Gas Interrupts Sleep Every Night

I definately had gas issues too! It is so hard! I did two things that worked pretty well...I gave her colic tablets, and I pushed her legs up towards her tummy, so her knees hit her belly and force out the air. I wish I could offer you more! I know it is hard to function well without sleep. As she grows, it will go away....it is so hard to be in such a little body:-)

Sometimes my 9 month old son wakes up crying and ends up tooting before getting back to sleep. we haven't done anything, but i'll be interested to hear if anyone else has ideas. He also scratches his head and pulls his hair and ears pretty hard when he's sleepy. it worries me too.

Have you thought of allergies causing the gas? My kids each woke with gas/tummy pain as infants. As soon as I eliminated milk (the worst allergen in our case) from my diet (I was exclusively breastfeeding)they were able to sleep. And so was I!

I also had to remove milk from my diet. Some other culprits are caffiene, chocolate and glutin. Try a food journal to see if you have any patterns or if you get alot of something in your diet. You could also try taking caraway tea.
Similar to the baby massage that was suggested you can do baby excercises before bed. The aim is to get the knees moving the stomach around using bicycle movements. You can set this to music with different movements for different sounds and have alot of fun with it.
As far as her pulling her hair, it's very normal and she is trying to stay awake, she might miss something you know, lol. It's fine to tell her not to and give her something else to do when she is tired like maybee signing "tired" or squishing her teddy. You could also try setting her to sleep with music on. This would give you the added bonus of not hearing her toot and only be awaked when she fusses or calls to you.

I don't know if you are giving her a bottle at all (either formula or breast milk), or giving her drinks from a sippy cup. If you are, I would highly suggest putting several drops of Mylicon (baby gas-x) into the bottle/sippy cup. My baby had painful gas issues and I got this suggestion from a friend of mine and it worked wonders, especially at night. I gave my daughter doses of the gas drops straight but they did not do much good, it was when I added them to her bottle directly that I saw a huge difference! She still gets the gas, but the drops help move it through her so it doesn't back up and get painful. Good luck!

Really consider the milk and dairy products in your diet. It will only take two days of eliminating it from your diet to see if it makes a difference with the gas in your little one. Good Luck!

Have you heard of "Little Tummies"? It is a non-medicated gas drop you can give at feeding to reduce the risk of painful gas. It was a life saver with my first little guy who was aways in pain until we found these wonderful drops.

We had a similar problem when my DS was much smaller and we worked it out with gripe water, rubbing castor oil on his belly before bed and most importantly eliminating foods from my diet. no broccoli, cabbage, kale, onions, garlic, chocolate ( i know, heartbreaking) dairy and wheat. it was kinda hard but our sleep was worth it!

Try Gripe Water by Baby's Bliss. It is a miracle in a bottle. It is the natural version of Little Tummy's. You can get it at Life SOurce and maybe Fred Meyer. It makes their gas go away so fast. I love it and so have my 4 babies. They have literally been writhing in pain and I give it to them and about 5 minutes later they are catching zzzz's.

Just a quick thought - she may have food allergies and her gas may be a response to something she is getting through your breast milk (since this has been happening since your daughter was born). Pediatricians won't commonly recognize or consider that option. You may consider eliminating foods one at a time for two weeks at a time and see if you see any difference.

My kids grew out of their gas very early, and my understanding is that gas is more often a problem in early infanthood than as old as your daughter. Definitely not an expert on that though.

I've been there!! My 12 month old just started sleeping through the night (was usually up 8-10 times, since birth) and gas woke him up most of the time. I vote for Gripe Water (the Walgrees Baby Bliss is great) and eliminating milk/dairy from your (if breastfeeding) and babies diet. For us it took being off it 3 weeks before we noticed any difference. Good luck. Putting a warm hand on her tummy may help move things along too.

Hi J.,

I would try elimating certain foods from your diet, which might be the culprit, and also try Colic Calm. This has been working wonders for my little boy. it is an all natural, homeopathic blend of herbs and such to help get the gas out. You can actually hear the gas bubbles breaking inside their tummies! www.coliccalm.com Hope this helps!

I would highly recommend Colic Calm. I found it online and in a moment of desparation with twin infants, was willing to pay $20. It sounds kind of cooky but it was miraculous. You can google it for the website. I think it can only be bought online. Good luck!

She probably has a food allergy. The top food allergens are dairy, soy and wheat. i would have her checked. Also, a lot of gas is due to not enough enzymes in the diet. Do you feed her a lot of "live" food, such as uncooked things - bananas, apples, raw carrots, raw nuts.

These all have enzymes in them we all need for our digestion to work properly. (I know from personal experience).

Hi J.!
You should try a sleep wedge in her crib. It helps with gas and also congestion when they are sick. My little guy is 6 months old and spent the first almost 5 months waking every 1 1/2 hrs. I bought this wedge and now he is sleeping through the night!!!! I also sent one to a friend of mine who has a 8 month old with really bad gas, and it has done wonders!!! Good luck!
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2401848
L.

Hi, I had very 'gassy' babies as well. The ONLY product that worked and I swear by it is called: Gripe Water. It is also FABULOUS for teething. I did a search under Google and it appears to be available at Walgreens. I used to buy mine from a store in Mesa, AZ...the Walgreens packagind looks a bit different, but the ingredients look the same.
Good luck!

There are some good infant massage techniques that can help with gas; maybe trying those before bedtime??? Also, has she started solids? If she has and those are in the evening, you might try giving them earlier in the day to give more "processing time"... my dd was a hair puller as a baby too; nothing wrong with it!