24 answers

How to Handle Child That Spits Up

One of my twin girls spits up all the time after she eats. Some times it is right away, other times it may 2-3 hours later. I'll wait an hour before putting her on the floor for tummy time or to stretch, and she always ends up spitting up...I think from kicking and stuff. It's quite a bit too...but she is gaining weight, so I'm not too worried about that. I've notice my other daughter has also started spitting up when she is playing on the floor (hers is not has much and is usually clear where her sisters is white from the formula). Any suggestions or tips on what I can do to help reduce the spit ups? The girls are 4 months old.

What can I do next?

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This happend to my son at three weeks on. They told me to put rice (baby rice-the flakes) in his bottle and it really did help him to keep down the breast/formula milk.
Hope this helps.

My daughter used to spit up all of the time like that. She was also growing and gaining weight, so I didn't think anything of it. When she started having terrible stomach aches at three I took her into the dr and found that she had a dairy allergy. I felt so bad for not knowing sooner! I used to work with my mother in law doing daycare and there were a few babies that spit up a lot as well and their drs told them that the stomach muscles were just not strong and as developed and once they started sitting the muscle would strengthen and they would stop.

There is nothing to do with a baby that spits up except have a rag handy at all times :) Cloth diapers work really well as spit up rags. She will grow out of it. It took my daughter until almost 9 months old before she stopped completely. As long as she is still gaining weight as normal, don't worry.

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There is nothing to do with a baby that spits up except have a rag handy at all times :) Cloth diapers work really well as spit up rags. She will grow out of it. It took my daughter until almost 9 months old before she stopped completely. As long as she is still gaining weight as normal, don't worry.

I hate to tell you this, but some babies are just spitter upers!!! My 3rd, who is almost 9 months old use to spit up all the time, all day long. Is a good eater, gained weight good, just always spit up. She still spits up once in a great while, and I think alot of it has to do with eating more solids and less formula, or she is just growing out of it. It wouldn't matter if I waited to let her play, how often I fed her, it just didn't matter, she was going to spit up. You never knew it unless you looked at her and saw that she spit up. It never effected her, she still laughs, plays, babbles, everything. Your daughter may have heart burn, or reflex issue that the doctor can give her meds for, but otherwise, she will eventually grow out of it..

Hi J D,
My little girl spit up a lot and was a very fussy baby. We put her on reflux meds. when she was 3 months old and I took her off fairly quickly because I didn't want her on that. She still spit up, but didn't seem to be fussy, so I left it alone, thinking she would outgrow it. When she was 8 months old, she started getting continual ear infections. At 11 months old, we when to the ENT and he decided to put tubes in her ears. When I told him about the spitting up, he suggested she see a GI doctor to check on reflux as reflux can greatly effect the ears because the acids run past the ends of the eustatian tubes of the ears and cause inflammation. Well, the upper GI ended up showing significant reflux and she was put on medication which she did not outgrow until 18 months old.

Just an FYI of other signs to watch for and questions you might ask her doctor. I've also heard that chiropractic can help this.

Good luck,
K.

Hello, I have four young children and my second daughter had the same problem with spitting up although she spit up a lot more than it sounds like your daughter does. We had to, per the doctor's recommendation, put cereal in her bottles. We also had to give her zantac. Holding her upright seemed to help a little. We eventuallly took her to a chiropractor which I was really unsure of until after 9 treatments she never spit up again. This chiropractor and father of five said that sometimetimes the trauma of birth causes compression of the nerve that innervates the stomach. She was like a new little girl.

I have to daughters, the first one never spit up and still loves her food. She was taking 8 ounces at 3 months not spitting up an once. The 2nd one is a spitter. When she was younger (3 months) we stopped patting her on the back to burp because everytime we did it was like a volcano exploding. We just would hold up in sitting position, she burped on her own and after feedings we kept her up right.

We did give her gripe water (could only find it at Hy-Vee) and bought the Hy-Vee brand comfort-ease formula (only $12.00 a can) and it seemed to help a lot. The doctor told us some kids are just spitters and recomnended us to start cereal at 4 months. It helped out a lot. Now she is 8 months and we have no more fountains but occasional leaks, we always keep a cloth bib on her for those little spills. Good Luck and always keep an extra outfit handy.

One of the obvious factors could be that you have stopped concentrating on burping them after feeding. It is easy to lose track of this as they grow older, but each baby does need a good burping session after eating until they are sitting up by themselves and can rock the burps out. If you are burping them well then...

Are they nursed or bottle fed? Nursing moms sometimes have this problem when they eat things that upset a child's system (cabbage, eggs, coffee... some of the more acrid/gassy foods). If you are nursing them you may want to contact the LaLeche League for advice.

If they are bottle fed you should look at a few things:
1. The bottles and nipples themselves, which should be BP free. If you are heating their food in plastic bottles you should stop this practice immediately. Plastics leach into food when heated causing stomach upset and, worse, nervous system damage.
2. Check the formula for corn syrup solids or any other form of corn syrup. Find a formula corn syrup free.
3. Switch to milk-based if you are using soy, or soy-based if you are using milk. Mix it up between formulas. All bodies develop resistance and/or allergies to the same foods eaten day after day.
4. Shop at a natural foods store for organic, non-toxic formula for your babies. These are healthier and have fewer allergens for them to deal with.

Don't give in to the popular new "reflux" theory. Babies don't get reflux, they get bad food or are poorly burped. No amount of medication will take the place of a thoughtful diet and attention to detail.

Hey it sounds like reflux to me. I would talk to your doctor about it. I add some rice to his bottle at home and at daycare he has some too. This has really helped alot. He does some still but not nearly as much as b4. He is growing like a weed still!!!

I also have twins (b/g) and my little girl spits up just like yours. Sometimes it was really bad and would be coming out of her nose, or be considered more like vomit than spit up. It would wake her up and she was very fussy because of it. I was used to this because my older daughter had really bad reflux and was medicated for three years. The twins were only a day old and we noticed how our little girl was a "spitter" just like her big sister and our pediatrician offered to put our little one on meds right away. I decided to wait and see how it played out first. Then, through encouragement from friends, I decided to take her to a chiropractor. Now my little girl spits up only on occasion, it is much less volume, doesn't make her cry and we have now avoided medicating her. So, long story short, you may want to consider taking her to a chiropractor. Also,if she doesn't seem bothered by it, then she will probably just grow out of it and it is nothing to worry about :) Good luck!!

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