Newborn with Horrible Gas

I agree with Mimi 100%. I would add that you should take your baby to see a Chiropractor. Her little body went thru a lot in the birth process and this caused a lot of her nerves to become pinched. In turn, you can get colic, reflux, gas with lots of PAIN. It is a very easy fix! A Chiropractor can put her spine (that controls every nerve and function in your body) back in its correct alignment. Please consider this. I am a Chiropractor and I can tell you our treatment is gentle and effective! What have you got to loose, your little girl is in pain? Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you! Good luck.

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Goodness--I feel your pain!! We had a very unhappy infant (she is now a smart and sweet two year old, so don't worry--it's not permanent) who cried uncontrollably from about 4pm until 9 at night. It took HOURS to get her to sleep every single night and we tried everything from gripe water to white noise. Everything helped a little, but didn't cure it. Our pediatrician called it normal colic and siad it would go away. I didn't listen to my instincts b/c I was a first time mom, but my instincts told me there was something more going on. Then, at 4 months old, when the colic did not subside, I switched pediatricians and found out that my daughter had severe reflux and had been in horrible pain the entire time we thought she had colic. One prescription for Zantac later, she was a happy baby. I felt horrible... I'm not trying to scare you. I am just making the point that doctors don't always know everything and to make sure you rule out a medical problem before spending a whole lot of time on home remedies. Best of luck--I've been there and, no matter what the cause, this will end soon!!!

I friend of mine swears by gripe water. Her daughter had the same kind of problems. And her mother told her to get some gripe water. She never had gas problems again. They sell it at drug stores and some caribbean food stores.

M.

We just went through the same thing with my son, who is now 9 weeks old. We weren't able to do anything with him. Our best bet would be to lay him on his belly with his legs up under him and pat his but. This seemed to help sometimes. I don't know about changing formulas b/c I am EBF. I really feel your pain it was awful. Hang in there it will get better I promise.

Hey M.,

I know this can be fustrating. I never used Mylicon drops, they are expensive and never seemed to do the job. try brown sugar water when your baby has these fits. My mom used it on 4 kids, and we have all used it for ours, it works like a charm. You can add 1/2 tblsp to her formula or to 4 oz. warm water. When she is older you will use a full tblsp. It calmed my oldest immediatly, and about 5 minutes after having it my 2nd son would have a bowel movement and be perfectly fine. I know you mentioned "home remedies", but this one is tried and true for our family.

My son had gas often when he was that young. His Ped. put him on Enfamil Gentlease and that seemed to do better. He also had reflux and was put on a med for that also. Your daughter may have a little of both. I also remember reading that patting their bottom when they are gassy gives them a direction to focus on releasing the gas; that also worked well with my son.

Are her bowel movements normal or do you have lots of diapers? There may be a milk intolerance issue, which takes some work to get around.
If all other advice fails and this continues, you may try adding cod liver oil (1 tblsp to 6 oz) to almond or rice milk (adding in more vitamins and minerals after a trial of a day or two). The ped may turn their nose up, but a trial of a day or two without all the many additional vitamins is not going to hurt just until you find out if the milk is a problem. The reason you usually wait on the supplements is many of them add the iron and that can cause issues that you can deal with after you determine if milk could be the cause.
Hang in there! J

Mylicon drops... My daughter has massive gas. I asked the doctor what to do and he said I can give her as much Mylicon drops needed.

When my LO went through this I changed his formula!! Yes, it may be normal for some babies but I just couldn't take it anymore. I went down and got a fussy baby, cholic formula made by Similac (but they all make one!!! There are even generics on the market!) and within a day I noticed a difference.

The other thing I did that seemed to help is that we started running my tap water through a brita filter... We ended up in a small town in Michigan and for the whole week LO had no fussing. As soon as we were back in the city the fussy, the gas, and the complaining began again. For some reason the filtered water helped. Again, it was like a day and I noticed a difference!!

Best wishes! Jess

A soy based formula, Mylicon, and massage worked for our little girl. She drinks soy milk now at 14 months because she is most definitely lactose intolerant, like her Mom. 0( I drink soy milk) All other dairy products do not affect her, just milk. And as a few others have mentioned, some children just cried, My friend's daughter cried each night from 7 to 9, like clockwork for no apparent reason, and this is common because of all of the stimulation they receive on a daily basis and they get pooped out. Google it
Hope you find a good cure! I feel your frustration

My son was the exact same way when he was about a month old. We had to switch his milk to Similac Sensitive...worked like a charm!

I was told by a doctor that Mylicon drops do no good unless given on a regular basis. In other words you can't give a dose of it for their first bottle of the day and not give any more for the remainder of the day. It has to be given consistly. How true this is I really do not know and how much Mylicon drops can a newborn have? It's been almost 6 years ago for me I can't rememeber! lol!

M.,
I was just talking to another mom the other day about babies crying in the late afternoon, early evening. I am not dismissing the gas, but lots of babies cry uncontrollably during this time. We would take our little one for a walk around the neighborhood during this time and that seemed to help some. We would take little strolls around the outside of the house pointing out the trees, birds, grass, etc. I used to say that I was biding the time before bedtime. I think it may be a combination of gas and being tired from the day. Getting your baby out and about may help distract her a little bit.

Hi M. - our little one (who is now 5 months old) had bad gas, too. Try Gripe Water - they sell it at CVS or Babies R Us - it pulls all the bubbles together into one big burp (or out the other end) - we only had to use it for about a week and it got better. Also - try feeding her more upright and have her in an upright position for a good 10-15 min after feeding to let her digest. Also - have her sleep on an incline - again to help with digestion. It is simply awful... I know how you feel. Hope that helps!

I used Carnation Good Start as formula when I had my children. It worked really well and it was most like breast milk. It even tastes better than regular formula from Enfamil or Similac. It was pretty mild and did not cause any bad gas problems. They offer a money back assurance if you do not like it. Below is the article. It is also more affordable than other formula. I also used canned instead of powder. http://www.gerber.com/articles/nestle_good_start_money_ba...

M.,
I gave birth to my first on August 5th. Also a little girl who had terrible terrible gas. She would cry and none of the home remedies helped. The Mylicon seemed to make things come easier but it didn't help the pain. I switched her to Similac Alimentum it's purple and it's hypoallergenic. Food Lion carries it. Works wonders. She still has trouble every now and then but not all the time and she is much happier and more comfortable. I feel your pain so try the purple Similac and see if that helps. It worked for me. I hope it works for you and your lovely little girl.

Hi M.,
I had the same problem with my little princess at that age. She also was on Enfamil Lipil and after switiching her to Enfamil Lactofree, I had to go on to Enfamil Prosobee. It decreased her gas a lot. And also I found out that the powder formula caused her more trouble so I went strictly with the liquid formula. I switched her bottles from NUK to Avent and that helped a lot. I used Mylicon drops or Gripe Water and made sure that I held her up after each feeding for at least 10-15 minutes. She started sleeping better and her gas decreased drastically. Trust your doctor but trust your motherly instinct more! Sometimes you really do have to just try different (but safe) things until you find something that works for your little one. Good luck and take care!

~A.

I will not go against what your doctor says, however, if you are not happy maybe you should try another doctor...
Another good thing to do to help the gas pass through her system is to gently rub her tummy in a constant circular motion. Go up on the right side and circle around and down on the left side, this is the way the intestines run. It HAS to be this exact way or you could cause her to be more uncomfortable and a little constipated. Sing to her so she can calm down some.
Is she only on formula? I have heard other stories of formula causing gas. When I was nursing sometimes the foods I ate caused my daughter gas as well.
Good luck to you.

My son used to have the same problem, he had lot of gas and used to spit up too. Our doctor recommended to change the formula to the one that is very easily digestable by baby's tummy. We started using Nutramigen from Enfamil, its little expensive but then you want to give some relief to the baby at any cost.
The other things that you can try are give mylicon with every feeding, can mix it in his milk too.
Get gripe water from BabyRUs or any Organic whole food market and give that every 2-3 hours, that is very good for gas in babies.
Another thing you can try is make a paste of Asfoteida powder (can get from any Indian store) and water and put that on baby's tummy around naval area. Its safe as you are only applying it, not consuming it, but it relieves a lot of gas from the tummy. Try some of these and you will see the difference.
I can understand how you feel as I too suffered for almost 3 months and then my son got a little better. Once they start sitting up it gets a whole lot better.

Regards,
PS

Hi M.,

Your baby was born on my wedding anniversary! :-) At any rate, I have an 8 month old and we had the same issue and my son was diagnosed with acid reflux. It's all connected with gas issues as well from my understanding. Who's your pediatrician? My son has been taking Axid every since they diagnosed him and he's been fine ever since. However you didn't mention any throwing up episodes and my son definitely had those so maybe it's not acid relux in your case. I hope this helps though.

Hey M.!

We went through something similar with my son. We switched to the Nestle / Carnation Good Start formula and it made all the difference. It's actually cheaper (or at least was at that time), but it's allegedly formulated to be digested easier. It also has the DHA/ARA version if you are following that route. He was so much happier when we switched over and was really in a lot of misery before then (and so were we). We never had my daughter on any other kind and she couldn't have been a happier baby.

I hope this helps!

D.

We went through the same ordeal with our little girl, until she was about 2 months. During month two, the episodes were less frequent but just as severe. She "out grew" this around 12 weeks, if that is possible. She is now 61/2 months and doing fine. We went from breastfeeding to formula and switched formulas several times, and the one that worked was Prosobee (We aslo tried soy based Isomil, and Nutramigin) We were assured that her condition was normal,but it does not feel that way when you are going through it. It was the hardest thing to watch her endure what appeared to be unbearable pain. We were in and out of doctors offices every few days, hoping some practitioner would tell us something different. We kept running into the same explanation: her digestive system has not matured and aside from the home remedies, Mylicon, prescription strength gas drops, other techniques you've already mentioned.....there is not a lot than can be done. I know personally how frustrated you are, and although she has outgrown it......I was worried sick for months that something was seriously wrong and the doctors were overlooking it or dismissing it as gas

A few things we tried were:
Giving a 1/2 dose of mylicon before and 1/2 dose after feeding at every feeding (so as not to exceed the daily limit)

Burping her half way though the feeding

Keeping her in up right position (as straight a body alignment as possible) during the feeding and for 30 minutes after the feeding

Playing music (reasonably loud) in small confined space and continuous motion (walking her while rocking her back and forth)-(This seemed to distract her until the pain subsided)

Swaddling her and holding her close until it subsides

When episodes were more severe we gave her "GRIPE WATER"- (an herbal supplement sold at babies R US) along with Mylicon (a doctors suggestion)

If you have the luxury of help, alternating "gas" duty makes it bit easier for you as the care giver - I know that there is nothing easy about watching her go through the painful episodes; but a half hour break refreshes you and its much easier to roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to comfort her

I really wish you the best and hope that your little one outgrows it. I 'm still not sold on the idea that there is nothing medically that can be done to relieve this kind of pain. Take comfort in the fact that it didn't last forever for us.

M.--keep talking to the doctors until they provide some relief. You might need to switch doctors. I had my FOURTH child last year and you would have thought I was making up that he was in pain and that it was not normal. I finally called in the middle of the fit and the nurse had us come right in. Indeed he did have a form of reflux. Wonder of Wonders, they put him on zantac syrup and he was not even the same baby!!! They will want to tell you that she is just fussy, but you are the momma and you can tell if your child is in real pain. They usually will just have to take the zantac until they are about six months, and that muscle that closes the stomach has time to develop.

I usually don't respond to these but I just had to to you. Your baby sounds identical to mine. I would tell people her gas sounded like an adult man it was so bad and she had the screaming episodes as well. You knew she was in pain. My ped. also said this was normal & I just used gas drops. After several months of this I found out on my on that she needed Soy formual. The first day she was a totally different baby. No more painful wimpering during the night. She was lactose intolerate and the Dr. never suggested this. I could have saved her & myself from a lot of pain and suffering had I switched to the Soy formula earlier. The gas completely stopped immediatley with this formula as well. After I told the doctor about this he said "oh, okay, well if that worked, then she has an allergy to milk protien and will grow out of it." Which she did just about 3 months ago. She turned 2 Saturday. That is the common theme for them to grow out of it by age 2. But until then she could not eat milk, ice cream or cheese and if an adult accidentally fed her ice cream becaue they forgot then again we would have the painful screaming through the night. Anyway, I would not be surprised if Soy formula is your miracle answer.

hi,
my son had the same problem and it turned out that a soy based formula worked for him...they said he was lactose intollerant, (only as an infant...)...you might try it...it can't hurt. good luck

Good Morning,
Try massaging her tummy with vaseline right after a warm bath. My twins had gas also and I used the Mylicon drops, it helped but a friend who also had twins in Germany, said a German doctor told her to massage their tummy right after a bath with vaseline and it worked wonders for the both of us.

My daughter was the same way when she was that age until I changed her milk. My daughter was on Enfamil and I changed her to the Enfamil in the purple can....it's called Enfamil gentlease Lipil. It is especially made for kids who are suffering from gas and etc from the other formula. Once I switched her about a day later..because you have to wait for the old formula to get out of their system she was 100% better. You can read more about it and Enfamil.com

Make sure you are burping baby good after feeding. Let her lay on her stomach some, I understand Dr. tell you now to let them sleep on there back but the stomach is still good for them.

Hi M.,

Others have mentioned this but I wanted to reiterate the use of Gripe Water. my baby is 12 months old now but when he was a newborn, gripe water was our friend. It's made of organic ingredients and it can be found in most drugstores like Walgreens, CVS, Publix and Whole Foods.

Give it a try, I think it may help. The two brands we've used are:

*Baby Bliss Gripe Water all natural
*Wellements Gripe Water for Colic made with organic ingredients

Both brands helped us and continue to help us tremendously.

Many peaceful baby blessings---E.

My son went through the same thing. I bought a bottle of Mylanta and mixed it stronger than Mylicon. It also helps if you support their head and hold pressure on their tummy. My son's nervous system was not fully developed and that caused a lot of the crying in the early evenings. If your child starts crying about the same time everyday, that may be a lot of the problem. If it is try laying him in his crib and putting on some soothing music. I had to hold mine close and walk. There is not a lot you can do for that except comfort them and keep it quiet. They will outgrow it.Make sure you enlist some help as this can really get to you no matter how ucdh you love them.When you are upset, they sense ot and it affects them When you have help,go somewhere quiet and don't worry. Jyst try to relax. Hope this helps.
D.

M.,
I would switch formula to see if that helps her out. I am surprised the Doctor did not suggest this to you after you have tried so many other remedies. I hope it works.
All the best

Hi Melaine!

My mother gave me this idea for colic...I am sure at this point you will try anything that may help. Take 1 medium size onion and slice it; put it in a small sauce pan with maybe 5c of water. Then take 3-4tsp of caraway seed and boil it all together until the onion is soft. You only want the water mixture so, drain the mixture keeping the water. Put a bit of sugar in a bottle with about 8oz of the mixture(to help with the taste) and cool to the temp of a normal bottle. My great uncle was Hungarian and his mother taught my mother this when she had my sisters and I. I used it on one of my daughters who had colic pretty regularly. It helped through the night. Granted it did not cure it and we would have to make the mixture almost every other night. I guess the combination of onion juice and caraway seed helps force all of the gas out of the stomach. I hope it helps!!!

M.

M.,

I think sometimes gas has to do with the child too. I breastfed my first and he suffered terribly with gas daily. I did like the Mylicon drops. We would give him the drops and my husband would place my son's tummy on the top of his shoulder and burp him like that. It always seemed to work.

My second son never gets gas and he had breast milk for the first six weeks and has used a couple of different formulas and was fine on all three. I don't believe it is bottles either because with my youngest, I use the plain ole Evenflo glass bottles and as I said, he never gets gas.

It is so very frustrating, I know. Even though the doctors told me all the same things they are telling you, I now think my first son actually did have "colic". He screamed for hours every day and sometimes into the night.

Just try to keep your cool, and do consider trying another formula. What is the worst that can happen? I think if you don't keep switching back and forth, it is fine to change the formula you are using. Especially if you suspect that is the problem. You are the mommy, and you are smart! Go with your head and your heart on this. Doctors are just humans too.

Good luck, get plenty of rest, and just be patient.

Try Gripe Water. I've only found it at Earthfare (or probably other organic stores). My baby tried Zantac and Prilosec, nothing worked except when we tried Gripe Water.

We switched formula, with our doctors approval, to gentle ease and it made a world of difference with our daughter.

Maybe you could try a warm pack or bottle (not too hot) on her tummy? My little guy always had crying spells at night- but he eventually grew out of it and then also turned out to have reflux(I know that doesn't help much though). He was spitting up, arching his back and crying/fussing while eating, and waking a lot at night in pain. If you are seeing signs like that, you might want to check with a nurse or doctor and share it. You could also look up gerd, or reflux and see if her symptoms match at all vs just colic (which is what I thought was going on with my little one).

Hi, sorry to hear you are having problems. I'm not sure if this is related but my daughter was colic when she was young and if I remember right she was a little gassy too. We would burp her extra long. She was on Soy formula because she had problems in the hospital about drinking all the other ones. I found that the soy formula worked best at keeping the gas to a minimum. The colic was horrible. She is 11 now and I tell her she had colic as a baby and hasn't shut up yet. She's a talker and can go on and on. We had to do different things every night to help calm her down. You could never do the same thing two nights in a row. We did things like the baby swing, rocking side to side, back and forth, up and down, standing by the washer and dryer while they were running, walking around the house. We had a bean bag chair and we would rock her head to toe and then side to side. I even broke down one night and too her for a ride in the car. Anything to get a good nights sleep. I hear they have little tablets for things like this now. I hope some of this is helpful. The doctor told me that she wanted something in the first 10 minutes and if she didn't get it she would cry because she was frustrated. It would last 3-5 hours a night if I didn't figure out what it was. You may want to talk to your dr. about soy formula. That could solve the gas issue. Good luck!

I know it's terrible to see her that unhappy! Both my boys had similar symptoms and it was their formula. "Regular" formula and soy both caused problems. They ended up on Nutramigen which did the trick. It's horribly expensive, but it did fix their problems. At the time we were using it the pediatrician's office always had samples they would give us, so maybe you could get a sample to try before you invest in it.

Good luck!

we used an item called "gripe water" generally available for about $4- from an Indian grocery..it works great...I think that this remedy is more common in Canada (where I grew up)
Good luck-
S.

First, cow's milk formula is really bad for lots of babies tummies. It's just harder to digest. Just like if you were nursing, you'd stay away from milk yourself to not cause these problems with a newborn.

I would see a chiropractor that has dealt with babies....sometimes that can remedy the situation immediately for many babies. That's usually what we do once home from the hospital.

Another thing you could do is give your little one an herbal liquid formula specifically for colic called Kid-E-Col found at www.herbsfirst.com.

But honestly, I would try the chiro first.

I'm either going to go with colic or a needed change in formula. I used Enfamil with my daughter and she had constipation issues and was always gassy. I used Carnation good start with my son and he never really had any problems at all!! I also BF both of them for about 3 months and I can say the Good Start was the closest thing to breat milk when it came to his BMs.

Good luck and I hope you figure out what makes her feell better!!
S.

Sounds like milk intolerance. My daughter had all of the same issues when she was on Similac Advance. Her pediatrician switched her to Isomil Advance and it worked like a charm, a few days was all it took for the problems to go away. You could try Enfamil's Soy formula or any other Soy based formula. Good luck to you.

Rest assured...your daughter DOES have colic. While your Dr.'s office may say it's normal, they are not the ones up at night trying to soothe a inconsolable baby. It's heart wrenching for a 1st time mom to see your baby so miserable and not able to help her. We went thru it w/ our 1st. My poor husband came home from work every afternoon just as it was kicking in at it's worst time of day. He never really got to see a happy baby for the 1st 4 months. Get on the internet and try anything you can. We went thru a ton of $ changing formulas every 2-3 days until we found one that worked for him. I still couldn't tell you if we found the right one or if he just outgrew it by then.

Other non-traditional things that worked for us was noise...he loved vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, loud dishwashers. We even bought a CD that had all kinds of white noise. Vibration also help - vibrating bouncing seat, car rides (costly with these gas prices) and we even set him in the car seat on top of the dryer when it was running - all done with safety in mind.

Good luck!

I would switch her to a soy formula, it could be the formula. also I know you said you've pumped her legs up and down but have you taken both legs at the same time and push them into her tummy and roll her butt around kind of massaging her tummy? also lay her on her tummy with her butt in the air, remember when they told you in chemistry that gases float, well its true.

I would try switching her formula. I used Enfamil Lipil with my first and it was great, but my Goddaughter couldn't "stomach" it and needed soy formula. It is normal for babies to have gas -a lot -but I would try some different formulas to see if that makes a difference.

Also, if you're breastfeeding at all, some say to watch what YOU eat. There are differences of opinion on this -some experts say it really doesn't matter and others say it does, but again, you could try not eating any gas-producing foods if you're breastfeeding at all to see if that makes a difference.

While it may not be uncommon, I wouldn't consider it normal. That may just be their way of saying there isn't much one can do about it. If they continue to be unsympathetic, I would consider seeing another pediatrician. Since she's on the bottle, you don't have to worry about your diet bothering her. There are some other formulas designed for babies with highly sensitive stomachs. I can't remember the names, but your pediatrician or another one should. Good luck and hang in there!

We had a similar issue with our daugter (she is now 13 months old). The only thing that brought her relief was Enfamil Nutramigan. It's pretty expensive, but it was worth it. We tried different formulas, but soy formulas made her constipated, which was really bad! Nutramagin did the trick. We think she was lactose intolerant and that's what caused her gas, but as I said soy formula didn't work. I totally empathize with this issue. Good luck!

It always seemed as if my kids would get bad gas not when they finished a bottle but right before a bottle! I always called it empty gas! If I could read their minds and manage to feed them right before they would fuss for a bottle we had a lot less problems! I also tried several different bottles and the only ones that seemed to work were the playtex vent air! We did not use those on my first, but he didn't have a gas problem! We also lived and breathed by mylicon drops! You can give them a lot more of those than you realize... Deff more than the bottle says! My dr once told me that the baby could drink the entire bottle and it not hurt him! I would go for the pff brand though! They are cheaper and just as effective!

Good luck and god bless!

Hang in there...When my son went through this we tried several types of bottles. We found that the Playtex Venti-air bottles worked the best. They actually pull the air in from the bottom of the bottle instead of back in through the nipple. Another suggestion is when you make the formula don't shake it up right before you give it to her, let it sit for a few minutes so that there are no air bubbles in it. I hope this helps you.