Burping your baby

We’ve all seen babies fuss after eating. That has to be due to gas in their stomachs, right? Wrong. As pediatrician Clay Jones argues, we have no proof that “gas in the stomach is the cause of fussiness or reflux” and even if it was “there is no physiologic reason why babies would need help burping.” If they were bloated, they could burp just like you and I, without help. “If anything,” Jones wrote, “infants are protected from gas build up by normal immaturity of the lower esophageal sphincter, which relaxes and opens frequently.” Basically, they naturally vent their own stomachs.