By: Richard Bleuze
Eliminating gas-producing foods and using supportive herbal or homeopathic therapies can help reduce or eliminate infantile colic.
Most parents don’t realize that a baby can pass gas up to 20 times a day. Without other symptoms, this is considered normal.
Symptoms often linked with infant gas include:
1. Burping/belching - A burp or belch comes from expelled air that has been swallowed.
2. Flatulence - The passing of gas can be the result of swallowed air and/or gas produced in your baby’s intestines (bowel) from:
(a) Normal digestion
(b) An incomplete break-down of food or milk
(c) A gastrointestinal infection
(d) A side effect of some medications or herbal therapies.
3. Abdominal bloating or distension - Excessive gas can cause distension of the abdomen or a bloated feeling. But more commonly, abdominal distention in a baby occurs as a result of a full stomach from normal feeding or possibly overfeeding.
4. Abdominal pain or cramps - It’s not easy to tell whether a baby has pain. It is common belief that when a baby draws up his legs while crying that this is a sign of abdominal pain.
5. Vomiting, spitting up - There is a subtle difference between vomiting and spitting up. Spitting up occurs spontaneously and unlike vomiting is effortless.
Spitting up is associated with reflux. Gas can also be connected with reflux in the following ways…
(a) Milk comes up with a burp.
(b) Heartburn, sometimes associated with reflux, may cause the child to salivate and/or cry. As the child swallows the saliva, or cries, air is also swallowed.
(c) Feeding too quickly and/or overfeeding can lead to an increase in the amount of air swallowed and also an increase in the amount and frequency of spitting up.
When a baby vomits, this is more commonly due to a gastrointestinal infection (NOTE: SEE A DOCTOR); a food or milk allergy; or intolerance or a side effect from medications. Diarrhea is also frequently linked to these conditions. However, diarrhea is not a symptom of reflux.
6. Diarrhea - Excessive gas and diarrhea can be present when a child has a gastro-intestinal infection or as a side effect of some medications or herbal treatment.
7. Constipation - Infant gas can be a symptom of constipation.
8. Crying - Infant gas is is NOT the same as infant colic. Studies have shown that gas alone does not cause the level of distress and/or discomfort experienced by a colicky baby.
9. Sleep disturbances - A baby with a stomach ache will have problems sleeping, either falling asleep or staying asleep.
What causes gas in infants:
1. Swallowed air - Swallowed air is the most common cause of gas in the stomach and is the major reason for burping or belching.
2. Normal digestion - Acid produced in the stomach is neutralized by pancreatic secretions as it passes into the intestines and the resulting interaction creates gas as a by-product.
3. Incomplete breakdown of milk or food - A small number of babies may experience excessive gas due to an inability to adequately digest one or more of the proteins and/or carbohydrates found in milk (including infant formula), juices and/or some foods. This is due to insufficient production of particular digestive enzymes, believed to be related to an immaturity of an infant’s digestive tract.
4. Vegetables - Such as carrots, eggplants, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, onions, artichokes, asparagus, legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, soybeans) and nuts, can increase the amount of gas produced.
Relieving gas symptoms naturally:
The following methods have been shown to temporary relief a baby's gas problem:
1. Burping your baby - Burp your baby, both during and following breast or bottle feeding.
2. Water - Studies have suggested that a small about of sugar water is just as effective as many of the colic medications currently on the market. Offering a small amount of water can often help to calm your baby’s unsettled stomach.
3. Anise tea - A tea made from fennel seed (Foeniculum vulgare) or anise seed (Pimpinella anisum) may be given directly to the infant (1 tsp. before and after feedings) or drank by the breast-feeding mother (1 cup three to six times per day). Both fennel and anise act as gastrointestinal relaxants and help expel gas.
4. Other herbal teas - made with such items as lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), catnip (Nepeta cateria), peppermint (Mentha piperita), spearmint (Mentha spicata), and linden flower (Tilia cordata).
5. A Warm bath - This may help your baby to relax. Also the warmth may help the gases in his bowel to expand and be expelled.
6. A warm compress on baby’s stomach - Warm a cloth diaper or a towel in the microwave, place it over your knees and lie your baby face down across the towel.
7. Chamomilla granules - You simply crush a tiny bit between two spoons and slip it into the baby's mouth as soon as the crying begins - ie after a feed!
8. Tummy massage - A tummy massage may help to relieve abdominal gas. Put some oil on your hands and gently massage your baby’s abdomen in a clockwise direction using long stroking actions.
