eli5 how does burping a baby work, like what exactly are you doing?
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Babies ingest a lot of air along with the milk. Gentle pats cause the food to settle down and the air to rise to the top of the stomach, where it can then be expelled as a burp. Formula gets pretty frothy, though, so you often get spit-up too.
During the feeding process air gets mixed into the babies stomach with the milk, if you don’t burp the baby are prone to spit-up whatever they were fed. Air rises so a couple pats on the back gets all the air up and coming out in the burp.
It’s like shaking a soda – the bubbles all float to the top and eventually coalesce into one big bubble that can be let out the top.
It’s also like shaking a soda in that if you do it too vigorously, you might get a little liquid (or a big fountain) too.
Think about bleeding the brakes or the cooling system of your car. Same principle. You have some air in the piping and by banging on the baby you make the frothy liquid inside to separate and the air inside exits through the breather port at the top of the baby.
If not done, the internal plumbing moves a mixture of air and liquid through the system leading to rough idle and exhaust problems. And a lot of unwanted noise while operating.
Just be careful. Sometimes there can be a bit of splatter, and that’s why you put some cardboard or kitty litter underneath it to catch any spills.
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