The "innocent" pair. When Little Miss was a few months old we were all sitting together in a quiet church meeting and right in the middle she produced some impressively noisy gas. When the family of teenage boys in front of us glanced back to check out the source of the noise (it was pretty loud), Mr. Goldman looked at one of the boys (as only he can) and whispered, “Was that you?” Holy cow that poor kid turned red. The rest of us burst into very non-churchy giggles while his mom helped him figure out what had really happened. I don’t know if he’ll ever recover.
Unfortunately, most infant gas is nowhere near this entertaining. In fact, gas receives a large portion of the blame for the all night crying parties also known as colic. Gas doesn’t account for every baby’s colic but if you suspect gas is involved (your main clues being their tight stomach or the constant putt-putt coming out of their behind) it can be a good place to start trying to fix things.
Let me say that I hope I’m not the only parent that assumed babies would have a proportionally smaller gas production capacity. I knew babies got stomachaches from gas but I assumed that was just because their stomachs are so much smaller. I was wrong. My dainty little lady produces enough gas to float the Hindenburg. It’s amazing her stomach hasn’t exploded.
Let me say that I hope I’m not the only parent that assumed babies would have a proportionally smaller gas production capacity. I knew babies got stomachaches from gas but I assumed that was just because their stomachs are so much smaller. I was wrong. My dainty little lady produces enough gas to float the Hindenburg. It’s amazing her stomach hasn’t exploded.
So what can you do? You have probably seen the large selection of gas drops on the baby aisle. Almost all of these gas drops have simethicone as the active ingredient (the exception being gripe water which is a whole other ball of wax). All the sources I checked agreed on two things: simethicone and placebo have the same gas relieving ability but they also carry the same amount of risk. (Simethicone doesn’t cross from the stomach to the rest of the body so the only people who could be endangered by it would be those with a simethicone allergy or severe abdominal issues.) So where do I stand? I actually have some of these drops and I have tried them on Little Miss but I’m not sure they did any good. I think anyone who has stayed up all night with a crying baby will understand why I was willing to try something that probably wouldn’t work. I think it doesn’t hurt to try these because they are super safe, cheap and sometimes you just need to do something/anything. On the same note, don’t expect any miracles.
Unfortunately, all the other options for relieving infant gas are much more time intensive. If you are nursing it’s time to investigate your diet and eliminate possibly irritating foods like caffeine, onions, dairy milk, cabbage, etc. I must say I feel a little hypocritical recommending this because I always just assumed my diet rotated enough that whatever food bugged her wasn’t worth tracking down. I’m embarrassingly lazy when it comes to food. Of course, if your infant is on formula or solid food, you would apply the same investigation to their diet. Other solutions (as offered by HealthyChildren.org) include spacing feedings by at least 2 to 2.5 hours, introducing a pacifier (aka the original lifesaver) or laying your baby stomach down on your lap while rubbing their back (my husband would call this the tooting position).
On a lighter note, HealthyChildren.org wants to remind you that the crying will calm down to only one or two hours a night after a few months. For some reason they felt the need to follow that information with a reminder to let someone else hang out with baby for awhile if you feel your sanity starting to crack. Ah, parenthood.
Unfortunately, all the other options for relieving infant gas are much more time intensive. If you are nursing it’s time to investigate your diet and eliminate possibly irritating foods like caffeine, onions, dairy milk, cabbage, etc. I must say I feel a little hypocritical recommending this because I always just assumed my diet rotated enough that whatever food bugged her wasn’t worth tracking down. I’m embarrassingly lazy when it comes to food. Of course, if your infant is on formula or solid food, you would apply the same investigation to their diet. Other solutions (as offered by HealthyChildren.org) include spacing feedings by at least 2 to 2.5 hours, introducing a pacifier (aka the original lifesaver) or laying your baby stomach down on your lap while rubbing their back (my husband would call this the tooting position).
On a lighter note, HealthyChildren.org wants to remind you that the crying will calm down to only one or two hours a night after a few months. For some reason they felt the need to follow that information with a reminder to let someone else hang out with baby for awhile if you feel your sanity starting to crack. Ah, parenthood.
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