What you can do about farting and belching

Keep a diary

If you really want to get to grips with the problem, keep a diary of what and when you eat for a week. Also note when you pass wind, and whether it is mild, moderate or severe each time. This may help you to pinpoint foods or drinks that are responsible.

Minimizing belching

Avoid fizzy drinks and hot drinks.
Do not rush your food. When you gulp food you swallow more air.
Do not overeat. To avoid gas, it is better to eat little and often.
Chew your food properly. This helps the saliva to work on it so it is properly digested, and you are less likely to swallow air with food that is chewed small than with large lumps.
Do not use chewing gum, and try to avoid sucking on pen tops.
Stop smoking.

Minimizing flatulence

Pay attention to the advice for minimizing belching to reduce swallowed air. Some swallowed air may be passed as flatulence instead of belching.
Try to avoid large quantities of gas-forming foods but make sure you eat enough fruit and vegetables to avoid constipation and give yourself a balanced diet. The carbohydrates in many foods (such as potatoes, rice, corn and wheat products) are well absorbed so will not worsen flatulence. Dietary fibres, such as bran and cellulose, are also innocent, because they are not converted to gases by gut bacteria.
Do not suddenly increase the amount of fibre in your diet; the gut needs to get used to increased fibre gradually.
Avoid slimming foods containing sorbitol. Some people find that reducing their intake of ordinary sugar helps.
Remove 80% of the most troublesome carbohydrates from dried beans by covering them with water, bringing them to the boil and boiling for 10 minutes, turning off the heat and letting them soak for 4 hours. Drain off the water, replace with fresh water and cook the beans according to your recipe. Or use tinned beans.
Take plenty of exercise. This helps to keep the bowel moving normally.
Avoid tight clothing.
Try taking a charcoal tablet (available from pharmacies), or eating a charcoal biscuit (available from health stores) before a meal.
Your doctor might be willing to give you a course of broad-spectrum antibiotic. This can sometimes help by changing the balance of bacteria in the gut.
Anti-wind products can be bought from pharmacies. They disperse bubbles of trapped wind by creating larger bubbles that can pass out of the system. They may relieve your discomfort, but may make you fart and belch even more.
Beano (see Useful contacts) is a product containing the enzyme galactosidase, which is said to make gassy carbohydrate foods more digestible. It is made from a mould, so avoid it if you are allergic to moulds or penicillin. You take it just before your first bite of food. It is available from some pharmacies and health-food stores.

Disguising wind

If you make a smell in the lavatory, light a match – this makes the smell disappear as if by magic. Considerate people keep a box of matches by the lavatory for this purpose.
If you have a serious flatulence problem, you might consider special pants that have a large replaceable carbon filter in the seat. This filter removes the smelly chemicals. The other parts of the pants are airtight, so wind can escape only by passing through the filter.

Written by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Edited by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Last updated: Tuesday, October 4th 2011

Useful contacts for What you can do about farting and belching

Click to see all the contacts that you may find useful in relation to wind | What you can do about farting and belching

Useful contacts

486 people have
tackled this problem!

Tell us your thoughts

Did you find what you were looking for?

Submit

Add a comment

A problem shared is a problem halved: help others by sharing your frustrations or successes at tackling your health problem.

We have noticed that many of your queries are actually answered on the website, so please read carefully before submitting a comment. As all comments are moderated, there will be a delay before your comment appears. Please note that we cannot respond to individual requests for feedback.

Display Name Age: Sex: Country: Comment:

Submit

Discussion content reflects the view of individual participants only. Health Press Limited bear no responsibility for accuracy of participant comments and will bear no legal liability for discussion results. Comments will be moderated before posting and Health Press Limited reserves the right to delete any material. See About our site for our moderation policy

Comments on this article

Posted by Optional on 24/06/2011 at 04:10, United Kingdom

i keep farting a lot very smelly every 1o mins the smell makes me sick been having trouble with wind quite a while

Posted by Daly on 21/06/2011 at 07:04, United Kingdom

It has started first with constipation.Then I was told hernia hiatus.could not belch or pass wind.Now have phlegm in my stools,throat and left nose. Can belch now and pass a bit of wind but breath,through nose and mouth smell the poop.Doctors always dismiss me.taken a lot of esomoprazole for four years. I am getting nowhere and it is serious. Can you help? Thanks.

Posted by Optional on 28/07/2010 at 08:29, United Kingdom

Peppermint oil (in capsule form) helps reduce trapped wind.