Newborn Gas and Colic: Gripe Water, Ghutti and What Is Safe

“Give him a little ghutti, his stomach is tight.” Every new mother hears it, usually from someone she loves, usually at 11 pm while the baby screams. Newborn gas and colic (pait mein gas) are real and exhausting, but the answer is not in a bottle of gripe water, and for a baby under 6 months the rule is simple: nothing goes in that mouth except milk.

Newborn gas and colic: what is normal crying

Newborns cry. In the first weeks it is a few short bursts a day, building to a peak at around 6 to 8 weeks, when even a healthy baby may cry for two hours or more a day, often in the evening, before it slowly eases by 3 to 4 months. It is not a disease.

Colic is the label used when a well, thriving baby cries intensely for more than about three hours a day, more than three days a week, usually in the late afternoon and evening, with a red face, clenched fists, a tight belly and legs pulled up; it starts around 2 to 3 weeks and is gone by 4 months in almost all babies, and nobody fully knows the cause. The baby is not being harmed. The parents are on their knees, and that matters as much.

By age: this article is about the under-6-month baby, where colic lives. From 6 to 12 months, crying bouts with the legs drawn up are more often wind from new solids, or an illness; see our guide to a child’s tummy ache. Past 1 year the word colic no longer applies, and a toddler who screams and draws up the legs is seen by a doctor.

The wind you see is mostly a result of the crying, not the cause, because a baby who screams for twenty minutes swallows a great deal of air and then looks and sounds gassy. Winding helps. It does not end colic.

The under-6-months rule, and why it is absolute

Before 6 months a baby’s gut and kidneys are built for one thing, milk. Breast milk or formula. That is the entire list.

• Gripe water. Old formulas contained alcohol and sugar; modern ones contain sugar, sodium bicarbonate, herbs and sometimes preservatives, none of which has been shown to help colic, and all of which fill a stomach that should be filling with milk.
• Ghutti and janam ghutti. Herbal mixtures, often with senna-type laxatives, sugar and unlisted ingredients, and some have been found to contain lead or undeclared medicines that a newborn’s liver cannot handle. Say no firmly.
• Honey. Never under 1 year, in any form, including on a pacifier or a fingertip, because honey can carry botulism spores that a baby’s gut cannot deal with. It has caused deaths.
• Water, sugar water, glucose water, rose water, ajwain water, saunf water, kahwa. None of it. Extra water in a newborn can drop the salt level in the blood and cause fits. Our guide to ajwain water is for adults; the child version starts after 1 year and is tiny.
• Rubbing anything on the gums or inside the mouth. No oil, no ghee, no honey, no balm.

If a baby needs more than milk, that is a doctor’s prescription. Simeticone drops are sold for colic and are harmless, and have not been shown to help; lactase drops help the small number of babies with a temporary lactose problem. Both are a doctor’s conversation, not a shelf decision.

Safe soothing, in the order that works

Five things reliably calm a crying newborn by recreating the womb: tight wrapping, side or stomach position while held (never for sleep), steady shushing, gentle rhythmic movement, and something to suck, each given two full minutes before moving on.

1. Rule out the simple things: hunger, a wet or dirty nappy, too hot (sweaty neck) or too cold (cold chest, not hands), a hair wrapped around a toe. Undress the baby and look.
2. Wind the baby properly. Sit the baby upright on your lap, one hand cupping the chin and chest, lean the baby slightly forward and rub or pat the back for 3 to 5 minutes. Or hold the baby high on your shoulder so the belly presses gently against your collarbone. Wind halfway through a feed and at the end.
3. Swaddle. A thin cotton sheet, arms down or bent up at the chest, snug across the arms, loose around the hips so the legs can bend. Stop swaddling once the baby shows any sign of rolling, usually by 2 months, and never swaddle for sleep on the front.
4. Hold the baby on their side or tummy along your forearm, head in your palm, belly against your arm (“the tiger in the tree”), and walk slowly. Switch to back-lying the moment you put the baby down.
5. Make a steady, loud “shhhhh” close to the ear, as loud as the crying. A running tap, a fan, or a phone playing white noise does the same. Keep it going until the crying breaks.
6. Sway. Small, quick, side-to-side movements of about 2 to 3 cm, supporting the head, never shaking. A walk in a sling works.
7. Offer the breast, or a clean finger (nail short, pad up) or a pacifier if you use one. Sucking calms even a baby who is not hungry.
8. Try a warm bath (test with your elbow, comfortably warm, never hot), then tummy time on your chest, skin to skin, in a dim quiet room. Bicycle the legs gently, 10 slow turns.
9. If nothing works and you feel your own temper rising, put the baby down safely on their back in the cot, leave the room, and give yourself five minutes. Crying does not hurt the baby. Shaking does, permanently. Come back when you are calm, or hand over to someone else.

Feeding changes that sometimes help

For a breastfed baby, a few mothers find their baby calmer when they cut back on their own chai and coffee for a fortnight as a trial, but cutting foods at random leaves a breastfeeding mother under-nourished for nothing, and checking the latch is worth more, because a baby who slips off the breast or clicks while feeding is swallowing air. Feed more upright. Keep the baby upright for 15 minutes afterwards.

For a formula-fed baby, check the teat (too fast or too slow both cause gulping), keep it full of milk with no air pocket, pause to wind halfway, and never prop the bottle. Changing brands rarely helps and unsettles the gut further; a special formula is a doctor’s suggestion. Never dilute or concentrate a feed, and cow’s milk is never the main drink under 1 year.

Red flags: this is not colic

Colic is a diagnosis for a well baby. The moment a baby is not well, the crying is something else. See a doctor today, or go now where marked, if:

• Any fever at all (38 °C or above) in a baby under 3 months. Now.
• Breathing fast, grunting, the chest sucking in under the ribs, or blue or grey lips. Now.
• Drowsy, floppy, hard to wake, or a high-pitched or weak cry that sounds different from the usual. Now.
• Vomiting everything, green vomit, or vomit that shoots across the room after most feeds. Now.
• Blood in the stool, or a stool like redcurrant jelly; bouts of screaming with legs drawn up followed by pale, limp quiet. Now.
• A bulging or sunken soft spot, no wet nappy for 6 to 8 hours, or no tears. Now.
• A swollen, hard belly, or a lump in the groin or navel that will not go back in, especially if the baby cries when it is touched. Now.
• A rash that does not fade under a pressed glass, or a fit. Now.
• Poor weight gain, fewer than 6 wet nappies a day after the first week, refusing feeds, deepening yellow skin or eyes, pale chalky stools, or crying that starts suddenly after weeks of calm or goes on for hours in a baby over 4 months. Today.
• You, or anyone caring for the baby, has felt close to shaking or hurting the baby, or cannot cope. Today, and that is a medical appointment too, without shame.

What helps the parents

Sleep in shifts, eat properly, accept help with the house, and tell your own doctor how you are feeling at the six-week check, because low mood after birth is common, treatable, and worse when a baby cries for three hours a night. The crying peaks at 6 to 8 weeks and is nearly always gone by 4 months. It is a season, and it ends. More on the early months is under Bachon Ki Sehat, including baby massage and which oils are safe, which is another calming ritual done right.

What parents ask