One thing that shocked me about new parenthood is how much time you spend begging for gas to come out of another human being. Burping was not one of my daughter’s strong suits—I would often spend half an hour at night stroking her back after a feeding, waiting for that glorious burp that never came. My pediatrician finally said the sweet, sweet words, “If she’s not uncomfortable, don’t worry!” And that was that.

Of course, it’s often obvious when a baby needs to burp: they’ll whine, cry, and groan, and the sometimes classic pat-and-rub method just won’t cut it. In one of my Facebook parenting groups, many moms and dads report success with this circle technique, demonstrated in the video above by a dad named Dean Ferraro.

You place your baby’s bottom on your thigh and hold his chin with one hand and the back of his skull with the other, very gently. Then you rotate his body in a circle, as if he were performing a Na’vi ritual. As Ferraro notes in the video, the movement is “squeezing his abdominal muscles so he’s pinching himself.” All you’re doing is facilitating the process. You can also wiggle your thigh to release any extra trapped air.

This method may not work for every baby, but if you're desperately waiting for that big burp so everyone can get some rest, it's definitely handy to have this method on hand.