The beauty and art of burping

After years of being taught that burping is 'disgusting' and being chastised for euphemistically 'breaking wind'...motherhood soon causes you to reevaluate this long held social norm. I have now learnt that burping is both an art form and a science, and there is little noise more gratifying to a new mum than a good belch. This wonderful sound, particularly when delivered in a strong, loud timbre, heralds the possibilty of avoiding otherwise gut-writhing pain, often accompanied by the notorious milky vomit (more of which in a future posting).

(Please note that at this point I am writing about my daughter, not me. Whilst I did produce several extraordinarily loud and satisfying belches during labour...anything goes at that point and I'm not going to make a habit of it!)

So here we come to the joys therefore of mastering the Kama sutra of wind-removing poses in newborns, and the study of gently moving from one pose to another in the style of flowing ashtanga yoga, rather than the jerky movements of some battered fairground ride or roller coaster. The classic over-the-shoulder, pat, pat, pat routine of our own mothers, and as featured in most Hollywood movies is all well and good, but in my experience rarely yields the results of a combination sequence of poses. Think of It as a short dance routine if you will. Whilst my daughter and I may include the aforementioned over the shoulder pose (very much the missionary position or beginner level of the burping world) in our daily ritual, we generally have to work through, seated poses, lying poses and back to vertical again before our glorious, long awaited baritone burp is produced. High fives all round at this point!

I'm not going to go into burping science or indeed the plethora of potions that claim to assist in the removal of trapped wind. We have had little joy with these. Every baby is doubtless different and every parent-child duo will find their own individual solution whilst said parent impatiently awaits the maturation of his or her baby's digestive system and valves...however let me conclude by sharing my favourite pose, which I have heard called 'tiger in a tree.' (Super endearing when you look in the mirror, and often bringing a windy smile to my daughter's face). To achieve, envisage being on safari and looking up at a big cat in a tree, imagine the tiger/leopard/jaguar draped along a branch (your arm), legs dangling down and head turned to the side and you'll be there. At this point your can gentle stroke your kitty-cat on the back and await noisy results!