Our little guy continues to grow and change before our very eyes. At his doctor’s visit yesterday he weighed in at 9lbs 6oz, which the doc says is excellent weight gain, and shows we’re doing great with the b’feeding.
The doc also said that Henry’s healthy as a horse, and 80% of all babies have severe bouts of gassiness due to immature digestive systems, digestive enzymes not totally working correctly yet, etc.
Interestingly enough, he also said that the very thing I’m doing to try and soothe Henry during these gassy bouts — nursing — is probably further contributing to the issue. Apparently when you b’feed a baby little meals frequently, they get a lot of high-sugar “foremilk”, which ramps up their gastro-intestinal track and can be hard for them to digest. So he recommended spacing out the feedings a bit to try to make sure Henry doesn’t constantly have his digestive system in high gear, and also gets a full dose of foremilk and hindmilk, the protein-rich fatty “hunger-satisfier” milk that comes late in a nursing session after the foremilk is gone.
I sort of looked at him and said, “well, Henry will cry if I don’t soothe him with the breast.” And he laughed and said it’s one of many parenting choices we’ll have to make–there’s not a “right” way to handle this, and neither way will hurt the baby, but either we space out the feedings to reduce gassiness and deal with some crying in between feedings, or we decide we can’t deal with crying and keep him on the breast full time, knowing that the gassiness will continue.
My sister-in-law, who is a lactation consultant, also had some useful advice about just making sure we nurse completely on one side rather than switching sides because it seems like it’s time to do so. Same issue–you want the hindmilk, not just the foremilk.
At any rate, we’re going to try moving in this direction and hope to see some progress.
Other advice from the doc on this issue:
–ok to try “gripewater”, a natural/holistic remedy popular in Europe for this.
–ok to try the drops (simul something?)
–try tummy massage
and, the other good news is the doc says since I’ve modified my diet and we’ve seen no changes, it’s probably safe to assume the gassiness is not caused by my food intake. So while I shouldn’t go out and have chili, I can reintroduce dairy and some other things back into my diet slowly.
Oh, and finally.. .Henry peed all over our doc. The doc just laughed and called it an occupational hazard.
Tricia and Dave-
I had a little girl who had tummy trouble which made her cry and this is what we did: Placed her on her tummy over a warm hot-water bottle, and gently rubbed her little back. The hot-water bottle exerted mild pressure on her tummy, and the warmth helped, too. It was effective and simple.
As she grew older these incidents stopped and were replaced by middle of the night projectile vomiting on the walls of her room, her bed and her suffed animals (at least three of which were in bed with her on any given night). But you’ve got about six or seven years to wait for cries of “Get the bucket!” to ring out in the dead of night, jarring you out of a deep sleep to watch Dave set the world land speed record from your room to Henry’s. Note to Dave: My husband earned a lifetime of good hubby credits for his down the hall sprint as well as his efficient and uncomplaining vomit cleanup done while I hustled the pizza eater to the toilet. What a team!
This child will turn 25 in October, and doesn’t seem to have any lasting ill affects from these incidents. We tell the stories now and laugh. And, Dave, those credits rack right up every time the stories are retold.
All the best!
Deb Riese