Nurse shares genius 'hold' that can wind newborns 'in minutes' – stopping pain

The nurse's 'hold' can help relieve newborn pain from wind (stock image)

It can be incredibly distressing if your newborn baby is screaming in pain from gas, especially if you don't know what to do to help them.

Often gently massaging your baby while they are on their backs can help relieve the excess gas, but if you don't know the best technique, it can make you feel a bit helpless. But luckily, The Enchanted Nanny, also known as TIkTok's Mary Poppins, has come to the rescue of parents.

Mum-of-four Danielle Anne Manton-Kelly, who offers parenting advice and support online, recently shared a video on TikTok after being shown a way to hold newborns to make them more comfortable. She was shown the 'hold' back when her son William was born, by an osteopath called Lucy, which is supposed to "stop newborn pain from wind in minutes".

The technique, which consists of standing with the baby in your arms and gently moving their legs around, is said to aid digestion, leaving them more comfortable. According to Lucy, it's necessary to do this when they aren't "crawling or walking around" because they "need a bit of help with that movement".

Just seconds after Lucy starts moving the baby's legs, he looks visibly comfortable, and smiles before dozing off to sleep. The osteopath explained: "What you see an awful lot of is people polishing their babies' tummy, but that does absolutely nothing.

"If the tummy doesn't have movement, then the milk gets a chance to sit and move too slowly through there, and then it can ferment and produce wind in their tummy and that then is painful. By just lifting up here and doing a figure of eight you're stretching that side and you’re stretching that side.

As the health professional keeps moving the baby, he can be seen "hanging his legs down" in relaxation, and mum Danielle can be heard saying: "I've never seen him stretch out like that – that's amazing."

Since being re-uploaded, the video has been seen over 1.9million times, and many parents agreed they wished they had known the tip sooner. One mum said: "I wish I knew this with my now eight-year-old, he suffered so bad with colic," while another added: "I wish I'd known this for my son, he was so bad with colic."

Colic is when a baby cries a lot, but there's no obvious cause. This can be common, and usually gets better around three or four months. But parents can use NHS 111 or speak to a GP if they are worried.

Danielle runs her own website, where she offers advice and help to parents, called The Enchanted Nanny.