Gas

Here’s a secret no one wants to tell you about babies: they all have gas! They need to have lots of gas. When born, the anal sphincter is shut super tight as a safety/protective mechanism, and baby does not really have control over it. It takes a lot of practice and nervous system function to control sphincters. Sphincters are amazing. I mean just try to hold on to something with your hands that is solid, liquid, and gas at the same time and be able to manipulate those things all at once to only allow gas to come out? So for babies who don’t have this control yet, the only way to push poop out is with gas, à la the wonderous world of explosive baby poops for the first few months of life. So we don’t want to eliminate gas, we want to work with gas to help baby fart and get poops out to keep things in the digestive system moving along swimmingly. 

And the thing is, babies know this. They know that by grunting, wiggling, and, yes, sometimes crying, that they can force the gas out to help poop come out. So oftentimes, I will have parents tell me that baby is grunting all night and must be very uncomfortable. But baby is sleeping through the grunting, while family is waking up from these crazy noises. Remember for baby noises always take a step back and ask, “Okay, is this bothering you or is it bothering me?”  If it is just bothering you, okay to let baby do their thing. If they are having trouble passing the gas, then feel free to help out with tummy rubs, bicycle maneuvers to the legs, or if you are awake and able to watch, putting baby on their tummy and rubbing their back until the toot comes out and then putting them back on their backs for safe sleep. 

Do those gas drops work?

They might for some kiddos. I just don’t have the data to support offering them to every kiddo. The best studies I can point to for gas drops or gripe water is that 50% of families say they help, and 50% of families say “I dunno.” 

We used to be a lot more cautious about discussing gripe water with families because it used to be that a family would hear from an aunt or grandma that the aunt or grandma in the bodega down the street makes gripe water for babies. Now who knows what these mystical grandmas and aunts put in there. There are some studies showing high levels of alcohol or even lead leaching from old pans in these old-school remedies. Nowadays there are more regulated gripe water or gas drops in the baby section at the pharmacy that usually have the same ingredients of the tummy-helper variety like dill or fennel +/- probiotics +/- a medicine called simethicone. Now that I know that there isn’t lead or alcohol in them, we are not as freaked out for families to try these, because, again, 50% of families say it helps and 50% say it just makes their kids smell like pickles.

But don’t worry, one miraculous day the baby will all of a sudden be able to control their anal sphincter and let gas out as they see fit without the extra grunting or assistance from family.