Gassy 8 Weeks Old

I also recommend the Colic Calm. I ordered it directly from them, and it was a little more expensive than other things, but it worked really well.

Gas drops didn't help my son very much, but I'd start there. What really worked for him was Baby Bliss Gripe Water! Some brands of gripe water have to be refrigerated, which makes it difficult to carry with you. Baby Bliss doesn't need refrigeration.

When babies have reflux, there almost always in an intolerance that is causing it. Dairy causes most of these intolerances and you may want to recommend that they eliminate dairy from his or mom's if she is breastfeeding.

My daughter was diagnosed with reflux when she was 6 weeks. She will be 11 months soon and has been reflux free for the last 7 months. We used colic calm gripe water for colic, gas and reflux, pure theraputic grade essential oils on her tummy, massage and kept her upright following feedings and I eliminated all dairy from my diet. I swear once I was dairy free we saw immediate improvements.

Here is the link for colic calm. It's in an activated charcoal base so it's black and can stain but we used this, addressed the underlying issues and avoided the prescription meds. http://www.coliccalm.com

Good luck,
J.

Have you tried the mylicon gas drops? Those help a bit. I agree with not putting oatmeal in his bottle just yet...they usually discourage that anymore, so it's surprising his Ped. suggested it. My daughter had a major spitting up issue and we finally put her on a formula specially designed for that and it worked!!! It was Enfamil I believe, but it was super expensive...now I think they have a generic version at Target and I recommend it! (I use generic formula for both my kids and it is just fine!) It's worth a try and is better than having to put them on meds so young!

Also, as someone else mentioned, is the gas very smelly? If so and if the poops are crazy smelly, it could be a lactose issue. It was about at this age I figured out my son had that issue and once we went to soy it all changed. Another symptom is super congestion and large pieces of gross mucus. If he doesn't have those symptoms, it's probably just gas.

Baby's Bliss gripe water. You can order it on iherb.com
It works great!

Good God, no he shouldn't have oatmeal in his bottle! I'm sorry the pediatrician is such an idiot:( There are digestable thickeners out there if he really needs them, but his system can't digest oatmeal and it's no wonder he's gassy:( He'd also be better off on breastmilk, it's not so acidic and harsh when it comes back up due to reflux. Mom should relactate, it's much better for him.
Otherwise, at least stop the cereal. No baby - not even reflux babies - should have anything but formula or breastmilk for the first 6 months. She can find thickeners like Simply Thick online.
For gas, get Gripe Water. It's natural and homeopathic so you don't have to worry about all those nasty chemicals in Mylacon and other gas drops. It may be in the baby aisle instead of the instead of with gas remedies. But taking the undigestible oatmeal out of the mix will help. That is REALLY hurting him:(
You can also use a vitamin E or mineral oil and do tummy massage. Rub in clockwise circles to aid in digestion and movement of gas.
Good Luck:)

I haven't used it, but I've heard of people having good success with Gripe Water. I think I saw it at Babies R Us and maybe Target or Walmart.

Well YES and NO you can try it and if depending how it effects him if helps fine but if you think it is worsening stop. I had a colicy bb for 9mons. I did EVERYTHING!!!! The one thing that REALY helped my daughter was massage therapy on her tummy!! This was most effective right after bathing.
1.) Use some kind bb friendly lotion NOT any king of OIL.
2.) Lay him down on the floor with no shirt on infront of you.
3.) w/the lotion rub the letter I going from Rt to Lt. From bottom of tummy going up on EVERY step 5 times each.
4.) then the letter L from Rt to Lt. 5 X's
5.) and then an upside down U Rt to Lt 5 X's
And say I Love You every time or somthing in a calm voice do get him excited because this is to help relax his stomach muscles. This helps the intestines to relax as wel and it makes it easier for him to releive the gas.

I hoped I helped in some way and let me know if it does
C.

OMG YES my baby had terrible gas. What worked for me is taking a thermometer and taking her temp rectacly and gently wiggle it around. It stimulates a BM and helps him pass gas. My mom told me about this (she has been a RN for 35 years). She did this with all 5 of her kids (including myself) and I did it with my baby when she was just 4 weeks old.
if you dont feel comfortable doing that, your grandson should have stronger toosh muscles within a month and be able to pass the gas naturally. Also may want to try the less gassy kind of formula.

Our 2nd daughter was what we thought was gassy too. It turned out that she couldn't tolerate the formula (unfortunately I was unable to breast feed). We had to switch to a soy formula & she felt MUCH better. We switched to Similac Soy ~ if I remember correctly the label was pink. We tried all of the gas drops, gripe water, laying/holding her different ways, etc. Good luck!

Believe it or not........my son (exclusively breast fed) had reflux really bad and when i tried to give him some very thin cereal to help (at 4 mos old) his gas and reflux worsened! His digestive system wasn't mature enough to handle the cereal (even rice, oatmeal, etc) and it made everything worse.

I would "bicycle" his legs when he was gassy and that would help him to release it. I also tried to make sure his stomach had time to empty before the next feeding (over-feeding can cause problems also), but not to the point that he was starving. When he was gassy, he wanted to be fed more for comfort than for actually hunger.

If nothing else......."this too shall pass". It only lasted a short while (couple months), but it seemed like forever during that time. Good luck.

My friend just discovered Probitics for babies (drops I believe) and she says it makes the biggest different in his tummy/gas issues-- way more effective than any of the mylicon drops.

I read this website: http://www.coliccalm.com/baby_infant_newborn_articles/gas... and although I know it's their website to advertise, it made sense. I adjusted my diet and paid more attention to burping methods, etc.

Is he breast fed, too? Could be mommy's diet. I had problems with my 2nd one because I was eating peanut butter. Stopped eating it and she was a happy infant. (Thought maybe it was a coincidence and ate some Reece's Buttercups, bam! she was fussy and gassy.)

Also, if the baby has problems with acid reflux, take him to a chiropractor. I had my daughter adjusted at 2 weeks old. Babies go through a lot of stress during delivery, not to mention being cramped up in mommy's belly. Sometimes they are just out of adjustment and the nerves effecting their stomach and digestion are inflamed. It's worth a try and has no adverse affects! (Usually chiropractors don't charge much to adjust an infant, too.)

I teach a Baby's First Massage class which helps babies with digestion/pain/elimination/reflux issues. Here is a link to the website: http://www.babysfirstmassage.com/scripts/default.asp You could either just purchase the kit, DVD & booket from Teresa, or I could teach you a class which includes watching the DVD, personal instruction, a booklet and a small bottle of oil. Oatmeal to the bottle is NOT recommended by the AAP, who does recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months. Baby's digestion system is not prepared to digest whole foods yet and that will only add to the problem.
There are other instructors around that will teach the class as well.
D. Easthon CD(DONA), LCCE, CCE, ELCS, CHBE,
Waterbirth Credentialed
www.heart2heartbirthmatters.com

try gas x it works dreams and I used warm peppermint water on my oldest. swaddle him helps to. if he is to bad I used to put my oldest car seat on the washer with him in it and cycle it to put him to sleep. milacon drops are the same as gas x

Try probiotics, there are little packets of powder you can pour in the bottle and they are safe for babies. Helped us tremendously. Also just give it time. My baby grew out of it at about three months as his system developed and adjusted. Good luck and hang in there.

My 3rd child was also very gassy and it really smelt , her stomach was also very bloated so we switched her to a lactose free formula and she was a different baby within 48 hrs. If your grandson is formula fed I would try a different formula first , one that is gentle on the stomach to see if that helps , if he is breastfed then mom needs to keep a diary of what she is eating and change her diet to see if that helps. I am not a fan of putting cereal/oatmeal in the bottle , especially at this young age so I would try everything else first so I could avoid that. To be honest I have not heard of oatmeal helping with reflux , I have not had personal experience of reflux , but I have heard that after they have been fed they need to be kept at an angle rather than led flat to stop the acids coming back up , so after he has been fed put him in a bouncy chair or the car seat?

Good luck