

In more severe cases, your doctor can also prescribe antacids or special formulas to help your little one. These may include spicy foods and carbonated beverages (5). Your doctor might tell you to adjust your baby’s position during and after feedings or, if you’re nursing, to avoid foods that could worsen the acid reflux. Luckily, acid reflux is easy to diagnose and treat. GER can cause your baby to experience symptoms such as colic, crying, vomiting, and yes, even grunting. GER is caused when your baby’s lower esophageal sphincter is underdeveloped and allows milk and stomach acid to leak back into your baby’s throat (4). Sometimes babies will also grunt when they suffer from gastroesophageal reflux (GER). They can tell you if there’s something at home to try and ensure it’s not caused by a more serious disorder such as hypothyroidism or Hirschsprung’s disease.Īlthough both of these conditions are rare, it’s better to be safe when it comes to your little one. If you think your baby is experiencing constipation, contact your doctor.

Or, if your baby is formula-fed, an ingredient in the formula may be the cause (3). Luckily constipation is usually fairly easy to fix. Have hard, compact stools when they have a bowel movement.Go three to four days between bowel movements.Grunt but not have a bowel movement right after the grunting episode.When suffering from constipation, your baby may: But don’t worry it’s fairly easy to tell the difference between constipation and GBS. While constipation isn’t the underlying cause of GBS, it can cause your baby to grunt. One of the following conditions might be the reason. If your baby’s grunting episodes are not followed quickly by a bowel movement, or if your baby is grunting with every breath, then GBS is likely not the cause.

Grunting can be a symptom of several different conditions. Not all baby grunting is caused by grunting baby syndrome. Your baby needs to learn to coordinate these muscle groups without the help of stimulants, which is why a hands-off approach is the best way to go with GBS.
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If you continuously use stimulants to help your baby pass stools, it may take them longer to learn how to relax their pelvic muscles on their own. Some doctors might tell you to ease your baby’s discomfort by stimulating their anus with cotton balls and Vaseline or an anal thermometer, but this may hurt more than it helps. So when it comes to GBS, there really isn’t much to worry about. The good news? It will clear up on its own by the time your baby is 3-4 months old. The bad news is there’s nothing you can do to stop or cure grunting baby syndrome in your baby. They will experience several, or all, of these symptoms for five to ten minutes before finally passing stool and feeling comfortable once more. If your baby is experiencing GBS, they will likely also do the following things when trying to have a bowel movement: Perhaps you’re beginning to suspect your baby is suffering from GBS, but you want to be sure. What Does Grunting Baby Syndrome Look Like? This can cause pain and discomfort until your baby learns to coordinate these two muscle groups. So your baby has to grunt and push the stool down repeatedly until their pelvic muscles get the memo to relax and let the stool pass. Unfortunately, while the grunting helps your abdominal muscles flex, it doesn’t help the pelvic muscles relax. Grunting helps babies flex their stomach muscles, so they often do this to help pass waste (2). To pass stool, our stomach muscles have to flex, and at the same time, our bodies tell our pelvic muscles to relax. Believe it or not, this kind of coordination is also required to have a bowel movement. Have you ever tried to rub your stomach while patting your head simultaneously? It takes a level of coordination that we’re not born with. It’s caused by the baby’s body not recognizing the signals it needs to go to the bathroom. With GBS, the grunting isn’t caused by hard stool.
