Painful Wind? Looking for Effective Winding Techniques?

… Winding your baby well ensures he can feed well at each feed and sleep well too.  It means your baby is filled with milk instead of pockets of air. Some babies find it easy to burp, while others need a helping hand and some experience ‘colic’.
Daytime winding

Your baby will wind best if he is awake and calm. If he is crying or asleep he is much less likely to wind. It will be better to either wake him up enough to wind him or to calm him down. Easier said than done but here are a few tools to guide you:

1. Stretching technique which consists of supporting his neck and shoulders with one hand and his lower back and bottom with the other. Let him arch his back as far as your baby would like it to go. Stop if he gets upset because this is a gentle and gradual process. Let him stretch out by allowing his head to go backwards whilst supporting his neck, then allow his arms go over his head to stretch his thorax. Then when you feel he has completed this stage of the stretch, gently pull on his bottom until his legs stretch out. This stretches his whole abdomen to help him burp.
Sit him up, supporting his head using your forefinger and thumb on his chin bone (not on his neck) and rub his lower back in an anti-clockwise motion or rub your hand up from his bottom to his shoulders. It’s surprising how easily he should burp. If it doesn’t work first time round, try the stretching again. He will learn to love the stretching and to be comfortable again.
2. Sitting him upright on your knee and do the side to side rocking motion with his head supported with your thumbs and fore fingers at the front and back of his neck.
3. Sitting your baby up on your knee as before, create an up and down movement by lifting your heal off the floor then putting it down again. Make sure your baby’s back and head are supported and straight.
4. Still sitting up, do gentle and slow circular movements. Keep your babys back straight and head and neck supported by your fingers on the chin bone.

5. As above, sitting your baby on your knee but gently sway your baby’s upper body backwards and forwards.

Painful wind:
1. Lay your baby on his tummy across your knees with his head slightly higher than his bottom.  Sway your legs gently backwards and forwards so that you create a head to toe movement. He might possett a little but don’t worry. It is more important that he burps to relieve the pain of trapped wind than keeps all the milk down with pain.
2. The Lion hold. Ie on his tummy he lies with his arms and legs straddled either side of your arm with his head in the crook of your arm/elbow

3.Try the ‘Policemans bop’.  Standing up, hold your baby upright and securely against your chest, support his neck and back then do individual ‘drops’ by bending your knees. This uses gravity to expel air by putting light, brief pressure on his tummy. It;s also a great calming technique.

Night time winding:
1. Hold him up against your shoulder, facing you, with one hand supporting his head.  Rock backwards with him up against you. You will need to lean quite far forward with gentle pressure applied on his upper back when doing your backward motion (his forward motion). With some patience, this works well.

2. Apply the gentle ‘Policemans bops’ making sure to fully support his head and back to avoid jolting his spine.

For a further technique, newborn and feeding advice: Prompt ResponseNew Baby Support or Quick Response