Help with Baby That Spits Up>

Updated on November 14, 2006
G.M. asks from Bloomington, IL
22 answers

I have a 4 month old daughter who spits up a lot. I have tried going to lactose free formula and it doesnt work. I need any advice on how to help the spitting up. Thank you so much!!

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J.B.

answers from Springfield on

My daughter used to spit up a lot, too even though we got lactose free formula. It was a nusiance and I worried sometimes, but she grew out of it eventually. Sometimes it helps to keep the baby upright for a while after feeding until everything settles down. As long as she's keeping some down and stays looking and acting healthy (aside from the spit-up), I'd try not to worry too much.

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A.M.

answers from Tulsa on

Hi my name is A. and my son when he was a baby we had him on speical formula for spit up. It is Enfimal AR for spit up. You should be able to buy it al wal-mart. It worked great. He started to spit up once i stopped breast feeding at 5 weeks of age. It is pretty expansive tho. What we did is the dr told me about it and he gave me a samples so i would not waste money. Then i went out and bought some once we knew that it worked. We even tried once to stop giving him that kind and try a different kind, and boy was that a mistake. So try it, it is for spit up and works wonders.

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J.G.

answers from St. Louis on

I had a 7 week premie baby that did this constantly. It took me awhile and lots of reading but I found a few things that did help. I'm sure you know that all babies spit up, but if yours is excessive try: 1) Remove him from as much stimulation as possible when feeding (quite, dark room, no toys, nothing that will excite him). Also, If you are anxious or in a hurry, he will sense it & become excited. Keep him as calm as possible for about 20 min. after also. 2) I found that switching drastically from one formula to another made the problem worse. I would introduce the new formula 1 oz. at a time and mix with existing formula. I did no more than changes of 1 oz. per day and had to wait 7-10 days before I could determine If it was helping. I went thru 5 diff. formulas until I ended up using Nutramigen (which is about the most expensive formula out there). 3)**Also, if you add some infant rice cereal to his bottle it will thicken the formula and this helps keep it down. Just remember to slit the hole in his bottle nipple so he can get it out. Again, I added about 1 oz. at a time. This trick worked almost immediately for us. 4)use the special bottles made for collicy babies (like Avent) They ingest less air than with regular bottles. 5) Slow down his feedings. Go back to burping him after every ounce or so if you have to. Too much, too fast will cause it every time. Even full-term babies can have slightly premature digestive systems. These tricks will work, but don't make too many changes at once or you won't know which one worked. Also, too many changes could make the problem worse. Projectile vomiting (which is no fun at all-trust me). Good luck

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C.C.

answers from Oklahoma City on

Was in the exact samSe boat with my 5 month old daughter. She is now on Similac Isomil Advance Soy formula. She also eats 4 ounces every 2 hours instead of before when she would eat more at one time but less often. Some babies little tummies just can't take a lot at one time, just more often. Since we have tried this approach and the formula, she has been spit up free for over 3 weeks. Best of luck to you, I know its hard. In the meantime, try Totally Toddler Pre-wash for formula stains from Babies R US, the ONLY thing I've found to get out formula and spit up. Works wonders :-) Let us know how she does!!!!

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J.P.

answers from Kansas City on

I don't know how severe the spitting up is, but if it concerns you, talk to a doctor. Our oldest son had a condition called reflux that made him spit up a lot - he'd spit up almost after every meal and sometimes would spit up what looked like a whole feeding. If it is reflux, your doctor can help you find ways to manage it.

Some of the things we did included:

1. leaving the baby "sitting" upright - like in a bouncy seat or our laps - for at least 20 minutes after eating

2. scheduling feedings. We found if our son ate less often than every 3 hours, he'd then try to put two feedings too close togeter and then end up spitting up a lot of the 2nd one. Same goes for if he tried to eat too soon after a feeding. So we tried our hardest not to let him go longer than 3 hours without a feeding - at the 3 hour mark, we'd offer him food and he'd usually take it even if he wasn't fussing. And if he got fussy between feedings we'd use something like pedialyte to "tide him over" at our ped's suggestion.

3. Try the carnation Good Start (I think it might be Nestle now - this was 3 1/2 years ago) formula. Without the DHA and ARA. We tried just about every type of similac and enfamil they make and none of them helped, but once we switched him to the Good Start he stopped spitting up almost all together.

4. Our doctor actually gave our son medication to help him, which is the main reason I suggested talking to your ped if it concerns you...

Note: A lot of people told us to thicken his bottles with cereal or to start feeding him solids earlier. I held out about thickening the formula and never did it - it's a choking hazard and has been linked to over-feeding and obesity. But we did start him on solids at about 3 1/2 months hoping that the solid food would stay down better than the formula and it didn't. Not at all. After that, the main difference was that I had to clean up colorful spit up as opposed to the garden-variety white stuff. If your daughter shows other signs of readiness for solids and you're ready to try, that's one thing, but I wouldn't recommend starting them because you think it might help with the spitting up because, based on personal experience, it won't help.

Good luck. I hope this helps. :)

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M.R.

answers from Washington DC on

My daughter had the same problem. She would soak a bib at every feeding. I switched her to Isomil Advance (soy formula). Her ped said that about 20% of all babies are unable to digest the protein in cow's milk, which is the basis for any regular formula. This cleared up the problem within a week. With my son, he was spitting up some, but his problem was acid reflux. His ped put him on baby zantac, and he only needed to take it for about a month to get over the reflux. In any case, check with your doctor for guidance. All babies are different. Good luck!

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T.K.

answers from Oklahoma City on

My aunt has a 8 week old that does the same and did not respond to the lactose free. She just started using a new formula that has some sort or rice cereal in it and it is supposed to help with kids that have reflux issues. She said that so far it has helped tremendously. Im sorry I dont know the name of it but you might look at the store.

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B.H.

answers from Springfield on

Try a Soy based formula. My little one was having terrible gas due to supplimenting with formula but the soy does not seem to bother him at all. Also try giving her Gripe Water. Most natural food stores carry it, you just have to find one that has it in stock. Good luck
B. H.

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C.L.

answers from Springfield on

You might try to use the enfamil formula I think it is called ar. It has rice starch in it and so it is a little thicker than normal so it does not come up as easily. My oldest son had the acid reflux and that is the formula the doctor recemended for him. I would also take your baby to their pediatrician there are several things that can cause chronic spitting up and some are serious. My son was also given a perscription for zantac to help with the vomiting. I hope this helps. good luck.

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P.K.

answers from Kansas City on

The formula that is supposed to help with Spit Up is Enfamil Lipil A.R. w/ DHA and ARA. It has added Rice Starch not Rice cereal. I have the same issue, frequent spit, up but my daughter Breast feds so go figure. The spit up never bothers her and my doctor says as long as she is a "Happy Spitter" and she continues to gain and thrive, then there is little medical concern. Just the pain of extra laundry and frequent baths.

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M.M.

answers from Lincoln on

I would talk to your doctor about this issue. Have you noticed if she cries during feedings or anything like that? My son is 4 months and has reflux. Another thing is that it could be the type of formula you use too. Discuss that with your doctor. Make sure to burp her often and keep her upright after feedings. Good luck and I hope you find something that works.

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C.K.

answers from Decatur on

Our little girl is 7 months old and she spits up alot. She was recently diagnosed with acid reflux or GERD. She takes a medication everyday for it. Her other symptoms were she would cough alot during the day, she would cry sometimes when she did it, and she had the hicups alot. If you want to try an alternative to medication from the doctor try laying her down at an angle with her head slitly up. For some reason the angles help her from spitting up. Also we were told to change her diaper before she ate. Lifting her legs right after she ate would make her develope hicups or would just upset her tummy. I hope any of this is useful I am new here and dont know to much yet.

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H.

answers from Kansas City on

My daughter was the same one. One thing that helped was burping after every ounce. She was pretty small she only took 4-6 oz at a time. We also switched to Lipil A/R formula, which has some sort of rice in it I guess. It's smooth like any other formula just has an extra ingredient specifically designed for babies that spit up. It helped a lot! Although, we did have to buy the actual liquid, we couldn't mix the powder because she would still spit that up. Other than that, we kept a bib on her all day long. :) She pretty much stopped when we started giving her baby food at 6 months.

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P.K.

answers from Peoria on

I imagine you have already had her checked for reflux, if you haven't that may be what is going on. That is what happened with my son. He is on Soy formula but as he gets closer to age 1 the spitting up and wet burps have decreased. I think if you talk to your pediatritian they may look into it and put her on something that can calm her tummy. My son was on Zantac for about 2 months and it worked out great. Good luck!

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K.M.

answers from St. Louis on

My son has severe acid reflux and we had him hospitalized when he was two weeks old because he was throwing up everything we fed him. Your daughter may have a slight case of it. We have had tremendous luck with Enfamil A.R. Lipil. It is in a salmon pink colored can and is thickened with rice starch so it stays down better than the thinner formulas. We weened him off the meds at about six months and haven't had any problems with spitting up - as long as we use this formula. It is kind of hard to find (in the big cans anyway), but well worth the hunt. My son will be a year old in October and we have had more luck with this formula than with the medications the specialists put him on.

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C.P.

answers from Springfield on

I had the same problem with mine and my pediatrician put her on Nutramigen (sp?) and thats did the trick. she was also coliky and that stuff worked wonders. Good luck!

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K.I.

answers from Dallas on

Both of my babies started spitting up a lot after I quit breastfeeding (I only bf my daughter for 3 months and my son for 3 weeks). I put them on formula with DHA & ARA because it's supposed to be the closed to breast milk, but I turned out that the DHA & ARA were causing my babies to spit up almost all the ate. As soon as I switched, it was very rare for them to spit up ever. So, that's just my experience. Hope it helps!!

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C.C.

answers from Oklahoma City on

Try using Goodstart- spit up formula. It is a new brand, and should help. Also your baby is old enough to have a little rice cereal, which, should be thicker and stick better in the tummy. Another issue would be she is not giving you a good enough burp. Sometimes it takes me a good while to get my baby girl to burp, but we both are much happier when she does! Try different possitions to burp her too. If all else fails call your Dr. she may have acid reflux.

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K.H.

answers from St. Louis on

Hey G....I know what you are going through, my 5 mo old did the same...I cut her amount of feedings back to smaller amounts more often and put her to sleep with a wedge to elevate her upper body. I also noticed when I introduced solids, specifically cereal 3 weeks ago, it cut way down. Now she only does it sometimes. I hope it gets better for you!
K.

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M.L.

answers from Rockford on

My son used to do that too on just regular formula. She may have acid reflux. The next time u go to the doctor ask them about it and see what they say.

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T.H.

answers from Bloomington on

Hi Glanda..

You know.. My older son spit up alll the time... I went to soy he still spit up.. That was 14 years ago.. Now with my son They have 20 different formulas.. So hears is what I know now...

It was not the formula... well now 100%... It was how I mixed it... I shook it right befor.. so too much air.. so he sip it up cuz of gas... so Try gas X... or Try new bottles.. I use VentAir I love those!!!! They are great!!!! My son Josh 9 months I thought ws colic HELLO Cry cry cry spit up like mad... I had him on enfamil.. And oh lord!!!! I switched to AR.. and still Cry... less spit up.. but then I went to Gentalease... And wow... NO cry.. and no spitup!!! It was like a new child!!!!!

So My advice is.. IF dr is not saying you have a reflux.. Try a new formula.. IF not having a Milk Prob.. Try the gentalease.. Ask dr... They most of them have sample full size they can give you even... I tell you in 2 days you will see a difference!!!! I sure did...

I hope it works for you!!!!

IF it is a milk prob try the soy.. ( Targets soy is really good too and cheap ) and sam's!!! anyway.. MIX it up a day in advance.. so less air is in their... That will also make a big difference!!!! that pre mis is sooo much more money!!!!

but try it out.... Cant hurt right!!!!

Good luck!!!! and sending hugs!!!!!

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R.V.

answers from St. Louis on

mine is 6 mo old, this started as soon as I stopped nursing, if her burps are followed by crying or if she seems to always need to be upright get her checked for reflux, it is very common and used to be mis diagnosed for just colic, reflux can cause long term damage from the stomach acid coming up all the time, so if you are having issues and Dr. isn't listoning get a second opinion, also, we did the Nestle good start with DHA and ARA, we had to thicken it with rice cereal, we would do a 4 oz bottle so that is 2 scoops of formula and 1 and 1/4 scoops of cereal in every bottle this helped soo much, we did Mylanta 1-2 ML every 4 hours as needed, this gets us through really bad tummy times, then we are now switching to Enfamil AR, is has the rice starches in it just like adding the rice cereal, but with out all the cal's and carbs from the actual cereal (the cereal all the time was making my little girl so full she was only eating 15 oz's a day and Enfamil AR doesn't fill her so much so she eats what she is supposed to)
***Lastly if she is diagnosed with reflux request to try Axid, it is new, and amazing, the 2 other common older drugs used taste horrible and you will only be putting your self and your little girl through so much trouble trying to just get it down. Good luck, R.

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