Baby Spitting Up More For Last 3 Days

[SW20 MR2]

Our son is 4 weeks old, and he's been spitting up more over the past 3 days. Before, you'd just see a little bit of dribble from the side of his mouth, but lately, it's been much more (maybe a decent gulp's worth). To give you some more information:

- He's currently drinking 100-150ml each feeding. We give him breast milk first and then supplement him afterwards. My wife isn't producing enough milk yet (another story, but we're working hard on improving it).

- He's been drinking Enfamil A+ for the last 1.5 weeks or so, and prior to that was Nestle Good Start. I don't want to automatically assume that it's the Enfamil and that Good Start was fine because he's drinking much more now than he was when he was 1-2 weeks old.

- We suspect that part of the reason he's spitting up is because he drinks *really* fast. This was an idea from a public health nurse. He may be drinking so fast that the milk/formula doesn't have time to get into the stomach, thereby allowing him to determine whether he's full or not. Thus, he just keeps drinking.

- He seems to be gassy in the stomach the past few days as well. I can hear rumbling down there.

- We're using these cheap Gerber bottles. They supposedly have low-flow nipples, but could they be a problem?

Link here (http://www.gerber.com/Products/First_Essentials_CLEAR_VIEW_Bottles.aspx?PLineId=5 3aef71d-6ea7-47f1-b959-32369137ce3d&PCatId=c6cad2ec-940c-4133-a577-61494c6280ea&PMilestoneId=ec1566d0-a3a6-4b22-8ef2-b24a645d868c)

His doctor says that spitting up is fine, so I'm not concerned about his health in this issue. Doctor says he is doing extremely well in all regards. It's just been *really* stressful for my wife, and I'd like to make things a little easier for them. He wails when he's hungry (whether he's truly hungry or not given what I wrote above, I dunno), but if we feed him more, he's gonna spit it up. So far, we've tried things like feeding him 20-30ml and then take a few minutes to burp/change him and then resume feeding for another 20-30ml.

Thus, my question to all my fellow RFDers is, are there any suggestions on things to try? Changing formula? Changing bottles? Etc.

Sorry for the lengthy post. :)

[Menace]

I wouldn't switch formula at that tiny age. We only use glass bottles.


Thus, my question to all my fellow RFDers is, are there any suggestions on things to try? Changing formula? Changing bottles? Etc.

Sorry for the lengthy post. :)

[AnnaBanana]

try to comfort your wife and reassure her that she is doing a great job. if she can master the Bfeeding, all will be WAY easier, so good for her for keeping on it!
babies spit up more and less at different times. mine hardly spat up their first month, then it started like crazy :cheesygri - i just accepted it. i would feed them when they acted hungry, if the spat up, i changed them / changed myself. all that matters (your wife's ONLY job right now!) is to ensure that he's fed... and that's what she's doing! there is no magical solution to having baby's NOT spit up. everyone will give you advice (as i'm doing now) but you could change formula / bottles / everything, and you could still have him spitting up! no point in trying all sorts of different things when he might just be spitting up, because, well, that's what baby's do!!
Sometimes my babies would fuss til they were fed, then spit up because they drank too much, then fight to feed again, then spit up again... who knows!
also, babies often get EXTRA fussy during the 4-6 week mark... so just try to ride the 'wave' and keep comforting your wife!

[S U]

Some babies just spit up.
I have twin daughters.
One daughter, we'd give her the bottle, she'd let out a huge burp and be done.
The other daughter, would have her bottle, burp and then spit up - and like you described it - a good mouthful.
We use the Bornfree bottles - the ones that are supposed to give less air and we've used these from day one.
At the hosital, then they were just born, we brought this up to the pediatrician a lot. They thought she might be lactose intolerant. So, they switched her to soy - it didn't help.
When we got home, our doctor didn't think the soy was going to help - so he suggested the Nestle Good Start. We put her on that (3rd type of formula). The spitting up did not go away. In fact, it didn't go away for several months.
Everytime I brought it up to our doctor, he would tell me the same thing you were told about eating too quickly.
My daughters are 17 months and the spitting up has gone away. I don't recall exactly when it did, but it kinda went away gradually.
Don't worry about spitting up - as long as your son is gaining weight and growing, he's obviously keeping down whatever milk his body needs.
Our doctor said this to me because he knew that I was very worried about my daughter spitting up; he said that it's better that she get it out, rather than her belly being so full that it'll hurt.

[hermione]

maybe try burping more frequently during feedings? try different positions for burping, I found over the shoulder didn't work well for me, but the "football" position was fine, also try keeping the baby upright for 15 mins or so after the feeding

[SW20 MR2]

Thanks for the info, everyone. Each time he feeds, we're stopping to burp him at least 3-4 times. He lets out a good burp most times. It seems like thigns have been a little better since we slowed things down a bit. It's now just a matter of finding that sweet spot of how much he needs to eat. Don't feed him enough, and he wails. Feed him to much, and he spits. Not much leeway for this little guy. :)

[mushroom]

you may want to take him to his pediatrician.. he may have gastroesophageal reflux (http://kidshealth.org/parent/system/surgical/gerd_reflux.html).. common to babies (more common in premies though).. basically just reflux like we adults have... causing content of the stomach to flow backwards...

[thelastknight]

Our baby had acid reflux from the beginning and she still spits up after 3 months. According to our doctor, some babies just spit up... So unless your baby is not gaining weight appropriately, it isn't much of a concern. But I understand that it can be a pain to clean up. We go through tons of bibs and clothes everyday. Some days are better than others where she may only spit up a spoonful or so. Other days, its like half of the milk came back out.

We found that it helps to try to burp baby for 15-20mins instead of the 30secs-2mins for normal babies. We also try to keep baby upright for as long as possible after a feed.

[whiskeykat]

We experienced projectile vomiting with our first. I stopped wearing shirts around the house because it was easier to mop up than to peel off a nasty, wet, sour shirt. Also had to stay in the kitchen after feedings until she puked. Stressful months but she was putting on weight and otherwise healthy so it was just something we had to wait out.

Like the others said, try to get the burps out as much as you can. Harder said than done, my baby hardly ever burped, but keep trying even if you've gotten one burp. Sometimes there's a few more bubbles than that.

[SW20 MR2]

Since this thread is still ongoing, I'll post a quick update. The spitting up is continuing, and we just learned to deal with it. The bigger pain nowadays is that he is *really* gassy. He farts a tonne, and other times, he makes moaning-type sounds that show he's really uncomfortable. We've been giving him Ovol, which seems to help.

[Mayoo]

we are having the same issue now .. my wife didn't had enough milk either in the beginning but then she started feeding him every 1.5 hours ( thats correct she lost all the sleep as she was waking every hour) Now her breast milk is regulated but he started falling sleep on her breast. so we gave him the breast milk in bottle and he started spitting up. for Formula he will not. We ended up finding that its the nipple. today we got "playtex wide nipple with slow flow"

the thing is formula is thicker so with our current bottle he was getting normal flow. breast milk is thinner so he was getting alot. he stop spitting up now ( knock on the wood ) with this nipple.

To help getting breast milk, tell ur wife to breast feed often. In the beginning my wife got nothing .. now when she hears him cry the milk started dripping from her breast ( psychological ??). Also when she breast feed from one breast, the other breast will start dripping.. our baby is 4weeks old ....

now we are feeding him every 2-3 hours with 60mil of breast, 30ml of formula or vice versa...

Our kid is a gas fellow as well ( farts and make weired noise ) ... we give him 1/2 tea spoon of Life's Gripe Water mixed in 20mil of water everyday ( in Ontario they don't recommend water for 6mths but my uncle who is a doctor from Norway said its fine .. )

[SW20 MR2]

Over the past few days, we've *really* tried to ween him off of formula. Before, we'd supplement him every feeding, and he'd drink 60-150ml after being breastfed. Not surprisingly, he's feeding more often (every 2 hours). He's great during the day, but he's a nightmare in the night. He wakes up every hour cause he falls asleep on the breast after a few seconds even though he's very hungry. Thus, he doesn't get full.

We've tried all different methods to keep him awake (move arms, tickle feet, touch ears, etc), but nothing works. He just passes out. It's pretty much like how a drunk acts. :D On the bottle, however, he drinks like a champ. I think he's used to the bottle since we supplemented him so much before.

Anyone got any tips?

[Mayoo]

as my above post says we got Medola breast pump to pump the milk ( well more milk started coming when my wife's breast feeding got regulated ) then we put the milk in the Playtex ventire wide bottle with slow flow wide nipple and he is drinking all the breast milk ..

[thelastknight]

Over the past few days, we've *really* tried to ween him off of formula. Before, we'd supplement him every feeding, and he'd drink 60-150ml after being breastfed. Not surprisingly, he's feeding more often (every 2 hours). He's great during the day, but he's a nightmare in the night. He wakes up every hour cause he falls asleep on the breast after a few seconds even though he's very hungry. Thus, he doesn't get full.

We've tried all different methods to keep him awake (move arms, tickle feet, touch ears, etc), but nothing works. He just passes out. It's pretty much like how a drunk acts. :D On the bottle, however, he drinks like a champ. I think he's used to the bottle since we supplemented him so much before.

Anyone got any tips?

Keep the lights on. Tickle his cheek. Talk to him. Unfortunately or fortunately, there's an ingredient in breast milk that makes both mom and baby sleepy.

[ayeung]

My 2nd also have projectile vomiting a few times a day after the first few weeks. We went to see the doctor a few times and the doctor just said that she has acid reflux and it's normal. We just have to ride it out until her internal system is better developed. He suggested us to feed her less but more frequently to help with the spitting up (more like throwing up half of the feeding but the baby doesn't look painful).

Thanks goodness, she is now 4 months and it's finally gotten better - Only once a week or less.