Is It Really Necessary To Burp Your Baby After You Feed Them?
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Be it movies, TV shows, or real life, you may have noticed parents trying to burp their babies soon after their meal. In fact, it is well ingrained in your routine so much so that you may not even notice it. Maybe, that is how life is when you are young; you have food and then someone pats your back to get you those glorious burps. Isn’t this true?
Perhaps, that does not have to be the case. As a new mom, you would have surely wondered how relevant burping is for your little one. In fact, this is what made a mother and researcher Bhavneet Bharti curious about this subject. A researcher at Chandigarh’s Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Bhavneet started thinking on these lines only after she found herself pretty exhausted by burping her baby after every single meal.
This feed-burp routine made her feel so exhausted that she started wondering as to why it is done in the first place. Bhavneet also came across stories of fellow exhausted new moms and caregivers who spend hours stroking and patting their little ones, late in the night. And, all this to achieve the single goal of getting them to burp.
In fact, she even spent some time researching whether or not any study had been conducted on these lines. Unfortunately, she was not able to find anything. And, much like all researchers, Bhavneet decided to take this upon herself. She focused her energies on conducting her own study to find out how relevant it is for new moms to burp their babies after feeding them. And, guess what? The results of this research were pretty interesting (1).
Conducted by Bhavneet and her team of researchers, this study involved around 71 new moms and their little ones. Around half of the new mothers were informed about everything from immunizations to breastfeeding but were kept out of the loop regarding burping. On the other hand, the remaining were informed only about burping their newborns. The new moms then tracked their babies in terms of signs of discomfort such as excessive crying and their frequency of spitting up.
Interestingly, the results showed that the burped babies did not cry any less in comparison to those who were not burped. In addition, there was a twist in the tale. It seems that the babies who got burped spit up more than the ones who were not. The burped babies spit up about eight times at an average in a week while the ones who were not burped did it only 3.7 times at an average in a week.
This much-needed study was, in fact, published in the “Child: Care, Health and Development” journal. It was referred to as a clever study on one of those wellness practices that is taken for granted by many people. But, one important thing to remember is that the study does not indicate that you should stop burping your baby altogether. However, it is more like a suggestion that it is alright if you don’t burp your little one after every single meal. In fact, to be clear, Bhavneet also clarifies that this study was not to disprove the practice of caregivers occasionally burping their little ones. It was more to question the ritual of doing so after every single feed.
Are you a new mom who burps her baby after every feed? And, have you also wondered about the reason for doing so? If yes, then we hope that we were able to help you in some way. Of course, more research needs to be done before we can jump to any official conclusion. But, we hope that this study was able to give you more insight into this age-old practice. All the best!
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