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How does one get a 5 weeks (and older) breast fed baby to burp ? At the moment the baby just burps randomly. Holding the baby so the chin is on my shoulder while I rub the baby's back gives randomly very good results but not all the time. What are the ways I could get the baby to burp ?

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What always worked for me was sitting them on my lap (I'm right handed so they'd sit on my right leg, facing my left leg), lean them forward slightly, putting my left hand under their chin to support them, and rub/pat the back with the right hand.

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What (mostly) worked for us: sit baby on one knee facing the other. One hand in front (under chin), on hand in back, and tilt baby up/down and back/forth a couple of times then try burping. Somehow, it helped moved the gas around. Also, you have to work at it. Sometimes you have to sit and burp for a good 30 mins to get it all out.

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Mostly, holding the baby on my shoulder works for me. Sometimes it doesn't work, so I will try with the different position like putting her on my lap - laying my baby on her stomach with her head higher than the chest and gently patting her back (supporting her head with my left hand and pat the back with right hand). This works for me.

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While amcedermott and vermachili's answer is what I do when I've forgotten to burp my baby within the first few minutes after feeding, or if the baby has hiccups, I generally find the following technique is far genteel and works faster:

  1. After ever 5-10 min of feeding break the latch and lay the baby flat on his back with head pointed straight up.
  2. Wait about 5 seconds (they will usually start to squirm as the gas aggregates in one spot - this is how you know they are ready)
  3. Lean over to the baby and place your shoulder at the very bottom of your baby's chin
  4. Now scoop your baby up with one and on his bottom and the other behind the neck / supporting the head.
  5. With your top hand gently massage the back of the baby from just above the kidney area up towards the bottom of the armpits. (Usually 4-8 swipes is all it takes.)
  6. If the baby hasn't burped after 10 swipes begin gently patting the baby with the aim to break up and help any bubbles in his stomach (not so hard as to make more). After about 3 seconds of this return to step 5.
  7. If after 2 minutes the baby hasn't burped, try amcdermott's or vermachili's methods (or just play with the baby and bounce him around a bit).

Step 3 and 4 are key. you must keep the baby flat and elongated as you pick him up, thus you must have your chest against theirs before beginning the scoop up.

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