Baby farts often: normal or abnormal? Expert advice

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

For most young parents, it will be a real discovery that their baby farts often, and sometimes does it almost constantly. The baby has gas during sleep, waking up, with any physical activity, and even when he just eats. But is it normal that a newborn baby farts often, does he himself experience discomfort from this, or getting rid of excess air in the intestines brings him relief? Now we will understand all these issues, as well as find out how to deal with excessive gas formation and how to prevent it altogether.

flatulence in newborns: normal or abnormal?

A he althy person who does not have any problems with increased gas formation, and the intestines work as expected, farts an average of about 15 times a day. It should be understood that in adults the gastrointestinal tract is already fully formed, they have set up workdigestive organs and inhabited by the microflora necessary for its proper functioning.

Gases that are excreted from the body accumulate in the intestines in different ways - this is the air swallowed while eating or talking, and the result of the vital activity of all the same microorganisms, and, of course, the result of the processes of decay of food residues. It should be borne in mind that in adults all these processes are debugged, but children are just starting to get used to them. At first, the baby often farts and poops, but over time it will pass, you just need to give the baby a little time to adapt to his new environment.

How much should a baby fart?

As a rule, this happens much more often in newborns than in adults and even older children. Especially often the baby farts in the first months of his life. This is due to the diet of babies, and with the characteristics of their body. Parents may notice that their child releases gas most actively after sleep or just before waking up. And it takes a lot of time for a newborn. The baby can fart for 5-10 minutes and this is quite normal. Thus, he gets rid of the gas that has accumulated in the intestines.

Newborns still cannot sit, roll over, change the position of their body on their own, they have insufficient physical activity, due to which the peristalsis of the body slows down greatly. Therefore, in principle, it is very good when a one-month-old baby farts often, which means that he is able to cope with flatulence andhis tummy will hurt less. If the gases accumulated in the intestine do not go out, they stretch the walls of the intestine, injure it, and cause severe pain.

Causes of increased gas production

When considering the topic of flatulence in infants, it is important to understand when it comes to the normal physiological process of gas release from the intestines, and when it is about excessive gas formation, which causes serious discomfort to the child, and sometimes painful colic.

If the baby farts often, he has no difficulty with it, he does not cry, eats and sleeps well, and his tummy is soft and not enlarged, then everything is fine. But when the intestines are “boiling”, and the gas bubbles are so large that it is difficult for the baby to let them out, it means that he needs help. But first you need to find out why the baby often farts. There are several reasons for this:

• he swallows air while suckling breast, bottle or pacifier;
• he is not physically active enough;
• parents don't wear the baby in a "column" after eating, and he does not release the air accumulated in the stomach with the help of belching;
• his intestines are not yet fully populated with beneficial microflora;
• baby doesn't fit his food;
• the child overeats, and the remains of undigested food rot in the intestines, which causes fermentation and flatulence.

Often one of the factors of increased gas formation in infants is called errors in the mother's diet (if the baby is on breastfeeding). It is believed that breastfeeding womenYou should avoid eating certain foods, because they provoke flatulence in a child. These include baked goods, legumes and cabbage, as well as sweets, carbonated drinks and some types of fruit.

Why does a baby fart often: does mom's diet affect this?

Direct relationship between what a nursing woman eats and what composition her milk actually has. If the mother's diet includes allergenic foods, "harmful" food, alcohol, overly aromatic additives and foods containing chemicals (flavor enhancers, dyes, flavors, etc.), then the composition of breast milk will not be the best. All "harmful things" to some extent get into it, respectively, they can cause various reactions in the baby - rashes, diathesis and even diarrhea.

At the same time, pediatricians have reconsidered the role of food in the processes of gas formation in newborns. If the mother eats beans or cabbage, then she will puff, but not the baby. The same point of view is confirmed by the majority of lactating women who did not adhere to a strict diet during breastfeeding. Moreover, they note the fact that if the mother is full, she has fatty and nutritious milk, which the child gorges on, he cries less and generally behaves much calmer. Therefore, if the baby farts often, and the gases have an unpleasant smell, or because of their accumulation, his tummy hurts, the cause of the problem is probably not in his mother's diet. Factors affecting flatulence in newborns are listed above.

How can I help my baby stop swallowing air while eating?

Newborn babies don't know how to latch on properly. It takes them some time to learn this. The skill of properly grasping the areola and calm sucking will come about a few weeks after childbirth. In addition, the crumbs have an insufficient volume of the oral cavity, and with intensive sucking, they cannot swallow all the milk that flows from the breast. As a result of this, the baby can often throw the nipple, grab air with his mouth, swallowing it, and it is because of this that he subsequently suffers from colic and often farts. A child needs a month or two to simply grow up and learn how to eat properly. But mom herself can help him speed up this process. The first and most important thing is to prevent improper capture of the nipple, when only the top of the nipple is in the baby's mouth, without the areola. In addition, it is very important that during feeding, the baby and mother feel comfortable, they are not distracted by noise or uncomfortable position.

Finally, we will tell you one more fact proven by pediatricians and breastfeeding consultants - a nursing woman does not need to express the rest of her milk, otherwise it will always arrive in more quantities than her baby needs. The baby, having swallowed sweet and low-fat upper milk, will still be hungry, excess sugar will cause fermentation in his tummy, and provoke pain and flatulence.

How are overeating and flatulence related in children?

Respected by many parents and fellow doctors, pediatrician Komarovsky Evgeny Olegovichclaims that overfeeding a child is much worse for his he alth than underfeeding. The body of babies is not able to cope with the excess of food they receive, and therefore if the baby eats more than necessary, then this is fraught with such consequences:

• remnants of undigested food enter the intestines and wander there, causing gas;
• toxins from rotting food cause allergic reactions, dermatitis and rashes;
• the child's stomach is stretched and subsequently he may suffer from obesity.

Moreover, all mothers can feed their child in excess: both those who have established breastfeeding and those who were forced to transfer the baby to IV. Do not give the crumbs more portions of the mixture than those indicated on the food packages. These are average norms and their adjustment is possible only after consultation with a pediatrician. It is enough for a baby to be near his mother's "sissy" for no more than 20 minutes to eat, the rest of the time he only maintains contact with his parent, and does not satisfy the feeling of hunger. So if a 2-month-old farts a lot, it may be worth restricting his diet a bit.

Constipation in the baby

Infrequent or difficult bowel movements are also the cause of flatulence in children. If the baby cannot poop in time, gases will be released in an enhanced mode, which happens especially often when the child is a year old. Often the baby farts not because he has colic or the intestines are not inhabited by beneficial microflora. Probably the body cannot cope with changes indiet, because it is during this period that babies most actively begin to introduce complementary foods. In order for the child to poop in a timely manner, not to suffer from constipation and flatulence, he needs to eat the “right” food:

• vegetables;
• fruit;
• porridge;
• fermented milk products.

At the same time, you should not get carried away with bakery products and various sweets. Children a year are still too small for such food, it causes strong fermentation in the intestines.

Gymnastics for the tummy

To help your baby get a bump, you need to provide him with moderate physical activity. To do this, it is enough to do a set of gymnastic exercises with the baby every day, which will not only strengthen the growing body, but also improve the state of peristalsis.

These exercises are very simple, they need to be done for 15 minutes 3-4 times a day - just during the wakefulness of the baby:

• "bike";
• alternately touching the knees to the tummy;
• lifting two legs together up from a position on the back;
• cruciform reduction of the elbows and knees of the baby (the left knee must be pulled up to the right elbow, then the right knee should be closed with the left elbow);
• putting the baby on the tummy.

No less beneficial effect on peristalsis and exercises with the help of a gymnastic ball (fitball). The baby should be placed with the tummy down and gently rock the ball back and forth, as well as to the sides, in a circle. This will not only help him free the intestines from gases, but also strengthen the muscles of the back andpress.

Tummy tummy massage

A very effective way to help a child with flatulence is to gently massage the tummy. To speed up the movement of gases through the intestines, the baby needs to stroke the area around the navel clockwise immediately after sleep or when he cannot fart himself. But the actions must be careful, without pressure, so as not to harm the baby. It’s good if mom does massage right during gymnastics. After a few minutes of stroking, you can pull the child's knees to the tummy to move the gases.

Using a vent pipe: pros and cons

Babies sometimes fart often, but little by little, feeling uncomfortable from this, because they still can’t release all the gases that have accumulated in the tummy. To alleviate the suffering of the child, he can put a vent tube. She opens the anus of the baby and allows the gas to come out, and at the same time provokes a bowel movement.

On the one hand, this simple device saves children from constipation, but on the other hand, you need to understand that this is an extreme measure and you should not get carried away with the vent tube regularly. The child must learn to free the intestines from both feces and gases. If the mother always helps him in this, then this will interfere with the development of the natural process of adaptation of the child's body and the problem will drag on for several months, or even years.

Medicines for gas patients

If, despite the implementation of all the techniques described above, the baby still cannot copewith gases and the mother does not understand why the child often farts, perhaps the whole thing is in the immaturity of the intestine or dysbacteriosis. In these cases, flatulence can be overcome with medication.

There is a whole group of drugs based on simethicone (Espumisan, Infacol, Bobotik, etc.). All of them contribute to the splitting of large gas bubbles into small ones, and also favor their fastest removal. You can also fight flatulence with the help of herbal medicines. Most of them contain fennel. These can be oil-based drops or teas.

Also, you can fight excessive gas formation with the help of lacto- and bifidobacteria. Preparations containing beneficial microflora eliminate the imbalance that occurs when the intestines are overpopulated with pathogenic microorganisms. They mostly treat not flatulence itself, but its root cause, therefore they do not have an immediate effect.