Do you really have to burp babies?
—Anonymous
For reasons I do not completely understand, infant burping is a source of a lot of stress and conflict. It’s one of those things that is so ingrained in our platonic ideal of baby behavior that if you do not do it, you’re liable to get an earful from a parent-in-law. On the other hand, it’s easy to find websites that will tell you burping is a scam.
The underlying argument for burping is that infants may swallow air while they are eating, and burping is a way to clear these air bubbles. The concern is that not doing so could lead to the infant being gassy or colicky or generally fussy. The anti-burpers, though, will tell you that burping might make your infant vomit more. Hard to say!
I checked on this one with Adam Davis, who was my wonderful medical editor on Cribsheet and is a practicing pediatrician. His answer was, basically, that it depends on your baby. First, he emphasized, there is no actual health risk to either burping or not burping. Second, he emphasized that it depends on your baby.
Some babies really seem to need to burp, and if you put them down without doing it, they are fussy. Others couldn’t care less about burping. Why is that? Who knows! Babies are crazy. The message is just to see what works for your baby. There is nothing wrong with giving your baby an opportunity to burp mid-feeding, and similarly, you shouldn’t freak out if they don’t burp every time, or ever.
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The American Association of Pediatrics advises that we burp our babies when a nursing mother switches breasts or after every 2-3 oz of being bottle-fed (60 – 90 mL), but there is no scientific evidence supporting this claim. On the contrary there is scientific evidence that shows the opposite.
How did this practice become conventional wisdom and what is the AAP using to justify their advice?