What bloating is and how it varies
Bloating is a feeling of pressure and heaviness in the belly, often with rumbling, noisy gas and a visibly larger belly. There is always some gas in the gut, and part of it leaves as belching and flatulence. Bloating happens when too much gas forms, when it does not clear well, or when the bowel is simply more sensitive to stretching. It is most often linked to food and habits and less often to digestive disease. Here are the situations people ask about most.
Bloating after eating
If your belly swells soon after eating, what you ate and how you ate it is often the cause. Gas comes from beans, cabbage and broccoli, fizzy drinks, chewing gum and sweeteners. Air is swallowed when you eat fast, talk at the table and gulp drinks (aerophagia). Marked bloating after dairy can point to lactose intolerance. If you bloat after almost any meal and also have burning, heaviness and nausea, functional dyspepsia or gastritis is possible; see also Heartburn.
Bloating with gas and rumbling
Extra gas is usually harmless and passes within a few hours. It helps to slow down at the table, eat smaller portions, take fewer fizzy drinks and gas-producing foods, and move more. But if gas bothers you constantly, gets in the way of daily life or comes with pain, weight loss or diarrhea, see a gastroenterologist.
Bloating and constipation
When stools are infrequent and hard and the belly is swollen, a slow bowel is most often the culprit. It is covered on the page Constipation. If bloating comes with being unable to pass stool or gas, severe pain and vomiting, you need urgent help: it could be a bowel obstruction.
Bloating and diarrhea
Bloating with loose stools occurs with a gut infection, lactose intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome and, in some people, celiac disease. For more, see Diarrhea. If loose stool lasts longer than two weeks, see a doctor.
Bloating before a period and in women
Many women notice bloating in the days before a period: it relates to hormones and usually eases once the period starts. But if bloating is constant, the belly keeps growing, you feel full quickly, you lose weight or you have lower abdominal pain, get checked, including by a gynecologist: such combinations should not be put down to hormones.
Bloating in a child
In babies, bloating and colic come from an immature gut and air swallowed while feeding. But if a child's belly is hard and swollen, the child cries and cannot be soothed, vomits, or has blood in the stool or a fever, a pediatrician should see them the same day. Related symptoms: Abdominal pain and Nausea and vomiting.
What you can do before the visit
- Eat slowly and in small portions, chew with your mouth closed and do not gulp drinks.
- Cut back on fizzy drinks, chewing gum, foods that clearly make you worse, and late heavy dinners.
- Move more: walking helps gas pass. A gentle belly massage may also ease it.
- If bloating goes with constipation, add fiber and fluid gradually, or the bloating can get worse.
- Keep a food and bloating diary so it is easier to see what triggers it.
- Do not drop whole groups of food for long without a doctor or dietitian: you can hide the cause and end up with a shortfall.
How a doctor finds the cause
The doctor asks about diet, stools, weight and medicines, and examines the belly. Blood and stool tests may follow, tests for lactose intolerance and celiac disease, an abdominal ultrasound and, if needed, a gastroscopy or colonoscopy. If diet is the cause, working with a dietitian helps. Treatment follows the cause, not the bloating itself.