seem to settle around the 12 to 14 week mark and, while it feels like freakin’ forever while you’re in it, don’t start a countdown and wishing these days away. I promise, the days of your baby being a super gassy baby will be over and a thing of the past faster than you think.

Elective Induction: Things Worth Considering

Once we hit the end of our pregnancies, the thought of being able to be done is an attractive one. We’re swollen. Heavy. Tired. Ready to turn the page and transition into the next phase of our life - with the company of the sweet little baby we’ve been patiently waiting for for the last X number of months (maybe even years!). So, yeah, if you’re thinking about elective induction to gently nudge that process along, you aren’t alone. 1 in 5 births in Canada receive a little “help” via medical induction. My goal, here, isn’t to sway you one way or another. It’s to hopefully provide a foundation of knowledge regarding elective inductions so that you don’t have to look back at your experience and say “I wish I had known.” Keep in mind, there is a lot more information to be learned about induction besides what you read here. The pieces here are just drops in a large bucket. Don’t start and stop here, birth boss. Keep reading. Keep learning. Keep asking questions. With that aside, here are some things worth considering about elective induction.

It’s Not a Quick Fix

Just because you’re being induced, doesn’t mean your labour will be fast. Your cervix has the ultimate say in how the induction process will start for you. Your cervix needs to be "favourable" (ie. has started to thin + efface) before you can receive Pitocin, a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin, that brings on contractions.

If it hasn't already, prompting your cervix to start thinning + effacing via cervical ripening agent will be the first order of biz. Depending on your cervix, this cervical ripening stage can take a few doses - which can translate over the course of two or three days. We all know how important a strong mental state is for birth. Would two or three "attempts" to induce work against your mental game? Will it psyche you out? Will it frustrate you? Will it introduce self-doubt in your body’s capabilities? Will the process exhaust you before you've even started labour? All things worth considering.

No Hormonal Benefits

It’s important to understand that, despite the terms sometimes being used interchangeably, there’s a big difference Pitocin and oxytocin. In the most basic context, oxytocin is a naturally-occurring hormone (“the love hormone”) that is responsible for bringing on and maintaining the uterine contractions we experience during birth. Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin. That means it’s function is to stimulate uterine contractions but there’s a very important piece of the chain missing: birthers don't reap any of the hormonal benefits we experience from the oxytocin we experience with physiologic birth as Pitocin doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier.

Without the hormonal component that helps us cope with contractions (as found with naturally-occurring oxytocin), Pitocin contractions can feel more intense. We may have a harder time managing. This likely explains why birthers undergoing induction are more likely to receive an epidural (although, by no means, is it impossible to birth without an epidural via induction).

Breastfeeding

There’s also another important facet that might be affected by the lack of oxytocin we experience when going the induction route: breastfeeding. Oxytocin plays a major role in breastfeeding and, without it, birthers who have been induced are more likely to experience initial breastfeeding challenges and should be prepared to seek the advice and support of a qualified lactation consultant.

Continuous Fetal Monitoring

The reality is, as soon as that Pitocin starts dripping through your IV, your birth becomes much more medical and managed, in order to monitor the well-being of you and your baby. Continuous Fetal Monitoring is one of the measures that goes hand-in-hand with medical induction. Depending on your care facility, you’ll have two disks strapped to your upper and lower abdomen so that your care team can monitor your baby’s heartbeat as well as the contractions. If movement during labour is important to you, this will be a noticeable shift in your care as you will be, more or less, relegated to your hospital bed in order to prevent the monitoring disks from shifting.

Increased Chance of Baby Distress

There’s an increased chance of baby going into distress, or not managing contractions well, with an induction. Why, we can’t say for sure but it’s suspected that it’s a response to the fact that contractions brought on with Pitocin can be stronger, happen more frequently, and potentially last longer than natural contractions. Obviously, this is a chain reaction because, once baby is showing signs of distress, care providers start looking to alternative measures - which leads me to my next point.

Increased Chance of Further Interventions

Commonly referred to as the “cascade of interventions,” meaning the introduction of one intervention (in this case, induction) is the just the starting point for more to follow as a response to the challenges caused by the initial intervention. In the case of induction, the interventions you’re more likely to experience are: epidural, medically-assisted delivery (forceps or vacuum) and c-section.

Ulterior Motives

If you care provider makes an offer, or suggestion, of inducing you not due to medical reasons, it’s time to put on your thinking cap and think critically. Is there a weekend coming up? Could your care provider not wanting to be on call for an upcoming holiday be the real reason behind their offer? This is a really good time to sit back, do some research and decide if an induction is truly in your best interest… or someone else’s.

The Due Date Issue

Your due date is not an exact science. It’s an educated guess, at best. What do I mean by this? I mean, your care provider might be making a decision based purely on your timeline… a timeline that is, more likely than not, inaccurate and not a true reflection of how far along you are. If that timeline is off, your baby may be born too early and miss out on the benefits of remaining in utero.

Convenience Factor

With that said - what if the convenience pendulum swings in your favour? Maybe an induction is an attractive option for you because you have a partner who works out of town and may potentially miss the birth of your baby unless it’s scheduled. Maybe you have an older child and the thought of having to leave him/her at a moment’s notice in the middle of the night to go to the hospital is causing you a significant amount of stress. Maybe you live far away from your hospital or birthing centre and being able to control when your labour starts relieves you of the building anxiety about “making it in tiime.” Or, y’know what, maybe you’re just done being pregnant and the thought of being pregnant, even for one more week, is enough to send you into panic mode. All of these scenarios are legitimate and make sense. If you weigh them against the potential “cons” and feel the benefit outweighs them? Then it sounds like you have your decision.

Takeaways

• There are true, health reasons that may necessitate a medical induction. This post focuses only on elective inductions - inductions performed for non-medical reasons.

• The World Health Organization currently recommends avoiding elective inductions until 41 weeks gestation. This is a bit of discrepancy with current common practice typically seeing the idea of induction introduced by care providers at around the 39 week mark.

• Be prepared for this conversation. Expect that your care provider will broach induction with you, at some point. Don’t feel like you need to make a decision immediately when offered. Tell your care provider you will think about it - leave their office and return to your space before discussing it with your partner (if applicable) any further. Let this conversation unfold without curious ears, in the safety net of being on your own territory without any immediate pressures to make a decision. Do your research. Learn about the induction process and what it looks like. Familiarize yourself with the pros and cons. Be objective. You can always, always refuse an offer of elective induction