What causes bloating?

Bloating is a feeling of fullness or visible abdominal enlargement. Eating quickly, fizzy drinks, chewing gum, and swallowing air can add gas. Constipation can trap stool and gas. Symptoms after particular foods may occur with Food Intolerance, including Lactose Intolerance, while Coeliac Disease can cause digestive symptoms after gluten exposure. Irritable Bowel Syndrome may link bloating with abdominal pain and changes in bowel habit. Giardiasis or Helicobacter Pylori Infection are other possible digestive causes, especially when diarrhoea, nausea, upper-abdominal discomfort, or a recent exposure is present.

Keep a short diary of meals, bowel movements, abdominal symptoms, and timing. Eat slowly, limit fizzy drinks, and take gentle movement after meals. Treat constipation with fluids, activity, and gradual fibre changes unless a clinician has advised otherwise. Avoid cutting out several food groups without guidance; a Nutrition Counselling visit can help test patterns while protecting balanced intake. Do not start a gluten-free diet before discussing Coeliac Disease testing, because that can affect the assessment.

Book an assessment when bloating is persistent, repeatedly returns, interferes with eating or sleep, or comes with ongoing bowel changes. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly increasing pain, repeated vomiting, a swollen hard abdomen, inability to pass stool or gas, blood in the stool, or faintness. New symptoms with unexplained weight loss also deserve prompt review.

Ask which patterns suggest intolerance, constipation, IBS, infection, or coeliac disease. Ask whether tests are needed, which foods should remain in your diet during testing, and what change in symptoms should trigger urgent care.