Always burp your baby when feeding time is over. To help prevent the milk from coming back up, keep your baby upright after feeding for 10 to 15 minutes, or longer if your baby spits up or has GERD. But don't worry if your baby spits sometimes. It's probably more unpleasant for you than it is for your baby.
Instead of laying your baby down flat after feeding, keep them upright for about 30 minutes so gravity can help them digest their food. Otherwise, they're more likely to spit up.
keep the lights down low. not talk much and keep your voice quiet. put your baby down as soon as they've been fed and changed. not change your baby unless they need it.
Keep their body straight with their head higher than their stomach. Try to keep your baby upright for at least 30 minutes after a feed. Try to avoid the upright seated position during this time as this position can increase pressure in the abdomen and trigger reflux.
Keep baby upright for 15-20 minutes or so after feedings to allow for digestion to begin. This is a nice time to just lean back with baby on your chest to soothe, talk, sing, or hum to him or to just snuggle. Burp gently between sides and at the end of the feeding.
Some babies may be more prone to gas and discomfort if they go to sleep without being burped, while others may not have any issues. However, if a baby is already asleep and showing no signs of discomfort, it is generally safe to let them sleep without burping.
Back sleeping is the best way to reduce the risk of SIDS and is the recommended position until babies can roll over fully on their own―even for babies with reflux.
Put your baby on their back for every sleep, day and night. This is the best sleeping position for a baby as the chance of SIDS is particularly high for babies who are sometimes placed on their front or side.
The upright position helps eliminate gas and reduces spitting up, another common occurrence when babies feed. In this half-hour after feedings, keeping the baby calm and burping them may also aid with digestion. Babies should never sleep on their stomachs. View Source or sides, even if they are gassy.
Don't worry if your baby won't settle
There is really one thing that is most important and that is to make sure your baby is fed well at every feed. A hungry or slightly hungry baby will usually not settle to sleep easily and if he does drop off to sleep will wake soon after his feed and be unsettled.
If the baby does not burp after 5 minutes of trying, gently lie them down on their back, either in their crib or on another safe surface, such as a playpen. After a few minutes, carefully pick the baby up and try burping them again. Sometimes, lying down helps move the air bubbles around, making them easier to release.
For formula-fed babies, you can think about phasing out night feeds from 6 months of age. If your baby is formula fed and aged over 6 months, they're unlikely to be waking at night because they're hungry. This is because infant formula is digested more slowly than breastmilk.
Babies definitely need to burp after each feed. Even at night. If your baby falls asleep while feeding or is put back to bed without a decent burp escaping, it can cause them to wake again 15-20 minutes later or it can mean they don't settle easily back to sleep.
At nighttime, there's less movement and the gas can build up and get trapped. Additionally, babies tend to feed close to bedtime, and air introduced during this feed can become trapped. Also, our digestive systems are still very active at night and the results of digestion can be… gas!
On the back. Place your baby on the back while moving their legs as if they were cycling. On the back is also the best sleeping position for a gassy baby (and the best and safest sleeping position for all infants until their first birthday).
SIDS is most common at 2-4 months of age when the cardiorespiratory system of all infants is in rapid transition and therefore unstable. So, all infants in this age range are at risk for dysfunction of neurological control of breathing.
The CPSC says that sleep products that incline more than 10 degrees are not safe. Soft and plush sleep surfaces are also dangerous. Inclined sleepers allow babies to sleep at a 30-degree angle. Infants placed in these products may fall asleep in a chin-to-chest position, which can restrict their airway.
If you're concerned about spit-up during sleep, you can elevate the head of your baby's mattress or crib a few inches to keep their head higher than their stomach. Following every feeding, hold the baby in an upright position for 20 to 30 minutes.
One recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies should be placed on their back to sleep. People may believe that babies who sleep on their backs will choke if they spit up or vomit during sleep, that belief is a myth.
Causes of gas include: Swallowing air when sucking. A baby may swallow excess air during bottle-feeding when drinking too rapidly or when lying down. A baby may also swallow excess air if the nipple has holes that are too big.
What Is Baby Spit-Up? Spit-up is what happens when the contents of your baby's tummy come back up easily -- not forcefully -- through their mouth. It often comes along with a burp. It's not the same as vomiting, which is when your baby throws up their stomach contents with force and muscle contractions.
Many parents ask: Do you burp a baby after a dream feed? and the answer is always yes. You want to burp a baby after a dream feed—or any feed—before putting them back down on their back.
By four months, most babies begin to show some preferences for longer sleep at night. By six months, many babies can go for five to six hours or more without the need to feed and will begin to "sleep through the night."