Gripe Water: does it work?

Before we get into the meat of this post, I want to clarify: a fussy baby does NOT necessarily mean you are doing something wrong as a parent.

But a baby with gas or colic can make any parent feel exhausted, helpless — and desperate for a solution.

Enter gripe water. A favorite recommendation from grandparents around the world. But does it work? Is it worth a try? Here’s the evidence.

For those who want just the summary…

Colic sucks. Gas in babies sucks. Both are common, and they are likely multifactorial - which means finding a single solution is challenging.

But both get better with time. By 3 months, almost all babies have outgrown them. If we could nail down a foolproof way to make it better, we’d all be happier — and I wish we knew of one. I do not think that gripe water is that magical works-for-everyone solution, but in some cases it is reasonable to try, as long as you follow the parameters set out below. Remember: I do not recommend giving your baby any supplements without getting approval from your child’s pediatrician first, because fussiness in an infant can be due to MANY things - some of which may need further evaluation.

If you want to learn more about gas in babies, and some strategies to help, check out this post.

What is gripe water?

When grandma swears by how effective gripe water was to relieve her baby’s gas/colic: she’s right.

The gripe water of yesteryear was a totally different beast.

Invented in the 1850s by William Woodward, the original gripe water formulation contained ingredients like 4% alcohol, sugar, baking soda, & dill. It did a good job calming infants - and that shouldn’t surprise anyone (for reference, light beers usually contain about 4.2% alcohol…)

But gripe water today is different. Today’s gripe water does not contain alcohol because we now understand the risks that come with giving infants alcohol (such as respiratory depression).

Does it work?

There are so many factors that likely contribute to infant colic and gas, and we do not understand them well. So it is hard to create a randomized, well-controlled trial to answer this question. Some parents swear by gripe water. Others feel that it doesn’t do a whole lot.

The data is limited

There are many reasons this is hard to study in a meaningful way.

• There is no standard or regulated recipe for gripe water. Different companies contain different ingredients although there are some ingredients that are commonly included (such as Fennel, see below).

• It’s hard to carve out or measure symptom severity in a systematic way. “Colic” is defined by the 3-3-3 rule: any infant that is crying for 3+ hours per day, for 3+ days per week, for 3+ weeks is a colicky baby. Babies cry for many reasons, and the only way to study this is to rely on questionnaire and recollections from exhausted parents. Although it can be done, these studies are inherently more challenging.

• We know colic gets better on its own with time and no interventions, usually by about 3 months of age. So even if you study these ingredients, it is hard to know whether they are meaningfully improving symptoms - or whether the children are simply outgrowing the condition.

Some small studies do suggest that colic may be improved by ingredients such as fennel extract, certain types of mixed herbal teas, and sugar solutions (PMID: 26673749; 10844880; 21444591). But the studies that exist tend to be small, low-quality and inconsistent — and systematic reviews of their results don’t reveal anything that is hugely convincing.

So should you use gripe water?

My biggest concern is that gripe water is a dietary supplement - not a medication. Production, ingredients and claims are not regulated by the FDA - there are no safety and quality testing standards that need to be met.

We do know for other supplements, such as Melatonin, third-party testing has found that sometimes the ingredients vary from batch to batch, or what is in the bottle doesn’t always match what is on the label. You are essentially putting your faith in a company.

At the end of the day, this is yet another question of risks vs. benefits - and the parents and pediatrician need to work together to figure out where the balance lies in each individual situation.

What about probiotics? Gas drops?

We do have some data that specific probiotics can reduce crying time in infantile colic. Gas (or Simethicone) drops have less convincing data, but again - some parents feel they make a difference. I go into more detail about both here.

Picking a product (whether it is probiotics, gas drops or gripe water)

If a parent and baby are truly struggling, you and your physician may decide the benefits outweigh the risks. If this is the case, here are some parameters to keep in mind.

• Pick a reputable company. Look for one that has undergone third party testing by USP, NSF or Consumer Lab (this means the company has voluntarily chosen to have their product tested to make sure that there is consistency from batch to batch, and that the products are accurately labeled and without contaminants. Note that it does not mean that the testing confirms that the products do whatever the company claims.).

• Pick a product without alcohol and sugar. Those that are available here in the US will not have alcohol, but I have had a couple of patients bring imported medications sent from relatives in other countries that may not have the same standards.

• Make sure that you have an off ramp. I talk about this in my Melatonin post. Our goal, always, is to give medications only when they are needed - and to constantly reassess. Having a specific plan in place for when you will reassess or try to wean off the supplement is important.

Bottom line:

As I said above, I understand the desperation that comes with having a crying baby. We are evolutionarily designed to find it traumatic to hear our baby cry — and it is easy to spiral and think that somehow you are failing as a parent when you are struggling to soothe your baby.

Make sure you check out my free guide on fussy infants, which provides some step-by-step strategies for dealing with this situation. And be gentle with yourself: that visceral response is normal, and it means you’re a good parent, not a failing parent.

There is a lot we don’t know about colic. But what we do know is it usually begins around 10-14 days, peaks around 6 weeks, and then dies down by about 3-4 months (learn more here). It will get better with time, and there is no evidence that babies who were colicky are necessarily going to have other health problems down the line.

If we could nail down a foolproof way to solve colic, I think we would help many parents through the fourth trimester. But until that point, do what you can - and have faith.

For a little more information on strategies to handle gas in babies, check out this post.

Deep breath, my friends. This is hard because it is hard, not because you’re doing it wrong.

It will get better.