Friday, August 1, 2008

Fetus Friday #2

It's Fetus Friday again. We're helping Amy Beth's roomie learn all she can from us veteran moms. Cyra & her lovely baby Christina are helping me this week.


My second installment is going to be on burping your baby. Colic is a nasty, dirty, horrible, very bad thing. Most babies get colic from gas not being able to escape their little bellies. OK - let's let out a collective "Ohhh....poor little thing" ...ok good.

First, when feeding your babe stop every once or so to burp them. Sit them on your lap like so

Start at the bottom of the baby's back, putting pressure on him, rub up. You'll know if there's a burp in there, because you can actually FEEL the air. I can't explain what it feels like, but they sort of wiggle when you get to the spot that's full of air.

It also works well to hold them on your hip, facing out. You can support their little neck & get your other hand around to work it out. Although this position encourages spit up...at least the spit up is AWAY from you.

Laying baby on your legs works good to. Either straight up & down or sideways. Both work. Use the same rubbing motion. Start the bottom, rub up w/slight pressure. Repeat. This will usually put baby to sleep, especially if you bounce your knees slightly.
I know it seems like burping is a small issue. I can't tell you how many moms don't do it thoroughly & end up w/ some nasty colic.

Better out than in right?

6 comments:

Gayle @ thewestiecrew said...

Yes! I completely agree with you here, burping is incredibly important.

And you even posted pictures. Very cool!

I laughed out loud at your Indian burn comment, by the way! :D

Jen (a.k.a. motor mouth) said...

I totally agree with you, however sometimes colic can be a deeper rooted issue, such as lactose intolerance etc. Samantha had really bad colic despite the proper burping techniques, and she had to use the expensive formula (alimentum).
I remember the pediatrician telling me be glad colic ceases in by the 12th week. samantha was in week 5 and all I could think, was it seemed like eternity to 12 weeks!
For colic, gripe water and hylands colic tablets work well too.
Ok, that was long winded!!

Miss Mandy said...

I agree Jen. That's why I said "most babies". Of course lactose intolerance is a big one...although that results in gas & getting rid of the gas would relieve the colic.

Maybe I should have said GAS instead of just burping. Oh well.

Jen (a.k.a. motor mouth) said...

I apologize if it sounded like I was criticizing your post, that wasn't the intention of my comment. I was just putting in my 2 cents, burping helped samantha and nicholas out a lot. You are the one who taught me to burp my kids you know ;)

Jen (a.k.a. motor mouth) said...

PS. Love the photos of Cyra She's getting so big!

Amy Beth @ Ministry So Fabulous! said...

Just now getting a chance to go through and read all the posts... this one was SO cute! L-o-v-e it! We have no clue how to do this, so I'm VERY glad you included pictures. :)