Any advice for spitting up? I have a one month old who is a

Nicole - posted on 03/22/2009

If he is not gassy you do not need to burp a breastfed baby they do not get air the way a bottle fed does. I only had to burp one of my three babies! As long as it is not reflux there is probably not alot you can do other than the suggestions already given. Watch the wet diapers and Good luck!

Amber - posted on 03/22/2009

i bet it is a burping issue...some babies are really difficult to burp. try burping your baby a little longer, bouncing while holding your hand under their tummy and patting the back. also try holding your baby facing you to your chest and rock back and forth. alternate your burping methods. that should help. if not, then you should ask your pediatrician about reflux. that really could be an issue. so many babies have it.

Lynne - posted on 03/21/2009

My daughter has GERD and is what they call a "happy spitter".  Unfortunately, as you know, I am not happy about her spitting.  She takes medicine that does seem to calm her symptoms, but she still spits up terrible and has recently started projectile vomitting.  We are taking her to a GI specialist because she is 12 mos old now, and is not getting better. 

I highly recommend cutting dairy out of baby's diet...through you as you are breast feeding.  Be careful, there are lots of things with dairy that are not the same as the normal dairy products.  READ LABELS.  This change my sister made, has been life altering for my nephew. 

Also, smaller feedings more often are better for a spitter.  Keeping baby upright and not on their tummy after eating helps too, or putting them in a jumparoo, or car seat with the straps against their belly.  There are trigger foods too, green veggies is one of them.

I have heard if the baby gets cereal this can help with this, but personally I think that is hogwash.  This did not help my daughter at all.  The more food she gets the worse it gets for us.

Just because they are gaining weight doesn't mean they aren't hurting.  Have baby tested for GERD to make sure he's not suffering.  If you have ever had reflux you know how badly it hurts.  They can test with a little bit of blood now, I think.  When the medicine is working for us, our daughter spits up a lot less.  Good Luck!

Lise - posted on 03/21/2009

My daughter was also a happy spitter. She was gaining fine so her doctor just said she'll grow out of it eventually. So, I wasn't all that worried about it - I just carried a bunch of cloth diapers with us wherever we went and my friends had a blast laughing at her sneak attacks (usually all down my front)

When she was about five months old I decided to try eliminating foods from my diet. I wasn't particularly bothered about the spitting up, but I thought perhaps tummy discomfort was what was waking her up every hour and a half all night long. Turns out she is sensitive to soy (a common culprit and apparently not very good for babies), onions, broccoli and flax. As a vegetarian, my diet is now sooo limited, but at least she is no longer spitting up. Still not sleeping great, though. I think she just needs to eat frequently!

Joanna - posted on 03/21/2009

MY SON WAS TERRIBLE WHEN HE WAS LITTLE FOR SPIT UP SO MUCH SO MY DAUGHTER RENAMED HIS PLAY-PEN THE PUKE-PEN! BUT HE OUTGREW THAT PHASE AND SO WILL YOURS

Lindsay - posted on 03/21/2009

My 9 week old has the same problem. Be careful though, because even though the baby is still gaining weight well doesn't mean there isn't something else going on. My son is in the 75th percentile on weight, so they kept telling me not to worry about it, but as it turns out we have now discovered that it was in part due to a dairy allergy/intolerance. I am breast feeding him, and he was still gaining weight because there were times when I had less dairy in my system than others, so sometimes it was worse than others. Now that I have cut dairy out of my diet, it has drastically improved. He still spits up a bit, but not nearly what it was. If you're breast feeding, try cutting the common culprits out of your diet: milk, wheat, peanuts, etc. If you're bottle feeding, try a soy formula, and if that doesn't work (soy is a pretty common allergy too), try Nutramigen or one of the other hypo-allergenic formulas and see if it helps. I hope you find something that works, because I understand the feeling. Our baby would end up rolling around in his own vomit in his bed at night, and it was so pitiful. Good luck!

Amanda - posted on 03/21/2009

Recieving blankets will become your bestfriend. We never used bibs for our happy spitter because it almost always right after a feeding, so I would prop a recieving blanket  (because they can hold more spit up) under her chin until it came up.

Kim - posted on 03/21/2009

Mine does the same thing, I feel so bad for him too, but he seems to be ok. And is gaining weight.

Jillyan - posted on 03/21/2009

try cutting lactose out of your diet. i'm severely lactose intolerant and i know when i was a baby my mom had to stop drinking milk with lactose in it because it was getting into her breastmilk and causing me to be sick after each feed. see if that works maybe? or maybe he is getting air as he is drinking make sure he has a good latch, i was at the doc today and they said try to get the whole areola into the babies mouth...good luck!

Kimberly - posted on 03/20/2009

My son was also a CHRONIC happy spitter. My husband thought he was so sick, but I knew he was okay cause he had wet diapers and gained weight. Our doc confirmed this. I agree with everyone else here. Bibs, burp rags, cleaning rags, etc. I really liked BioKleen Bac-Out for my carpet or any other fabric that got the spit-up on it. Takes the odor away and is all natural and "safe."



And just so you don't feel bad if your babe doesn't outgrow it soon, my son didn't really stop the CONSTANT spitting up until he was about 9 months old! We went through a LOT of bibs and bac-out! He even now still spits up sometimes... ;)

Rhonda - posted on 03/20/2009

I have a happy spitter too - she is 8 weeks old - and all I can say...BIBS! I must have had pregnancy-induced dimentia for the first week or so because I didn't think to put a bib on her and just changed outfits all the time - but now I have bibs on hand at all times.

Sitting up after feedings is great - I use my boppy and have her lay on her left side, it seems to help some of the bubbles out. Burping is a challenge for baby still, but she is gaining weight - so not much else we can do except wait it out!

Good luck!

Sarah - posted on 03/20/2009

Spitting up is what it is... if he's happy and gaining weight, keep him bibbed to limit your laundry... our son spit up and there was nothing that we did that helped. Rest assured he will grow out of it! (That wasn't much comfort to us either... but at about 11-12 months, he just stopped spitting up completely.)

Breanne - posted on 03/20/2009

My daughter Margo was the same way! She had trouble burping so I would give her infants Mylicon before feeding her sometimes- it's drug free and all it does is help to break up the big bubbles in her tummy. I would also sit her upright for a long time after feedings, but  she still would burp up a lot! Margo is almost 9 months and every once in a while she will spit up after nursing or eating solids. Good Luck and I found gerber cloth diapers to be the best burp rags because they absorb so much more than regular burp rags!

Sigrid - posted on 03/20/2009

My son was also a "happy spitter." I even took him to the ER once to get him checked out because he had projectile vomiting. They said he was totally fine. We're just now letting him go out of the house (at 7 months) without a bib on all the time!



Upright angle after eating is a great start. Make sure he is burped well after nursing and/or in between breasts. Gas bubbles can make the stomach think its full and cause "excess" milk to regurge up the esophagus. Don't be worried-- as long as he's gaining weight and wetting diapers, there's not much you can do (except pray that he outgrows this soon!). Its just a sign of an immature lower esophageal sphincter, which is extremely common in young babies!



My advice? make sure you have a great, non-toxic, cleaning spray that masks odors and removes grease stains (you'll need it!) and be sure to have several burp clothes with you at all times!!! and don't forget the bibs! Good luck!

Krystle - posted on 03/20/2009

Instead of patting his back, have you tried just rubbing it for his burping? I had the same problem and it seemed to help. He may have a case of baby acid reflux (sounds weird I know). But when you pat his back it irritates him instead of helping him burp. The book The Baby Whisper by Tracey Hogg explains this well and it has helped me. Its also a great book helping with everything you may run into. I love it!