The Gripe Water Original 4 oz bottle and carton (brand photo)
Health & Home · Check #298
Is the Mommy's Bliss Gripe Water Original worth it?
Mommy’s Bliss Gripe Water Original
A $10.97 fennel-and-ginger sweet liquid sold on a Supplement Facts panel — no FDA efficacy evaluation, no robust trial showing gripe water beats placebo for colic or gas, and a 2025 FDA warning letter naming this exact product adulterated, misbranded and an unapproved new drug for its website claims.
See current price ↗The pitch
The #1 selling gripe water for 25+ years: organic fennel and ginger in a sweet, alcohol-free, no-added-sugar liquid for babies 2 weeks+, NSF Certified, with a no-spill syringe — up to 24 five-ml servings per $10.97 bottle
The catch
No robust trial shows gripe water works for colic or gas — the largest infant study found no prevention and more vomiting and constipation — and FDA’s April 2025 warning letter found this product adulterated and misbranded, with years of un-investigated, unreported serious complaints including choking and stopped-breathing reports
FSA/HSA
retailer-tagged eligible, but contested — it is a dietary supplement, not an OTC drug, and eligibility guides split; your plan administrator decides
What it is
A 4 fl oz (120 ml) sweet liquid dietary supplement for infants from M.O.M. Enterprises — the Original daytime formula (not Night Time, which adds chamomile, lemon balm and passionflower). The label actives are organic fennel seed extract and organic ginger root extract, 5 mg each per 5 ml serving, in purified water, vegetable glycerin, citrus bioflavonoid extract, citric acid, sodium bicarbonate, potassium sorbate and natural fennel flavor. The bottle carries a Supplement Facts panel, not Drug Facts. Current brand directions are age-tiered: 2–6 weeks: 1 ml up to 15 times a day; 6–10 weeks: 2 ml up to 15 times a day; 10 weeks to 6 months and older: 5 ml up to 6 times a day — not for infants under 2 weeks or under 7 pounds, given upright and slowly toward the inner cheek, never to a crying infant, and discarded 6 weeks after opening. At maximum labelled use the 120 ml bottle (24 five-ml servings) lasts 4–8 days. Many retail listings still print the prior dosing schedule; the bottle in hand governs.
Claims vs. reality
The regulatory status: this is a dietary supplement under DSHEA — the label carries the disclaimer that its statements “have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration” and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. It is not an FDA-reviewed OTC drug and not a homeopathic drug product. In April 2025 FDA went further, holding that reflux/GERD claims on the brand’s website make Gripe Water Original an unapproved new drug as a matter of law. “Relieves colic, fussiness and gas discomfort”: there are no robust randomized trials of gripe water showing it beats placebo. A 2000 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine review found most gripe-water ingredients of little value and suggested any benefit may be the sweet-tasting liquid itself; a 2012 review came out against routine use; and the largest infant study (Jain et al. 2015, 335 infants) found gripe water did not prevent colic and was associated with more vomiting and constipation. “Alcohol-free, no added sugar”: true of this bottle — but the 1851 Woodward’s original contained 3.6% alcohol and sugar, and this formula’s sweetness is glycerin (2 g carbohydrate, 10 calories per 5 ml) — the sweet taste is the one mechanism with any evidence behind it. NSF Certified and the Clean Label Project Purity Award (the 4 oz, UPC 679234052996, is on the CLP listing) are real purity certifications; neither evaluated whether the product works.
Safety & recalls
FDA Warning Letter CMS 698651 (April 22, 2025) names this exact product: after a 2024 inspection, FDA found Gripe Water Original adulterated under dietary-supplement cGMP rules and misbranded, and found the company had left gripe-water complaints from 2019–2024 un-investigated and had failed to submit required Serious Adverse Event Reports. The letter’s examples include a two-month-old hospitalized in 2021 (an E. coli infection whose source the hospital could not identify — causation not established), a six-week-old who choked and was revived after repeated CPR attempts in 2021, and a two-month-old reported choking twice in 2024. The company’s corrective review was still in progress when FDA wrote. Earlier history, attributed exactly: there is no salmonella recall in this brand’s record; in September 2007 the same company recalled Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water, apple flavor (~17,600 bottles) after FDA confirmed Cryptosporidium contamination while investigating a sick 6-week-old. A 2008 FDA warning covered a different product (Mommy’s Bliss Nipple Cream), and the 2019 DG Baby Gripe Water recall (undissolved citrus flavonoid, Dollar General) was a different brand — a category pattern only. No CPSC recall names Mommy’s Bliss (checked Nov 1, 2026); supplements are FDA-regulated, so the FDA file above is the operative record.
Real reviews — what owners say
Target rates the Original 4.4/5 across 744 ratings and 708 reviews (Target’s own summary includes incentivized reviews); the brand store rates it 4.7/5 across 281 reviews. The praise concentrates on hiccups — “stops hiccups almost instantly” is the most repeated owner claim, including from parents who say it did nothing for colic — followed by “settled her on rough nights” stories from the colic weeks, exactly the window when colic resolves on its own. The negative pattern is consistent: a substantial minority report no difference at all, babies who hate the sweet, sticky taste, spit-up after doses, and a fiddly syringe at 3 a.m. That split matches the literature: the effect owners can observe (a sweet liquid swallowed, ending a hiccup bout) is the one most reported; the headline indication is where owners split and where individual stories cannot settle the question. No independent lab test of this product was found.
Price & FSA/HSA
$10.97 for the 4 fl oz bottle at Walmart and in CamelCamelCamel’s current Amazon record (average $9.86 tracked); Target lists $9.99–$10.99 and the brand charges $12.99 direct — about $0.46 per 5 ml serving at $10.97. The label governs the real cost: at the maximum schedule a bottle lasts 4 days (~$2.74/day) for a baby over 10 weeks, 8 days at the youngest tier, and the 6-week discard rule caps a lightly used bottle’s life regardless of what is left in it. The 2 oz bottle ($6.79 brand) is worse per ounce. FSA/HSA is genuinely contested: Walmart and Swanson tag this product eligible, reflecting post-CARES Act retailer tagging of OTC digestive products — but the CARES Act covers OTC drugs, this is a dietary supplement, and HSAList classifies gripe water as not eligible. The IRS has no product-level ruling here; your plan administrator makes the final call.
A $10.97 fennel-and-ginger sweet liquid sold on a Supplement Facts panel — no FDA efficacy evaluation, no robust trial showing gripe water beats placebo for colic or gas, and a 2025 FDA warning letter naming this exact product adulterated, misbranded and an unapproved new drug for its website claims. Not Worth It
