Your Childrens Health

Learning to feed your new baby can be an intimidating experience.  Like so many other new parents, you may be worried about whether you are feeding them too little, too much, too often, not often enough, etc.

Rest assured that most babies will let you know!  A baby that seems unwilling or unable to suck from the breast or the bottle could have an underlying illness, but most take to feeding readily.  Once the meal is finished, burping your baby is very important. 

As babies eat, they tend to swallow quite a bit of air.  This gassy feeling can make baby cranky and uncomfortable.  Relieving this discomfort brings relief to both Baby and Parent.  Some children scream or cry so heartily that you may fear there is something seriously wrong with them; in most cases, they just need a good burp.

There are different burping techniques and you will have to try a few to discover which works best for you and Baby.  Newborns need to have constant neck support during feeding and burping, so cradling them over your shoulder is a good position to start with.  Gently pat and rub their back until their gas is relieved.  Some babies are harder to burp than others, so don’t give up until you hear them burp.  Remember to throw a cloth over your shoulder, as spit up is not uncommon.

Another position that works well for some is to lay the baby on their stomach over your lap, supporting their head by placing your hand under their chin.  Again, light patting and rubbing is all that is necessary to dislodge the air bubbles trapped in their belly.

Whichever technique you decide on, just be sure that you have a firm grasp on Baby and are supporting their head and neck.  And always use a cloth or burping pad to protect your clothes!

Related:

This entry was posted on Friday, April 21st, 2006 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Pregnancy and Newborns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.