3 Easy Ways to Help Your Baby with Gas Pain

Isn’t it amazing what kind of questions you Google or YouTube when you become a parent? For example, you probably never thought you would Google how to help your baby with gas or how to help relieve your newborn’s gas pain. But here you are! I’m so glad you’re here because that is exactly what we’re going to teach you today!

Why do babies get gas?

Almost all babies get gas. Gas happens when air is trapped within the digestive tract and common causes include the following:

1. Swallowing air

Babies may swallow air while bottle or breastfeeding in certain positions, crying, babbling, and sucking on a pacifier.

2. Digestive problems

It’s common for babies to experience constipation and/or reflux, both of which may cause gas.

3. Immature gastrointestinal tract

A baby’s body is learning how to digest food, so it’s common for them to experience more gas than adults.

4. Baby’s diet

Breastfed babies may experience sensitivities to food found in their mother’s breast milk. Bottle-fed babies may experience gas due to the mixing of formula creating excessive air bubbles or from a nipple size that is too fast. Older babies that have started eating solids may experience gas when trying new foods and develop new food sensitivities.

5. Gastrointestinal virus

Diarrhea and vomiting, along with gas, are common symptoms of a “stomach bug” caused by a virus.

What are the symptoms of Gas Pain?

When air is trapped in your baby’s tummy, you may notice the following:

1. Crying (especially if crying occurs when baby is unlikely to be hungry or tired)

2. Fussiness

3. Arching of the back

4. Lifting the legs

5. A hardened or bloated tummy

6. Passing gas or burping

HOW TO HELP YOUR BABY WITH GAS PAIN

The number one excuse when it comes to why a baby is not sleeping or not napping is usually blamed on teething. And the second reason? Gas pain.

If you’re anything like me, when my infant was screaming from gas pain, I ran straight to Target to the aisle with all the gas drops thinking that these would be my savior. Unfortunately, the gas drops didn’t help. 

So, how do you help your child deal with gas pains and belly discomfort?

These are some exercises I’ve learned from Kate Morse, our sleep support specialist and resident pediatric RN. She has several years of experience working in the pediatric Emergency Department at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO.

If you’d like to see a visual example, tune into the YouTube video linked above to watch Kate demonstrate these exercises for you.

First, lay them on their back on a flat surface. 

Then, try these to provide relief:

1. 1. Massage – Gently try massaging your baby’s tummy in clockwise and counterclockwise directions. This treatment will move air through their tummy.
   2. Bicycling – Gently “bicycle” their legs. You don’t need to apply too much pressure, just move at your own speed.
   3. Knee Hugs – Press their knees into their tummy. You can try one knee at a time and then move to the other knee through all of those different positions.

Soon enough, the gas tummy pain will be something your baby has learned to work through on their own, but these exercises will help. We can’t wait to hear what works after you test out these moves on your little one! Sweet dreams!