Help me burp my baby!

[jessmke]

I am having a really hard time getting Isla to burp after her bedtime feed. If she doesn't burp she wakes up crying 45 min after going to sleep and as soon as I pick her up she lets out a giant burp, but then has a hard time settling back to sleep. The only way I have been able to get her to burp lately is if I switch her back and forth between boobs 3-4 times during her feed,I think the movement helps bring the burp up. But when I do this she gets frustrated with all the movement and just decides to stop feeding and wakes up hungry an hour after going to bed. I pat and rub her back, try to bring her knees into her chest while holding her against me, I'll stand up and bounce her up and down gently but nothing works to get her to burp! Help!

I don't burp her after her night feeds and that works just fine, it's just the bedtime feed when she needs to bring one up.

 

[crownest]

Have you tried her belly down across your legs while patting her back

 

[jessmke]

Have you tried her belly down across your legs while patting her back

Yup I've tried that one too! It makes her angry because she is trying to fall asleep so she just starts crying.

 

[happynewmom1]

Hmmm I remember being told with my first to help him burp is to start patting his back from lower back and slowly up. This usually worked for us but not always.

 

[jessmke]

Hmmm I remember being told with my first to help him burp is to start patting his back from lower back and slowly up. This usually worked for us but not always.

Thanks I will try that!

 

[noon_child]

I wonder if a different feeding position for the bedtime feed might help her take in less air? Like maybe one where she can't slip backwards off the boob when she starts getting sleepy, so reclined/laid back feeding perhaps?

 

[Aliop]

My boy has always been really difficult to get burps out of but I have found a few 'fail safe' techniques lol
-sit baby on your knee and gently tilt from side to side
-sit baby on knee or up over shoulder and using heel of your hand do firm circles on her back
-lie baby on back and rub tummy in clockwise circle a few times, sit up and a burp should come out
Good luck!

 

[mac1979]

I hold her and bounce on an exercise ball, never fails to bring up a burp, don't even have to pat her back. Bonus, my legs are going to look awesome in a few months if it keeps up.

 

[AmandaBanana]

I lay him on his tummy on the floor. Tummy time basically.
The pressure helps him. Then I hold him over my shoulder and he always burps.
Goodluck!

 

[jessmke]

i tried all these things tonight and could not get her to burp. Then she woke up crying, burped when I picked her up, and after an hour of trying to get her back to sleep I gave up and she is now upstairs watching hockey with my OH! I am starting to wonder if this is more of a sleep issue (waking after one sleep cycle) and the burp is a red herring, because it is so hard to get her back down after she wakes. I think tomorrow night I will try mixing up the order of our sleep routine so I feed, then stories, then bed to give her time to bring up a burp rather than stories, feed, bed.

 

[noon_child]

i tried all these things tonight and could not get her to burp. Then she woke up crying, burped when I picked her up, and after an hour of trying to get her back to sleep I gave up and she is now upstairs watching hockey with my OH! I am starting to wonder if this is more of a sleep issue (waking after one sleep cycle) and the burp is a red herring, because it is so hard to get her back down after she wakes. I think tomorrow night I will try mixing up the order of our sleep routine so I feed, then stories, then bed to give her time to bring up a burp rather than stories, feed, bed.

Is she even refusing to feed to sleep at this point?

 

[jessmke]

i tried all these things tonight and could not get her to burp. Then she woke up crying, burped when I picked her up, and after an hour of trying to get her back to sleep I gave up and she is now upstairs watching hockey with my OH! I am starting to wonder if this is more of a sleep issue (waking after one sleep cycle) and the burp is a red herring, because it is so hard to get her back down after she wakes. I think tomorrow night I will try mixing up the order of our sleep routine so I feed, then stories, then bed to give her time to bring up a burp rather than stories, feed, bed.

Is she even refusing to feed to sleep at this point?

Yes she is refusing to feed to sleep, but she always refuses to feed unless she is actually hungry. She has never comfort nursed.

 

[jessmke]

Ok tonight we did feed, stories, sleep. During her stories she burped twice and farted once, yay! I think being upright and awake helped bring the gas up (and down, lol). But she still woke up an hour and 10 min after going to bed, so I think this is a sleep issue instead of a gas issue. She woke up happy and was easier to get back to sleep so I think the burping helped her mood, but obviously didn't solve the waking issue. Oh well.

 

[hlynne]

Yes, being awake has always helped make sure that my son got all his burps out too. If they fall asleep and you try to burp them while they are basically asleep, you put them down and 30 minutes later they are waking up to burp.

A friend's husband told me to hold my son over my shoulder like I was going to pat his back to burp, but pat his butt. Once I started doing that, it really helped getting him to burp quicker. You have to pat his bottom pretty hard. It doesn't hurt them, and actually it soothes my son. So ever since I started doing that at about 4 months, I never went to patting him on his back or sitting him on my leg. It has always been over the shoulder patting his butt. My son has always been very gassy. More so when he was younger that I had problems getting all the gas out after he ate.