It's been a few years since Karen Ray's children needed burping, but she remembers those days well. "I got the best burping results by setting the baby on my knee, with the infant leaning into my left arm and my thumb and forefinger holding along the jaw line to help brace the neck," says the mom from Oklahoma. "I patted Baby's back with my right hand. It always seemed to me that the sitting position helped push the burp out quicker."

It's a skill most parents come to pride themselves on – but also one of the oddest things most of us could have imagined doing before becoming parents: helping another human move the gas out of his or her body. Why do babies need burping, anyway?

Because babies aren't mobile, the air that they swallow during feedings can stay trapped inside. If this air isn't burped up, it will work its way out through the GI tract, says Dr. Charles Shubin, director of pediatrics at Mercy FamilyCare in Baltimore, Md., and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland. As the air moves through the bowel, it dilates it, leading to the discomfort commonly known as gas pains. Almost all babies need to be burped, as almost all swallow some air, Dr. Shubin says.

So when will your baby outgrow burping? "We have the same issues as adults, [so] the real answer is never!" Dr. Shubin says. But don't worry – as your baby becomes more active and able to move around on his own, he'll be able to better move gas out of his body. And since sucking on a nipple makes it easy to swallow air, you'll see a decrease in gassiness as your baby weans off the bottle or breast, Dr. Shubin says. Most babies will need burping for at least the first six months.

That said, not all babies will need to be burped all the time. In fact, some babies never need burping.

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