You needn t, because as long as the baby is eating right and not losing weight you can regard all of this behavior as normal. Let me caution you also not to get hung up on burping. Somewhere in the distant past, some mother found that her baby was less apt to spit up his lunch if she patted him on the back until excess air was released from his stomach. This procedure has become such a ritual that some new mothers appear to believe that their child will not survive if he doesn t burp loudly after every meal. In fact, there s nothing carved in stone that says your baby has to burp.
Some babies swallow a lot of air and readily produce an earsplitting burp.
Others swallow very little and don t need to burp at all. If you find that burping after a meal keeps your baby from spitting up, you may want to encourage him a bit, but don t make a production of it. There is no medical reason why he has to burp at all. While we re on the subject, let me say a word about colic. This is the name mothers and doctors give to a phenomenon that usually occurs before three months of age.