Spitting Up - Lebanon, IN

Both ladies who answered before me gave wonderful advice. I had planned on touching basis with both suggestions. For starters, to lower the chances of your infant spitting up, feed her at an incline, and give her small increments of food at a time. (i.e. mealtimes let her drink 2 ounces, then burp her, 2 more ounces, then burp, etc until bottle is emptied.) This helps lower the chances of the amount of spit up. If consuming the bottle real fast, or all at once she's more likely to extract it as soon as she's done. Even have her sleep in an incline (they sell the cheese shaped wedges with the slight incline for infants in many places).

Also, if the spit up is more like a projectile vomit and in the amount you suggested, she may in fact have a reflux problem. It's called GERD (Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disorder).

Three of my children had it as infants. Two grew out of it, my daughter (now 11yrs) is on meds still. It's hereditary in our family.

In agreement with the other responders, Talk to your pediatritian concerning this issue. They may schedule an upper GI (which is an easy procedure where they have your child drink a cocktail that glows in their stomachs so they can see through x-ray where the cocktail travels.)

My daughter's a lifer on her meds. Many kids grow out of it, she's just the lucky duck who gets to stay on meds for life. Currently they have her on prilosec. If she isn't consistant at taking her meds she will up-chuck her food.

Typically kids with GERD know what their stomach's can and can't tolerate, so people think it's funny when my daugher will pass up chocolate, or rather hit the salad bar instead of devouring pizza. She has to drink carbonated drinks sparingly, and still has to sleep in an incline.

Good luck!

My daughter is only 4 months and she also spit up a lot then when she was about a month we had to take her to the doctor because she would not sleep unless we wer holding her. She has acid reflux and so we have a perscription to give her. But the doctor also suggested that we either use the AR formula that Enfamil has out or use rice cereal in her formula to help her keep it down. We did not like the AR formula as much as using the cereal in the formula. I am sure that you will find something that will work for you.

I have a 6 week old and she has been spitting up since she was 2 weeks and the Dr. prescribed a acid reflux medicine to help... It has helped a little. I can't sleep at night b/c every time I feed her, she works on spitting it up over the next 2 hours after I lie her down. I have also tried sitting her up longer and that doesn't make a huge difference at all. Good luck!

K.-

Good advice from everyone! I've had two spitter-upers and it was no fun! The best advice I got after it was to late and they had grown out of it is this - take her to a chiropractor! I know it doesn't sound conventional but it works wonders!! My friend had a spitter-uper and she it the one who told me about it. My boys both grew out of it around 10m. old but not w/out fussing w/formula and amounts and all kindsa stuff! My friend also had many many problems and switched formulas and put him on meds and stuff....but she took him to the chiropractor and after a few treatments he stopped!! And trust me the kids was a spitter - I had him in the nursery at chruch all the time!! So find a good chiropractor and take her!! They treat them very little - I took my daughter at 1 month and she did great....

Hope this helps!!

S.

My daughter did this for the first several months also. What I finally figured was that she had to be sitting upright or almost upright for awhile after she ate. I just propped her on the Boppy pillow or in a small rocker. That really seemed to help alot. Sometimes, like you, it seemed like everything that she just ate came back. Other times, it was like a little drool. It took almost a year, but it got better. It was a slow process. Thank goodness, she had lots of clothes.

Some babies just have weak muscles in their throats or stomachs. She will eventually grow out of it. Although, it could be the formula not agreeing with her. You may want to talk with your doctor to see what they think. There are formulas for babies who spit up frequently. Especially if she is losing weight due to it.

You'd be suprised how much they actually keep down. My one year old did the same thing and there isn't much you can do about it. Just make sure she doesn't have painful reflux whe that happens. The best thing you can do is keep an eye on her weight and make sure she is gaining properly. I was convinced my daughter wasn't getting enough but every time I checked her weight she was growing beautifully! Good luck.

I know that some babies do just spit up, but you will want to make sure to tell your doctor about it, my oldest son did this and it just kept getting worse. They changed formulas and all kinds of things before they decided that he had reflux and put him on medication and had me add cereal to 'thicken' his formula. Just be sure that you keep the lines of communication open with your pediatrician, they see enough babies that they can generally give you lots of great ideas.

Make sure that you are burbing her well while feeding. Don't let her drink the whole bottle before helping her get the air out.