Burping helps your baby rid excess air that he or she often swallows while feeding.
Prior to feeding, check the size of the hole of the bottle’s nipple to make sure that it is not too large to allow milk to flow too quickly, or too small and require the infant to suck too hard and become frustrated.
The right size nipple might allow a few drops of milk to come through if you turn the bottle upside down, or gently shake the bottle.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, you may need to burp your baby more if you are bottle-feeding than if you are breast-feeding.
Bottle-fed babies swallow more air because they tend to drink their milk much quicker than breastfed babies. Signs that your baby needs to be burped includes fussiness, crying and often stopping a feeding.
The University of Alabama’s Dr. Maria Hernandez-Reif offers a few tips for feeding and burping your baby.
- Make sure that you are not rushing your baby through a meal. Enjoy the special time you have to feed your baby, and be mindful of your baby’s posture while drinking so that the baby’s neck is not in an unnatural, pulled back position.
- Even if your baby is not fussing, pause to burp your baby after drinking 2 to 3 ounces of milk or every 3 to 5 minutes. If your baby is typically gassy or spits up a lot, you may want to burp more often.
- If you are breastfeeding, burp the baby before you switch to the other breast. You may not need to burp as much because breastfed babies don’t tend to swallow much air.
- To burb the baby, gently, and slowly, sit the baby up. This will help prevent the baby from spitting up. You can hold the baby on your lap or across your knee holding the baby’s chin with your open palm, while the arm of that hand supports the baby’s chest. Incline the baby slightly forward, and use the other hand to gently pat the baby’s back.
- Make sure to use most of your hand, holding fingers together, to pat the baby’s back, as opposed to just using the tips of your fingers. Sometimes, it helps to start at the baby’s lower back and slowly pat up toward the upper back. Repeat this several times until the baby releases the gas.
- Always sit your baby up after a meal for 20 to 30 minutes as lying the baby down may cause the baby to spit up. Do not play, bounce or stimulate the baby during, or immediately after, feeding.
Hernandez-Reif is a professor in the department of human development & family studies out of UA’s College of Human Environmental Sciences. She is also the director of the Pediatric Development Research Laboratory.
