# Simethicone drops for gas-are they bad?



## RaRa7 (Feb 29, 2004)

My 4 week old has awful gas that wakes him up and makes him scream.
I've tried colic tablets from Hylands but can't keep up w/ the dosage!
He can't have anything w/ catnip or fennel b/c he's on a diuretic.
So I am wondering how bad simethicone drops are........







anyone know?


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## wednesday (Apr 26, 2004)

Have you eliminated all potential allergens from your diet? Cows' milk proteins in the mother's diet is often a cause of this type of gas pain. I would try to address the source of this problem rather than the symptoms. All the commercials and products relating to babies' abdominal pains make it seem like this is normal, if unpleasant, for babies. But it's not. We didn't learn that my son is truly allergic to dairy until he was 14 months and we started giving him whole milk. It breaks my heart that he was suffering for so long when in retrospect I'm sure if I'd eliminated dairy he would have been much more comfortable.

Soy and wheat are common offenders as well. Good luck!


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## winonamom2be (Nov 7, 2005)

they are not 'bad' - they are just, in my experience, pretty useless.

and actually, studies have shown that they are no more effective than plain water.

that being said, we used them, mainly because it gave us the feeling of DOING SOMETHING even if it didn't actually DO ANYTHING.

they're harmless.


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## RaRa7 (Feb 29, 2004)

I tried eliminating dairy but not strictly enough: half n half in my coffee, a few bites of ds' icecream.
What about cheese? someone told me it's not quite the same as milk and other dairy products b/c of the way it's made????


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## gabysmom617 (Nov 26, 2005)

Yes, cheese counts too. And you have to be very diligent about eliminating the dairy, because it is everywhere. Even if you have something as simple as mashed potatoes, or a cracker. They could still have milk in them. And your baby WILL notice if your baby has a milk sensitivity.

Simethecone drops worked for my baby. It takes as much as a few days to several weeks before the milk products to stop showing up in your milk. (If you eliminate dairy products entirely, you will start to gradually notice a difference in your baby after a day or two, and each day it will get better and better.) And while I was waiting for the milk products to stop effecting my milk, the drops helped when my baby got particularly uncomfortable. Within 30 mins or so after I would give him the drops, my baby would start to expel gas. And then he would get a bit happier.


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## JustVanessa (Sep 7, 2005)

They worked for my little guy, but I also had to do an elimination diet. My ds's first 6 weeks were very painful b/c I didn't realize that he couldn't tolerate.......all dairy, garlic, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, anything from the legume family, any tiniest bit of chocolate, anything spicy. I ate alot of rice the first 6 months.
I would highly recomend doing a diet check. If you search the threads here you will find more info. HTH! (If you need to feel free to pm me)


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## Avena (May 27, 2005)

Can YOU drink some digestive tea?

Like fennel, cardamom, cinn, ginger, chamomile tea????

I'd also suggest mint, BUT in EXCESS mint will decrease breast milk!

If you don't mind me asking, why is a 4 week old on a diuretic?
If it's a prescription, he may be having a reaction/side effect to it w/the gas etc... You can look up the prescription up on-line drug index to see.

I'd also say look at your diet too, my DD at 4 weeks was VERY affected by me eating any broc, cauilfower,kale etc (gas producing veggies) also chocolate, citrus including tomatoes..When I elminated these she was much better!

I forgot to add we got DD Borion's Homeopathic gas/colic drops they are liquid and WORK! you can find them on-line at either www.webvitamins.com or www.drugstore.com

Best of luck!


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## VickV (May 4, 2005)

We used 'em, with seemingly no ill effects, for the first few months of DD's life. Not all the time, but whenever she seemed gassier than a few burps would help. In a perfect world she wouldn't need 'em, but real life kinda gets in the way sometimes.

FWIW, I asked my ped about dairy allergies, but since I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, she didn't really want me eliminating dairy (and frankly, I was thrilled!). Her words? "As bad as this is going to sound, gas isn't going to kill her and you have to eat something." So I cut back on dairy, but never really saw a change in gassiness until she got to that point where she was "big enough" to handle some gas without getting upset.


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## RaRa7 (Feb 29, 2004)

he is on a diuretic b/c he had heart surgery








really makes cd-ing tough too!!








Guess i'lltry eliminating dairy--and tomatoes!
what about garlic?
and thanks so much for all the input!


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## momto l&a (Jul 31, 2002)

I havent heard anything bad about them and having used them one all 3 of my girls I can say they provided relief.


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## CajunMommyCarla (Apr 28, 2006)

i used the gas drops with my son and they worked quite well for him. He was feed breast milk in a bottle for 3 months and then had full time formula. the formula was aweful and made him really gassy and cranky. the drops solved that problem!

(side note - he was given the expressed milk cause we had nursing issues. i pumped until i dried up)


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## ChickyMama (Dec 15, 2005)

I dont think there is anything wrong with the simethicone drops, though I tend not to trust when docs say things are safe, my ped did say a baby could drink gallons of it and be fine, but, they did not work well for me and then I found colic ease, which is all natural, safe and helped me a lot. I am always recommending it that it practically sounds like I work for them or something (I dont of course) but it worked for my dd so much, practically instant relief! http://www.colicease.com/


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## NiteNicole (May 19, 2003)

Our ped agrees with the poster above - the body doesn't absorb the drops so they don't harm the baby. They are essentially the same as GasX. The Mylicon drops worked most of the time for my baby.


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## lasciate (May 4, 2005)

Cut out drinking anything carbonated. That was the sole source of my baby's gas.


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## cj'smommy (Aug 14, 2003)

I'm on a no dairy diet right now and dairy proteins are hidden in everything so you have to be very careful.

It's different than lactose intolerance and yes, some aged cheese is ok if you're lactose intolerant because the older the cheese, the less milk sugar. With lactose intolerace you can't digest the milk sugar.

What babies react to is the proteins in dairy, whey and cassein. Your body (and your babes) react in a completely different way to this than lactose intolerance. With my DS his body saw the proteins as allergens and made antibodies against it, resulting in gas, discomfort and bleeding intestines!!!

If you read labels, you will find that the proteins are in a lot of foods and foods you wouldn't expect them to be in. For instance, a lot of vegatarian cheese has casseine in it. Almost everything has whey.

It also takes a while for the proteins to clear your system, anywhere from 2-6 weeks. With my first DS it took 4 weeks to notice a difference and after 6 weeks off any dairy he was a different baby.

Let me know if you have any questions. I did the no dairy diet with him for over a year, and I've been doing it now for about 9 months.

HTH!


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## 2tolove (Mar 11, 2005)

Just wanted to chime in that I have read a lot about babies having a l lot of gas ubtil about 4 mo because the digestive system is not fully matured..

With that I drove myself NUTS!!!














trying to stop/help ds gas!!! I did the gripe water, the mylocin drops, and no dairy....Nothing worked and I was really good about the diet...

at 4.5 mo the gas was just gone!







no burping, no gas nothing!

Looking at your siggy, it looks like you babe is about a month old... it may just be age ?


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## Benjaminsmom (Apr 28, 2006)

My son had bad gas too. My ped recommended Cocyncal made by boiron its homeopathic so its safe... It worked awesome! We found it only at shoppers drug mart.


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## Tine (Jan 12, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *winonamom2be*
they are not 'bad' - they are just, in my experience, pretty useless.

and actually, studies have shown that they are no more effective than plain water.

that being said, we used them, mainly because it gave us the feeling of DOING SOMETHING even if it didn't actually DO ANYTHING.

they're harmless.

Yup. More specifically, research shows that simethicone DOES break up large gas bubbles...so technically it does what it claims to do. But the same research shows that they have no effect on the amount of crying babies do.

We used them for a while with DS. Mainly b/c DH swore they were helping. I swore they weren't, and quietly stopped using them. To this day I'm not sure whether they really helped or not; but I am pretty sure they didn't hurt.


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## EStreetMama (Sep 5, 2003)

I'm not sure they helped either, but there were a few times that I think it did. Watch out for some store brands....we got one by mistake with gosh-darn SACCHARIN in it!!!


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## USAmma (Nov 29, 2001)

Have you tried Gripe Water yet? Or just make some fennel tea yourself and give it to him by dropper.

It could be that he has reflux. Check my sig and follow it back to "how to help your baby" and see if he has any other symptoms of reflux. I hope you get better rest soon!


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## Usually Curious (Apr 26, 2006)

I've got to agree with the pp's that mentioned eliminating dairy and cruciferous veggies. I have a different baby now! Within hours of not having my morning 1/2 & 1/2 he was much better. I could basically track it - 4 or so hours after eating a 'bad' food, he'd be crying.

I went off all dairy, cruciferous veggies, tomatoes, onion & garlic.

He's almost three months now and I've added back tomatoes, garlic and a moderate amount of cruc. veggies. If I touch dairy, he's in agony still.

I ate brown rice, squash, zuchini, carrots, green beans and salad. I didn't see a reaction to meat.

Be careful with soy, sometimes that will bring on a reaction. I used rice milk and cheese and when I got desparate I tried soy ice cream and he was fine.

Happy eliminating!


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## MadameC (Sep 7, 2002)

Hi, don't forget that baby gas could just be, well baby gas. I read alot on the subject when ds was really bothered by it. I tried eliminating things, such as dairy with no change, stopped eating gassy veggies, with no change then I read that sometimes the only thing to do is wait it out as all babies go through some digestive "challenges" for around the first 3 months and usually then sorts itself out. Well that turned out to be the best advice I was given so I kept away from gassy veggies but thats it and at 2 months old he was totally transformed from NOTHING I did.

I do notice a bit of gas when I easy gassy foods but he is better able to deal with it and it doesn't affect him like when he was younger.

So if the other stuff doesn't work there is always hope it will go away on its own with time and patience, and lots of cuddles


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## Shanana (May 11, 2005)

At 9 months my dd is _still_ gassy. It doesn't make her cry, but she squirms and writhes and kicks in her sleep -- so bad that I'm having to move her to her crib (much to her dismay) because I'm getting no sleep.

I tried a total elimination diet (nothing but rice, potatoes, squash, pears, lamb, turkey) for several MONTHS. Nothing (except I lost 60 pounds). I finally stopped drinking our well water and noticed some improvement after that, but she still gets gassy every morning (between 2 and 6 AM usually).

Anyway, I will also put in a vote for Colic Ease. I tried the Mylicon drops and they did nothing. I also tried Gripe Water (from Whole Foods -- I think the brand was Baby Bliss). But it has baking soda in it, and according to the Colic Ease website this is bad. Of coures, they have a vested interest in convincing you of that, since they sell a product without it. Really I was after something without fructose so that's why I bought it, but turns out it also has fructose.

That said, it does seem to work quite well, although with my dd the effect usually wears off after 30-60 minutes. I was really sold when _I_ had horrible gas one night and was in terrible pain. Out of desperation I tried the Mylicon (squirted several droppers in my mouth, lol), and NOTHING. Then I guzzled some Colic Ease out of the bottle and the pain went away almost instantly.


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## greenmansions (Feb 16, 2005)

My lactation consultant recommended trying to give simethicone drops around the clock for a few days to see if that helped - I give a dose at each diaper change that I do at the changing table. So it amounts to 4-6 doses per day, of up to 12 allowed. I notice a difference this way, DD is a lot less gassy/colicky. Just giving some when the gas is already bothering her seems to be too little, too late.

I stopped it a few days ago since she hit 12 weeks old to see if she was "over it" and she had crying fits again several times and lots of gas, so I started up again for now.

I use the Gerber drops, they are unsweetened and dye-free.


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## artemis33 (Jan 5, 2006)

We dealt with this for the first couple of months with my DD. For us it also turned out to be dietary. Before I eliminated the offending foods, we used gripewater to relieve her pain (but it contains fennel, so I realize you cannot use that) but I *knew* this wasn't right or normal, so I committed to figuring out the cause.

I eliminated ALL dairy with some improvement, but still some problems. I read that many babies with dairy intolerance also react to soy, so I eliminated that too. My baby showed IMMEDIATE improvement with this!!! The first day I was off both dairy AND soy was the first time in weeks we didn't need the gripewater. It doesn't always happen this fast, but it can. And it is SO worth it to have a calm happy baby! She also slept a longer stretch that night than she ever had before. I also started keeping a food diary at the same time - tracking everything I ate and when she nursed and if she got fussy. I was able to use this to figure out some other foods she reacted to - just not as severely as the dairy and soy.

For us it was/still is onions, green peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, chocolate (even dairy free chocolate), red wine (I just had a little!) and the dairy and soy. There may be some others that I haven't quite pinned down because I have them in small quantites or rarely so the reaction is minimal.

It's true you have to really read EVERY label too! This stuff is hidden in the strangest places! Every once in a while DD will get fussy and I can't figure out why, so I'll go back and check labels on everything I've eaten and sure enough, I've missed some whey protein or casein or soy protein somewhere. She's super sensitive!

Good luck with this. I really think it is worth it to give the diet a try. It may not be this but it is easy enough to try it. Sure it is hard sometimes to go without, but there are plenty of us mamas dealing with this willing to share ideas for coping (recipes, etc.) and let me tell you, I think having a fussy baby in pain was MUCH harder on me than living without cheese


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## mirpnmama (Sep 27, 2004)

drinking carbonated beverages can make a baby gassy?? since i got pregnant with dd i can NOT drink regular water only selzer - and here she is 9 weeks old and unless it is ICE cold - i can still only drink selzer......she is gassy - but does not seem bothered by it.....


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