Night gas

[julymommy]

DS (6 months) had a week of waking up several times during the night screaming. I would move his legs, massage his tummy and he would fart several times and then go right back to sleep. I tried eliminating dairy from my diet (per the pedi) but with no results. The pedi then suggested we start solids. We are on our third or fourth week of solids and have definitely noticed an improvement. Rather than being up 3-4 times a night with gas he is up just once. The poor little guy does not want to wake up - he cries and cries, arches his back, farts and falls back to sleep exhausted. The pedi says she doesn't have any other ideas and thinks maybe he'll grow out of it. I'm not thrilled with that answer - any thoughts? Oh - no issues during the day day - just a night time thing.

[Piglet]

Have you tried giving him gas drops (Mylicon, Little Tummies, etc.)? Also, are you getting a good burp out of him before putting him down for the night? I know that we had a hard time with that last burp for fear of waking the baby up. I don't know why solids would help the situation since they are so much harder to digest, so it might b a fluke thing that the sleep got better after the solids. Lastly, I found that sometimes the crying was te cause of the gas but it was always the first thing we thought of as the culprit. In other words, lets say he wakes himself and is unhappy because he is tired. He cries and the air that he takes in gives him gas. You come in and rub his tummy whil he is still crying and out comes the gas. The problem might not be related to diet, but some other source of discomfort (teething, ear infection, etc.).

[amldaley]

Same thing happening here...using gas drops at night helps a little. i am already dairy free. i think corn may be our culprit.

[ahrimie]

Have you tried giving him gas drops (Mylicon, Little Tummies, etc.)? Also, are you getting a good burp out of him before putting him down for the night? I know that we had a hard time with that last burp for fear of waking the baby up. I don't know why solids would help the situation since they are so much harder to digest, so it might b a fluke thing that the sleep got better after the solids. Lastly, I found that sometimes the crying was te cause of the gas but it was always the first thing we thought of as the culprit. In other words, lets say he wakes himself and is unhappy because he is tired. He cries and the air that he takes in gives him gas. You come in and rub his tummy whil he is still crying and out comes the gas. The problem might not be related to diet, but some other source of discomfort (teething, ear infection, etc.).


I agree, it might be something else. I'd make sure you burp real well before bedtime and try to get all the gas out before he sleeps, like rubbing his tummy and pushing up his legs towards his stomach. Crying can definitely create gas too.

Poor guy! Doesn't it just break your heart?

[hellokitty]

Forget the mylicon drops. Try gripe water instead. You can get it at your local healthfood store. I like the Baby's Bliss brand. I would give it to my babies and then within a few minutes they would burp or fart to make themselves feel better. Also, how long did you eliminate dairy from your diet? It takes a minimum of at least 3 wks I believe, of dairy out of YOUR diet, before you may even see a difference in your baby. Oh and about the solids, if anything I would think that the solids would irritate baby's tummy more than anything.

[Tondi G]

We had good luck with the Wellements brand organic gripe water, got it at whole foods. They help with hiccups too if your little one gets the hiccups all the time like mine did!

[wellyes]

My baby had the same problem at 6 months, I think it's a normal reaction to adding solids. What helped with us was giving her a LOT more water, plus giving prune juice (mixed with cereal) a couple of times a week, plus occasional Mylicon drops. The water especially helped.

Poor baby! But the good news is that this is a phase they get past pretty quickly.

[srhs]

We use generic gas drops (Wal Mart brand here) with success! They work pretty quick. Everyone is back to sleep within 5 minutes.
The study that is often cited about them not working was a "colic" treatment study, so it doesn't surprise me they wouldn't work if gas wasn't the source of the colic in those cases.

We've also used Gripe Water when the pain seemed a more overall bellyache.

We also did diluted prune juice when BMs were too far apart and offering water at the end of each solids meal. Finally, we've stuck to the new-food-every-3-4-days rule so we can clearly know when a food makes baby more gassy.

GL!

[brittone2]

nak-
I'd probably back off of the solids a bit to see if anything eases up. Some kids have digestive systems that don't tolerate solids all that well, even at 6 months.

I went dairy free with DS for 6 or 8 months. You definitely have to eliminate all dairy (not just obvious dairy)...there are lots of hidden dairy ingredients. And I agree w/ the PP...if you go that route, many say it takes 2-3 weeks minimum to see a difference. I think Dr. Sears has info on elimination diets on his site?

[MNmomtobe]

Agree with pps about the mylicon and the diluted prune juice. The "p" fruits are helpful too. Prunes, pears, peaches.

ETA: bananas can be constipating. We tried to limit those when dd was about that age and having horrible constipation issues.