The fastest way to get gas out of a baby is a combination of movement, positioning, and burping. Bicycle legs, tummy time, and gentle belly massage can move trapped gas through the intestines within minutes, while proper burping during feeds prevents gas from building up in the first place. Most infant gas is normal and manageable at home, though persistent crying or other symptoms can signal something worth checking with your pediatrician.
Physical Techniques That Move Gas Out
When your baby is visibly uncomfortable, squirming, or pulling their legs up, these hands-on methods work by physically helping air bubbles travel through the digestive tract.
Bicycle legs: Lay your baby on their back and gently move their legs in a cycling motion, alternating one knee toward the belly while the other extends. This compresses and releases the abdomen rhythmically, pushing gas along. You can do this for a minute or two at a time, and it often produces results quickly.
Tummy time: The gentle pressure of your baby’s own body weight against a flat surface helps trapped gas move toward the exit. Even a few minutes of supervised tummy time can prompt a baby to pass gas. This works double duty since tummy time also builds neck and shoulder strength.
Belly massage: With your baby on their back, use two or three fingers to trace slow, gentle clockwise circles around the belly button. Clockwise follows the natural direction of the intestines. Some parents use the “I Love You” pattern: stroke downward on the baby’s left side (the letter I), then across from right to left and down (an upside-down L), then in a wide upside-down U shape from the lower right, across the top, and down the left side. Each stroke encourages gas to move toward the lower intestine.
Burping During and After Feeds
Babies swallow air every time they eat, and burping is the simplest way to release it before it travels deeper into the gut. For most babies, burping every 2 to 3 ounces during bottle-feeding, or each time you switch breasts while nursing, is enough. If your baby is especially gassy, spits up a lot, or seems fussy during feeds, bump that up to every ounce or every 5 minutes.
Two positions work best. The first is the classic over-the-shoulder hold: sit upright, rest your baby’s chin on your shoulder, and gently pat or rub their back with your free hand. The second is the seated position: sit your baby on your lap facing away from you, lean them slightly forward, and support their chest and chin with one hand (palm on the chest, fingers cradling the chin, not the throat) while patting with the other. Some babies respond better to one position than the other, so try both.
Not every burping attempt produces a burp, and that’s fine. If nothing comes up after a couple minutes, move on. Forcing it just frustrates everyone.
Feeding Adjustments That Prevent Gas
Much of infant gas comes from air swallowed during feeding, so small changes in how you feed can reduce how much gas your baby has to deal with later.
Feed at an angle. Keeping your baby more upright during feeds lets milk pool at the bottom of the stomach and air rise to the top, making burps easier and reducing the amount of air that passes into the intestines. For breastfeeding, try sitting your baby upright facing your breast, or lean back and let your baby lie on top of you. For bottle-feeding, angle the bottle so the nipple stays full of milk rather than half-filled with air.
Hold upright after feeds. Keeping your baby on your shoulder for 10 to 15 minutes after eating gives air a chance to rise and escape as a burp instead of moving further into the digestive system.
Check your bottle setup. If you’re bottle-feeding, bottles with internal vent systems (like the ones made by Dr. Brown’s) channel air away from the milk so your baby doesn’t swallow it. Nipple flow rate matters too. A nipple that flows too fast makes your baby gulp and swallow extra air; one that’s too slow makes them suck harder, which also pulls in air. If your baby is coughing, sputtering, or milk is leaking from the corners of their mouth, the flow is probably too fast.
Does Your Diet Affect a Breastfed Baby’s Gas?
This is one of the most common questions nursing parents ask, and the answer is more reassuring than you might expect. There is limited scientific evidence that specific foods in a breastfeeding parent’s diet cause gas in babies. Spicy foods, despite their reputation, have not been shown to cause infant discomfort. Many parents report that foods like kale, beans, onions, garlic, and peppers seem to cause fussiness, but plenty of babies tolerate these foods without any issues.
The one exception with real evidence behind it: cow’s milk protein. It is the most commonly reported food substance linked to gas and fussiness in newborns. Soy protein is the second most common. If your baby seems consistently uncomfortable and you suspect a food connection, cow’s milk in your diet is the most likely culprit and the first thing worth eliminating as a trial. Give it two to three weeks to see a difference, since it takes time for the protein to clear your system and your baby’s.
Gas Drops and Probiotics
Over-the-counter gas drops containing simethicone are widely available and considered safe for infants. Simethicone works by combining small gas bubbles in the stomach into larger ones that are easier to pass. The typical dose for babies under 2 years old is 0.3 mL, and it can be given after meals and at bedtime, up to 12 times per day. You can put the drops directly in your baby’s mouth or mix them into a small amount of formula or water. These drops don’t work for every baby, but they’re low-risk and worth trying.
Probiotics are a newer option with growing evidence. A clinical trial published in The Journal of Pediatrics tested a specific probiotic strain in infants with colic and found that babies receiving it cried and fussed significantly less than those given a placebo. By day 21, the probiotic group averaged about 60 minutes of fussing per day compared to 102 minutes in the placebo group. Nearly three times as many babies in the probiotic group saw their crying time cut in half. Probiotic drops designed for infants are available without a prescription, but it’s worth confirming the right product with your pediatrician since not all strains have the same evidence behind them.
Normal Gas vs. Something More Serious
Almost all babies are gassy. Their digestive systems are immature, they swallow air when they eat and cry, and they’re processing food for the first time. Passing gas frequently, grunting, squirming, and occasional fussiness are all normal.
Colic is a step beyond typical gassiness. It’s generally defined as crying that lasts more than 3 hours per day, more than 3 days a week, in an otherwise healthy baby under 3 months old. Colic is distressing but not dangerous, and it resolves on its own, usually by 3 to 4 months.
Some signs suggest something other than gas or colic is going on. Contact your pediatrician if your baby is not feeding well or drinking less milk than usual, vomiting or having diarrhea, becoming more irritable when held or touched, making an unusual-sounding cry, showing changes in breathing, or seeming unusually sleepy or limp. A bloated, hard abdomen that doesn’t soften after passing gas is also worth mentioning. These don’t necessarily mean something is wrong, but they’re worth ruling out.