Is gripe water safe for babies?
Guidance differs by country — Not recommended in the UK or Ireland. Where used, follow the label and speak to a pharmacist, health visitor, public health nurse or doctor first
The NHS puts gripe water among colic remedies that are not recommended and says there is no evidence they help. US paediatric advice is softer, saying it may be worth a try if you discuss it with your paediatrician first. Gripe water is sold as a food or dietary supplement, not a licensed medicine, so composition is not standardised.
The verdict
Gripe water is one of the most widely sold baby products in the world and one of the least evidenced. If you want a straight answer: there is no good evidence that it works, and the UK, Ireland and Australia all advise against it. The United States is softer, saying it may be worth trying with a paediatrician's input, which is a statement about parental desperation rather than about efficacy.
That is an uncomfortable answer to give a parent at 9pm with a screaming baby, and it is still the honest one.
What the evidence actually shows
The NHS sentence is the clearest summary available: remedies for colic, such as anti-colic drops, herbal or probiotic supplements, are available from pharmacies and some shops, but they're not recommended and there's no evidence they help colic.
Behind that sits the NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries review of herbal supplements for infant crying, which is where gripe water sits as a category. NICE reports that a Cochrane systematic review found insufficient evidence to recommend herbal supplements as a treatment option. It adds two things that rarely make it onto packaging: that use of herbal supplements has been associated with adverse effects in infants such as vomiting, sleepiness and constipation, and that these preparations have unproven safety and efficacy and an unknown dosing response.
Note what is not being said. Nobody is claiming gripe water has been proven harmful in ordinary use. The finding is an absence: the trials that would establish benefit have not been done to a standard that would let anyone recommend it.
Why it feels like it works
Colic follows a curve. Crying builds over the first weeks, peaks at around six weeks, and declines to an hour or two a day by three to four months. Whatever a parent tries during the worst of it will be followed by improvement, because improvement was coming.
Add that gripe water is usually given at the height of a crying bout, that being picked up, held upright and given something sweet from a syringe is itself soothing, and that most versions taste sweet, and you have a product that will reliably appear to help without doing anything pharmacological at all.
What is actually in it
There is no single formulation. Gripe water is sold as a food supplement in the UK and Ireland and as a dietary supplement in the United States, not as a licensed medicine. That is not a technicality: it means the product does not have to demonstrate efficacy or undergo premarket safety assessment, and composition varies by manufacturer and by country.
Common ingredients across products include sodium bicarbonate, fennel, ginger, dill, chamomile and various sweeteners. Some historical formulations contained alcohol, and some products sold outside regulated markets still do. Sodium bicarbonate is worth knowing about: it neutralises stomach acid, which is not obviously desirable in a baby whose gastric acid is part of their defence against swallowed bacteria, and it contributes sodium.
The safety record
Because gripe water is a supplement rather than a medicine, the safety picture comes mainly from enforcement records rather than trials, and it is not reassuring.
In April 2025 the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter following an inspection of a major US gripe water manufacturer. The letter documents serious violations of current good manufacturing practice regulations for dietary supplements. It records that a review of complaints revealed complaints that were not investigated, some of which met the criteria for serious adverse events, and that the company failed to submit serious adverse event reports as required by law. Among the reports the inspection found were reports of infants choking, infants that stopped breathing, and infants that were admitted to hospital after being administered the company's gripe water product, and a complaint describing a baby turning blue after a night-time formulation.
Separately, all lots of a different US baby gripe water were voluntarily recalled after an undissolved ingredient, a citrus flavonoid, was found in the product.
None of that proves gripe water caused those events, and adverse event reports are not causal evidence. What it does show is a product category being given to newborns without the reporting, manufacturing and investigation controls that apply to medicines.
Where guidance differs
This is a genuine and unusually clean split.
The UK says not recommended, no evidence it helps.
Australia says doctors do not recommend naturopathic or homeopathic mixtures for colic because there is no evidence they work or are safe in young babies, and that comforting and settling is likely to be more effective and less harmful than giving medicine.
The United States says probiotics, gripe water or gas drops may be worth a try, but discuss it with your paediatrician first. The AAP is not claiming it works; it is acknowledging that parents will try things and asking that a clinician be involved. Its standing position on unlicensed remedies is that a natural treatment does not always mean a safe one.
If you are choosing between these, note that no authority anywhere presents evidence of benefit. The disagreement is about how to respond to a parent who is going to try something regardless.
What to do instead
The strategies with the best support are behavioural and free. Hold your baby through the crying. Motion, whether walking, rocking or a pram. White noise. A dark, low-stimulation room. Responsive feeding, upright positioning after feeds, winding before, during and after a feed. A dummy, if your baby will take one.
Put the baby down safely on their back and step out of the room for a few minutes when you need to. Every authority that covers colic says this explicitly, because the risk that actually kills babies during colic is not the crying, it is a shaken infant.
When crying is not colic
Get medical advice the same day if your baby is not feeding, is not gaining weight, has a fever, is vomiting forcefully, has blood or mucus in their stool, is unusually floppy or unusually sleepy, has worsening eczema, or if the cry has changed in pitch or the baby seems unwell rather than distressed. Colic is a diagnosis of exclusion in a baby who is otherwise thriving, and a remedy bought over the counter delays the assessment that would find something treatable.
The NHS colic page lists gripe water's category directly: remedies for colic, such as anti-colic drops, herbal or probiotic supplements, are available from pharmacies and some shops, but they're not recommended and there's no evidence they help colic. NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries, reviewing herbal supplements for infant crying, reports that a Cochrane systematic review found insufficient evidence to recommend them, that use has been associated with adverse effects including vomiting, sleepiness and constipation, and that these preparations have unproven safety and efficacy and an unknown dosing response.
Showing guidance from NHS and NICE CKS — read the source.
Irish practice follows the same line as the UK. The HSE's approach to products marketed for colic is sceptical: it says of comfort milks, which are sold on similar claims, that the labels often say they are made to help medical conditions such as colic or constipation, but there is no evidence that they work. Its advice for an unsettled baby is built on feeding, winding, holding and settling techniques rather than on remedies, and on speaking to a public health nurse or GP if crying is persistent or a baby seems unwell.
Showing guidance from HSE Ireland — read the source.
American paediatric advice is more permissive. The American Academy of Pediatrics, discussing colic in its guidance on infant abdominal pain, says the cause of colic is not clear and there is no one specific treatment, and that probiotics, gripe water or gas drops may be worth a try, but discuss it with your pediatrician first. That is not a claim of effectiveness. The AAP's general position on unlicensed remedies is that a natural treatment does not always mean a safe one. Gripe water in the US is regulated as a dietary supplement, which means it is not assessed for safety or effectiveness before sale.
Showing guidance from AAP — read the source.
Australian guidance is closer to the UK's. The Raising Children Network says doctors don't recommend naturopathic or homeopathic mixtures to treat colic, because there's no evidence to say they work or are safe for young babies, and that if your baby has colic, trying to make them comfortable and help them settle is likely to be more effective and less harmful than giving them medicine. It does note separately that probiotics might reduce crying in colicky babies, particularly breastfed babies, and suggests discussing that with a GP or child and family health nurse.
Showing guidance from Raising Children Network — read the source.
Sources
- Colic — NHS, accessed
- Infantile colic: Management — NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries, accessed
- Abdominal Pain in Infants: 8 Possible Reasons Your Baby's Tummy Hurts — American Academy of Pediatrics, accessed
- Warning Letter: M.O.M. Enterprises, LLC (698651) — US Food and Drug Administration, accessed
- Voluntary Recall of All Lots of DG Baby Gripe Water — US Food and Drug Administration, accessed
- Colic — Raising Children Network (Australia), accessed