Tips for burping your baby

For us, burping is completely normal. However, the cliché image of trying to get a baby to burp is known to everyone. When breastfed or bottle-fed in the right way, the chances are low that your baby will swallow too much air. However, when feeding doesn’t happen correctly, your baby might suffer from gas afterward. In this blog post, you will learn what to do when this happens.

3 good ways to burp your baby:

1. Hold your baby in a vertical position or let it lie on its belly.

2. Don’t shake your baby or pat its back too hard. Keep your baby still and gently rub the back or pat against the diaper.

3. Apply gentle pressure to the stomach by holding it against your shoulder or knee or hold your baby on the carrying hand.

Tip: Make sure you keep a towel or burp cloth at hand. It is normal for your baby to throw up some milk after being fed.

How to prevent burping when bottle-feeding

1. The best way to offer the bottle to your baby is similar to offering the breast when breastfeeding. This means that you first use the bottle teat to stroke against your baby’s lips or chin to stimulate its search or sucking reflexes. When your baby takes the bottle, put the teat into your baby’s mouth until they reach the base of the teat.
2. Always stir formula milk; don’t shake the bottle. Make sure you heat the water before you add the formula, as this way, the powder is more easily absorbed.
3. Use a bottle with a good anti-colic system, and preferably a bottle with a valve to let out air. This system makes sure that the air in the bottle doesn’t mix with the milk. The Difrax S-bottle has an ergonomic shape to ensure that the bottle teat is always filled with milk, which is very important.

Breastfeeding and burping

When your baby has a good latch, it will hardly swallow any air. The breast itself doesn’t contain air and drinking from the breast is only possible if there is a good vacuum. This is why babies who are breastfed usually don’t burp a lot.

Why does my baby still burp even though it’s breastfed?

• When your baby still needs practice coordinating its latch, it might swallow air every time it tries to latch on.

• When milk comes out of the breast too fast, your baby will have trouble swallowing the amount of milk and will automatically swallow air. This can also happen if the mother has an overactive letdown. It is especially common in the beginning stages, when your baby doesn’t know how to drink properly yet. During this period, feeding might be a bit messy, which leads to swallowing extra air. Don’t worry, practice makes perfect!