25 May 2026 · Nina Aramway
People & Culture · Grandmother of ten
Does a Baby Need to Burp After Every Feed?
No. And I want to spend some time on why, because it's the question underneath all the others and the answer turned out to be more interesting than I expected when I went looking.
Why bother when it usually does nothing
I burped five babies after every feed, for twenty minutes at a time, because that's what I was taught and because everybody around me did the same, in Greece and later in Hong Kong, and it didn't once occur to me in all those years that anybody had ever checked whether it worked. Somebody has, and not very many times, which tells you something about a practice this universal. The clearest piece of evidence is a small randomised trial published in 2015, which followed seventy-one mother and baby pairs over three months and assigned half of them to burp after every feed and half not to, and the results weren't what most of us would have predicted. Burping made no difference to colic. The babies who were burped cried no less than the babies who weren't, and the burped babies brought up noticeably more milk, roughly twice as many episodes of regurgitation a week as the group who were left alone, which is the opposite of what the burping was supposed to be for. That's one small single-centre study and it shouldn't be treated as the last word on anything, but what it does tell you is how thin the ground is under a practice that almost every parent in the English-speaking world regards as compulsory, and it points the other way from what we all assume. There's a cultural clue in it too. Routine burping is close to universal in some countries and largely absent in others, and nobody has ever produced evidence that the babies in the second group suffer for it, and when I moved to Hong Kong I noticed the practice around me was gentler and shorter than what I'd been taught at home, and both sets of babies grew up perfectly well and are now arguing with their own children.
So my position is this. Offer her the chance briefly, because some babies do have air to bring up and are more comfortable once it's gone, but don't treat it as an obligation, don't persist, and don't lie awake worrying about the feed where nothing came — which I did for years, and which did nobody any good. I'm told my mother did the same. I'm not sure it stopped with me.
How much winding to expect
It depends almost entirely on how much air went in, which depends on how she's fed.
A well-latched breastfed baby often produces very little and sometimes nothing at all, and a bottle-fed baby usually produces more, particularly if the flow is fast or the teat hasn't been kept full, and all of it tails off as she gets older, as her feeding gets more efficient and she spends more of her day upright and less of it lying across somebody.
| Situation | Burp attempts per feed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Breastfed newborn, good latch | Once, at the end | Often produces nothing. That's fine |
| Breastfed, fast let-down | At the change of sides and at the end | Gulping and spluttering means air |
| Bottle-fed newborn | Halfway and at the end | Or every 60-90ml on a larger bottle |
| Any baby, 4-6 months | Once, if at all | Most self-manage by this point |
| Night feeds | Briefly, upright, then straight down | Keep it dark, quiet and short |
The numbers there are a rough guide and not a target, and a baby who produces nothing all week and is comfortable isn't missing something.
During the feed as well
At the natural pause, and not before one.
Halfway through a bottle is a reasonable habit, and swapping sides is the obvious moment when breastfeeding, but what I'd avoid is interrupting a feed that's going well in order to wind her, which was another thing I was taught and which I now think does more harm than good, because a baby feeding calmly is doing something counts for more than a burp and breaking off often means she won't settle back to it.
The technique itself
Night feeds
Briefly, or not at all, and I'd put this more strongly than most guides do.
Hold her upright for a minute after a night feed and put her down whether or not anything arrives. Don't switch a light on, don't talk to her, don't persist for ten minutes in the hope of a result, because sleep is the thing of value at three in the morning, for her and for you, and burping isn't that deserves trading it for.
If she goes down and wind was the problem, she'll let you know within a few minutes and you can pick her up again, and that's a much better arrangement than keeping her awake on the off chance.
If she falls asleep first
When to stop trying every time
Most babies need very little of this after about four to six months, and many need none well before that.
The signal is that nothing has come up for a week or two and she's settling perfectly well without it, and at that point you stop offering after every feed and keep it for the ones where she seems uncomfortable, and by the time she's sitting up unaided and eating solids it'll have dropped away entirely without your ever deciding anything.
Nobody will tell you when to stop, and you're allowed to simply stop.
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Asked by every daughter I have
Does a baby need to be burped after every feed?
Try after every feed in the first few months, but expect a burp only some of the time. A settled baby who doesn't burp needs nothing more.
Is it normal for a baby not to burp after some feeds?
Yes. Roughly a third to half of feeds produce no burp at all, particularly for breastfed babies with a good latch, and it isn't a sign the winding failed.
Should I burp my baby during the feed?
At the natural break, the change of sides for a breastfed baby, roughly halfway for a bottle-fed one. Don't interrupt a baby who's feeding steadily and swallowing well.
Do I need to burp my baby during night feeds?
Briefly. Hold her upright for a few minutes in a dim, quiet room, and if nothing comes, settle her back down and don't persist.
How many times a day will I burp a newborn?
Eight to twelve times, since newborns feed that often. Each attempt only takes a couple of minutes, and many produce nothing.
What I read before I wrote
- Kaur, Bharti & Saini (2015), Child Care Health Dev 41(1):52-56, A randomized controlled trial of burping for the prevention of colic and regurgitation in healthy infants
- NHS: Bottle feeding advice
- American Academy of Pediatrics: Burping, hiccups and spitting up
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.