baby spit up? must it be this much?
This might be a long shot, but let’s see if anyone out there might have any tips…
We apparently breed major spitter-uppers, because Garbanzo, now nine weeks old, spits up almost as much as Chickpea did when she was a baby. And we’re talking spewing forth like a geyser – not just a little hiccup here and there. And it’s almost constant between feedings. I’ll nurse him, and as soon as we’re done, he’ll spit up a trail of loveliness that gets all over me, him, the pillow I’m using, and the floor. Then he’s good for a few minutes. Yet then it’s more spewage pretty much until the next feeding, anywhere from 2-3 hours later. Trust me, we have a constant pile of laundry going on around here.
So… any tips on lessening the spit up? I’m currently trying to latch him off after about 15-20 minutes of nursing, which is exactly what I had to do with his sister (she’d nurse all day, just for comfort, if I’d let her), and that helps a tiny bit. But it’s still pretty bad.
I should point out that he’s not upset by the spit up, for the most part. There’s the usual fussiness when he needs to burp, but he’s not acting reflux-y at all. No back arching, no screaming, etc. etc. It’s the usual normal baby stuff – just in massively large quantities.
My apologies for the moistness and graphicness of this post, by the way.
And to spread your geniusness around to answer more tough questions, head to Rocks in My Dryer.
posted: 08 March 5
under: parenting
My baby girl is 6 1/2 months old and if I don’t give her prevacid every single day she’s spitting up all over the place. She never acted refluxy, however, her doctor decided that that’s the only thing it could be. I would make an appointment and talk to him. I hope this helps
Nothing’s more frustrating than a baby that spits up all the time.
addy had reflux, so i don’t know if my information will help! we gave her 3 different types of medicine… none of them worked too well, mainly because she couldn’t keep it down long enough to work! our doctor advised us to set addy upright as much as we could, especially after feedings. that sort of helped. this is what cured her: we took a ski trip to colorado in december, and brought home a different baby. i guess it was something to do with the altitude. strange, huh?
How ironic. I am up because I just finished cleaning up baby barf from all over my clothes.
(And decided to post my WFMW while I was up.) Our girl is only 1 month old, and started vomitting after nearly every feeding hwen she was 1/2 weeks. It’s thankfully subsided to just spit up, and doesn’t even happen every time. Some things that have helped?
1. Elimination of dairy consumption by me. We haven’t eliminated everything, but when I don’t drink milk, we’ve noticed a happy difference.
2. Proper burping as soon as possible.
3. Contentment with smelling like baby barf.
I’m interested to hear suggestions, as well!
Oh, I forgot to mention…someone told us that there is a product called Baby Zantac (?) that is designed to help babies with tummy issues. We haven’t tried it, though, or even looked it up.
You could try laying on your back and letting him lay on top of you to nurse. I know it worked quite well for one baby I know that had major tummy troubles. It could be worth a try since you aren’t putting any chemicals into that little body.
Both of my kids had severe reflux and eventually wound up on medication. In the meantime, keeping them upright for 45 minutes after every feeding & using bath towels as burp cloths were our best solutions. Good luck!
I just wiped the spitup off myself before sitting at the computer, too! We also breed “happy spitters,” the term our doc uses for those without reflux/pain with spitting. Mine spit up breast milk or formula, which our 5 month old is currently on. I don’t have much to offer in the way of hope…we just had to deal with it. We tried all of the baby reflux meds and nothing helped. I’m just relieved that it doesn’t cause them pain. Of course, I try not to lay him on his back right after eating; we have a wedge pillow in the crib (under the mattress); and we have 30+bibs and that many burprags. Know that there’s another mommy out there covered in spitup, too!
My youngest was like that. He would eagerly eat and then it would come right back up. He started losing weight, so we had to put him on Enfamil AR formula which was expensive, but it did the trick. Our doctor also prescribed Cimetidine.
When our son was a baby we tried every bottle on the market and found that Dr. Brown was the best for our colicky, acid reflux, allergic to everything, projectile spit-up baby! They are like magic. Also try to keep the baby upright for at least 20 minutes after a feeding.
I can relate! It is so frustrating. I don’t know that I have anything different to add but wanted you to know that I feel your pain. My son spit up breast milk and formula just the same. When I stopped nursing (5months) we did put him on the Enfamil AR and it was better than the regular formula. We resisted medication because he didn’t seem to be in pain. Finally at 10 months we gave in and the Dr put him on Prevacid solutabs. OH MY WORD! We could actually take him to others houses and not be afraid he’d ruin their carpet and furniture. It has made a world of difference! I will say that I realized that he was very sensitive to over feeding and would spew if he ate one ounce too much. Now he has the occasional ‘wet burp’ but seldom has the massive volumes that he had before. Some of it is probably attributed to the real food he eats, too. We plan to finish out this months supply then see how he does without it. I am hesitate to try it but it’s not covered by ins and is not cheap. Plus the Dr assures us he will grow out of it. We’ll see.
Good luck!
try taking dairy out of their diet and yours… they might have a slight lactose problem or an allergy to the milk protein. that can definitely cause spit ups.
if after two weeks you don’t see any change, you can have it again, but you have to wait for a while to make sure it’s all out of their system.
i know a LOT of moms that have had to go dairy-free for a little while, and then that phase passes.
sorry, i’m not a regular reader, so i don’t know if this is something you’ve already tried, but good luck anyway!
hey! echoing some previous commenters, i had to take all dairy out for six months with ladybug. we did the elimination diet on askdrsear.com, which was hard but it’s only a short while, and that’s how i discovered the culprit was dairy. it’s worth checking out.
also, are you feeding on a schedule or on-demand? our lactation consultants in the hospital said it’s the exception but sometimes, babies on a schedule will overeat because they get too hungry between feedings, and then it all ends up coming back up again. if you’re on a schedule maybe you could try feeding on demand, or at least more often? and after a few days of that maybe he will realize he doesn’t need to eat as much at each feeding….
i don’t know – you are the more experienced mom! – but maybe those things will help.
i will keep that in my prayers. at least he’s not in pain!
Both my kids (They were both extremely happy babies.) spit up what most people would have though was everything in their stomachs. But my very wise very old pediatrician told me to spill a tablespoon of milk on the table and it also looks like a TON of milk. He’s right; it does look like a ton. He told me that I probably just let down fast and heavy and it would never make any difference what I did. I tried all the tricks including cutting things out of my diet. Nothing changed. My kids never had a weight issue so I never tried the meds. So I now know that spiting up is just one of the joys of being a mom to my kids. I just always have several cute burprags where ever I nurse,
my son had acid reflux too and spit up a ton. i gave him one medicine which gave him massive diarrhea so then i had stuff coming from both ends-not fun
i wasn’t too thrilled about giving my baby medicine so i began to research what natural stuff would cure reflux and tummy issues. i discovered apple cider vinegar. apparently more acid, the right kind, helps cure reflux, which happens because they don’t have enough stomach acids. there’s so much more to say about the vinegar, and how good it is for even adults. but needless to say it is a great remedy. i would give my son 1/4 tsp mixed with water, twice a day. he wasn’t too thrilled about it. but it did work. so you might want to try it. and know it’s natural, might even completely cure the issue, and is good for him. 
Get a dog. Once we gave in to Rocky and let him help “clean up” Brynna’s spit-up, we were all much happier.
Wow! Everybody wants to talk about spit up! For us it was citrus foods and tomatoes (high acid foods). Once I eliminated those from my diet, no more spit up. But it can be milk or eggs or wheat. You can try eliminating stuff until you find what works, but know that you might have to eliminate something for a long time before you see a change. And it might not be food at all; it might simply be how your little one is made.
Hang in there!
With our little fountain (who is now 19) burping him in between sides helped alot and for several minutes afterwards with a cloth under his mouth. Also putting him in a baby seat for awhile after feeds kept more stuff down. We treated him like he was carbonated for the first few months;no bouncing or swinging and he had a bib on the whole time he was awake. He did much better after he started eating cereal and when he was on a schedule.
Wow… Such good responses and ideas. Thanks, everyone! Yesterday I worked on keeping him more upright, and that seemed to help a little. I think I’ll also start with the dairy elimination and see if that helps, and then go from there. I’ll definitely keep everyone’s ideas and suggestions on hand as a reference. Again, thanks for all the help!!!
I have to say, however, that Diana’s advice was the best. And the most disgusting.
We went through this with my daughter. I had to take spare clothes everywhere for her AND me, cause she would soak us both. She never seemed uncomfortable by it – she’d just spew…
The doctor told us it just had to do with an immature flap at the top of her throat and to keep her upright for awhile after nursing (which was a bit hard to do, since they fall asleep… but I kept her in her carseat, which she liked to sleep in) One day it just stopped.
xo ~ K
My friend had to give up chocolate when she was nursing because it made her little guy spit up too much. Poor girl!
Adelaide had the same problem. I always had to have a burp cloth handy. always. All of my pictures of her playing on the floor as a baby have burp cloths in them. Not attract but so necessary. Anyway, to help with the pain of acid reflux we put her on Axid which helps majorly but she still had the spit up. Nothing really seemed to help with that, but she gained weight totally fine and as long as she wasn’t in pain I figured I could handle it.
We’ve already got Olivia on the Prevacid. She was cranky with her spitup, though, with a lot of coughing–definitely reflux for her. I do hate putting the chemicals into her little body, though; if you try any of the vinegar or anything, let me know how it works!
Hi! Found you via the blog party to your other site and came over here to check out this blog too.
I’m a little late and didn’t read all the comments so if I repeat something I am sorry about that.
My youngest (now 2yrs old) was just like your new baby(Congrats by the way). What I did to help him was nurse him in an upright positon as much as I could manange using pillows to help prop him up and my arm up too. I would stop him every few minutes to burb him. This worked wonders. He went from spewing to spitting in no time at all. I aslo kept him in an upright postion for an hour after eating. Even if I had to put him in the carseat. so he could sleep. Oh and when I burped him I would do it for a total of about 10 mins for the breaks and about a half hour after feeding. Worked like a charm for him! I also used towels for burbcloths just in case!
Good Luck and I hope this helps you out! I
Melissa,
You are so right, apple cider vinegar is wonderful, my husband and I drink like 2 TBSP every day in OJ so the flavor is not so strong. It helps from accelerating your metabolism to boosting your immune system, incredible. I never heard though that we could give it to our son! He spits up so much it makes me cry sometimes. I didn’t know that there were so many moms out there with the same problem! Have any of you ladies used apple cider vinegar (ACV)? Melissa, if you are still out there please tell me more about the results and how you made your baby to drink it.. I know it’s flavor is “puckatious”.. Thanks!
I came upon your site while sitting here trying to figure out if there is anything that I can do for my son. I have tried the whole 3tblsp looking like a lot so I actually got regular milk and put 3tblsp on the floor and compared it to the puddles of his spit up-he has way more at each burping before during and after feeding. Here are my facts:
1. He was put on prevacid at 3wks old-he is now 6 weeks old
2. I burp him BEFORE during and after feeding him
3. I keep him upright for 30 in after feeding him
4. I have eliminated dairy from my diet for a week
5. I exclusively breastfeed-he eats for 5 mins one side total-and gets 3 1/2 ounces at least. Dad feeds him BM bottle once a day and he easily eats 4oz. (Took him in to lactation consultant, she couldn’t believe the suck and gulp he has but after weighing him before and after a feeding, he ate 4oz in 7 min total-5min on one side, 2min on the other.)
6. I have close to 40 birdseye cloth diapers as burp rags and we go through 4 of them each feeding.
7. He has been on a probiotic for 3 weeks now.
NONE of these things have helped. I have also used gripe water and the mylacon gas drops for his gassiness. My doctor seems to be doing the shot gun approach to see if anything will help my son. Spitting up doesn’t bother him, but the gas does-it wakes him up and then he won’t go back to sleep-leaving myself and my husband exhausted.
Any suggestions or want to chat email me lorri@copperrain.com
tried everything……prevacid worked for pain but 8 months old still spits up 20 plus more times a day…..throws up, not spits up.
He eats three meals a day and drinks breast milk 4 times a day.
Solids were suppose to stop this madness…
nope, not for us.
I have eliminated diary, tried acidopholus, EVERYTHING.
Sorry to be so negative but my experiences are awful with reflux. 8 MONTHS OLD AND STILL VERY SEVERE REFLUX.
I can’t help but think there is something else going on, like a premature digestive system or something.