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Baby wakes up in the middle of the night? What should you do?

Having gassy newborns can appear from the first days of life, often while still in the maternity hospital. Parents need to know about the causes of gas and how to get rid of it. After all, the baby’s health and well-being depend on the correct actions of the parents. Gas formation in the intestines of a newborn causes severe pain and spasms in the abdomen. A child may suddenly start screaming and jerking its legs. Sometimes it pushes them to the stomach and shows nervousness and restlessness. All of this can continue periodically, at short intervals. These are the main symptoms of excessive accumulation of gasses in a baby. To ease the child’s suffering, it is necessary to understand the reasons for gas in kids.

Reasons For Gas in Kids

One of the common reasons for gas in babies is the mother’s menu. A breastfeeding woman should know that there are products that cause increased gas production. Therefore, a nursing mother should not eat certain products:

  • yeast-based bakery products and homemade pastries
  • peas, beans
  • cabbage
  • a lot of sugar
  • fermented milk products

From the first days of the baby’s life, the mother must be on a strict diet, at least for the first few weeks. You can eat various soups, porridge, stewed vegetables, boiled meat and fish, and various teas. From the second month of a kid’s life, you can gradually include new products into your menu and monitor the baby’s reaction.

The next reason for a gassy baby is incorrect laying on the breast. In the process of applying a child to the breast, you need to make sure that it immediately embraces the nipple and does not swallow a lot of air. During this procedure, a child’s head should be slightly higher than the body.

Another reason that may cause your little one to suffer from gas is air swallowing during bottle feeding. When feeding a baby with formula from a bottle, it is necessary to ensure that the nipple is filled with milk, otherwise, a child will swallow air instead of the formula. The gas formation can occur if a baby cries for a long time, due to the wrong size of the diaper, which will squeeze the tummy with a tight rubber band.

How to Recognize Colic and Distinguish it from Other Diseases?

During a spasm, the child’s tummy hurts so it cries for several hours a day, at the same time a baby is full, healthy, and in a dry diaper. Also, a kid actively moves its legs and presses them to the tummy. Besides, bloating and redness of the skin of the face are noted. 

Usually, colic appears closer to the afternoon, or in the evening. Symptoms of colic begin without any reason, immediately after or during feeding, and can last up to 3 hours. With intense spasms, babies lose their appetite and there is grumbling in the stomach. Children who suffer from colic are irritable and sleep poorly. Spasms pass after the release of gases or the act of defecation. 

How to Relieve Pain in a Baby?

There are several ways to rid a baby of gas accumulation and relieve unpleasant symptoms:

  • Laying the child on its stomach prevents gas formation. You can put it on a changing table, a crib, or just on your lap. It is advisable to carry out this procedure before feeding or a couple of hours after it
  • After feeding, you can take a child vertically in your arms and hold it for a while
  • About an hour after feeding, you can gently stroke the baby’s belly and pull the legs to the tummy for a few seconds. Such a light massage will help relax the muscles of the intestines, after which the gas will go away painlessly
  • An ordinary warm heating pad will also relieve the pain in the baby’s tummy. It is enough to put it on the tummy for a few minutes and it will help the gas to come out painlessly. The warmth of the heating pad will relax the tense intestines and relieve a baby of unpleasant sensations
  • If a kid is bottle-fed, you need to change the formula. e.g. there is a specialty comfort formula that is suitable for kids suffering from colic, gas, and constipation. However, firstly, you need to consult with a pediatrician.

Prevention of Gas in a Baby

To prevent gas formation, you need to do several procedures every day: 

  • before each feeding, you need to put a baby on the tummy
  • after feeding, you need to support a kid vertically until it burps
  • a kid should spend more time in the fresh air. It is necessary not only to prevent gas but also to get a good night’s sleep 
  • to avoid gas formation you need to periodically massage the tummy formula or water should be given only from a high-quality, airtight bottle

Babies’ colic is a period of getting their digestive system used to breastfeeding or bottle feeding. Already three months, a child will learn to cope with the swelling of the tummy, this process will cease to be painful and no medication will be needed.

Piyushi

Blogger By Passion, Programmer By Love and Marketing Beast By Birth.

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