Hello all,
I really hope you can help me out. I have a 9 mth old baby boy who has given me trouble with feeding from the first day. We have to do so many things to distract him in order to get him to take a bottle and then sometimes even with frequent burping and breaks he still throws up his milk.
At around 6 mths I started to feed him baby food but every time I gave him something to eat, he would vomit all over the place; this has continued for the past 3 months with no improvement. I have tried giving him cereal in a bottle (recommended by his dr) but even that he sometimes vomits out after 1.5 hrs of feeding. Also, I have thought about infant reflux and studied the symptoms and I will say, he does have some of the symptoms of that but I have tried all the techniques listed in there for treatment but still the same issue. I think the perfect example is the vomiting after 1.5 hrs ( I fed him while holding him in the lap, gave him breaks in between, burped him and held him up straight for so long but still, all of a sudden, he coughed a little and vomitted everything out.
Its to the point where I am afraid to give him his full feed because I don't want him to vomit out what he has already had.
Any suggestions, advice will be greatly appreciated here.
I spoke to the Pediatrician and she is sending me to a feeding specialist but the appointment is for Sept 3rd but thats too much time for me.
All of you guys bring up a great point about allergies and I will probably go that route but the thing is, he is not vomiting on every feed and the vomiting is very in-consistent with formula but its there everytime I try to feed him anything else (any solids - even the baby first stage food).
Is he gaining weight? Growing? Is he developing along normal lines? Making milestones? If he is, then he's clearly getting enough calories., so the amount of food he is vomiting is not needed. That means he is eating too much. Try feeding him a little less at each feeding and see if that helps.
Sept. 3rd really isn't that far away. The feeding specialist should be able to help.
Babies with reflux can continue to spit up until they are over a year old. I totally sympathize with your question, because my 6 month old has reflux and spits up constantly too. I don't have any great advice for stopping the spitup. I do all the positional things (hold him upright, etc) and it doesn't really help my son either. One thing that does help, but that is frustrating to me, is this advice - feed the baby half as much, twice as often. So if you normally give him 5 ounces every 4 hours, try giving him 3 ounces every 2 hours. It's time consuming, but it's the only thing I've found that helps at all.
The bigger questions are - is your son gaining weight and growing well? And is he fussy? Does he cry after he spits up? Does he refuse to eat?
If he's gaining weight, then he's obviously keeping enough down to grow and that's a good thing. If he's fussy after he spits up or if he refuses to eat, then he may need an acid reducer to keep the acid from giving him constant heartburn. You'll need to tell your ped about this, because you'll need a prescription.
One more possibility - some babies spit up because of a cow's milk allergy. If you haven't already, you could try a non-milk based formula (Nutramigen by Enfamil or Alimentum by Similac) if you formula feed. If you breastfeed, you could try avoiding any dairy in your diet for 2 weeks to see if it helps.
He may need some enzymes to help him keep his body more alkaline and balanced. He also may be lactose intolerant.
Let me know if you need some ideas to help get his body balanced. I do wellness consulting.
Good luck.
N. Marie
____@____.com
I agree that some babies just spit up more than others and could be many more of the other reasons you never know for sure. But,I had alot of problems with trying to feed my son like you said any solids even the first stage baby food......the problems existed and continued I always knew something was wrong and just always thought it was a sensory problem..because it finally ended and ended for good but I would say not until he was close to turning 4. well,what I am getting at is on his 5 year check up the doctor(a new one)ask me if anyone had ever told me he was a little bit tongue tied me and my mother looked each other and said no. and she said that he spoke perfect and could stick his tongue fine and so everything is good now,but she said that tongue causes speech delay and eating problems because the white thing under your tongue(frenulum)i think it is called don't know if that's spelled right held the tongue to not be so mobile and so he could not move it around to eat right things to think on?
If you are in the Sacramento area, there is a neuromuscular therapist that helps babies with this issue. She finds they have an abdominal spasm and she fixes it pretty quickly and easily.
She has 2 clinics in the area and is opening a 3rd. She is in high demand.
Her office number is ###-###-####
We had a feeding specialist for over a year and got no where. We saw this lady and had the issue fixed in 2 days.
Going straight to the issue really makes a difference.
:)
C.
Mine had something similar and it was a milk protein allergy. (the baby food part is a little confusing, unless you're making your own and using formula?). My son also threw up breast milk, but it was because I was on an ice cream kick and he was getting a lot of milk protein in there. He finally outgrew it at 18 months.
Hello M., We have a son that did projectile vomiting when he ate. It turned out to be that his stomace was sealing shut and he had to have ER sugery. This is something you should have a doctor look at.
A ENT doctor can use a scope to check what is going on and put your mind to rest by telling you it is alright or to find something.
I wish you well.
My 5 year old son has life threatening food allergies that started as an infant while I was breast feeding. Our pediatrician clearly didn't know enough about food allergies and waited way to long to refer us to an Allergist - start asking for referrals, especially an allergist. My son also has Eosinophilic Esophagitis (also related to food allergies - his main symptom was vomiting during/after meals). Food Allergy and Anaphylactic Network www.foodallergy.org is GREAT resource. Another is www.kidswithfoodallergies.org where you can post questions (describe your son's reactions) and receive input. Another thing to ask MDs about is FPIES which I don't know much about but is related to issues with food proteins (info can be found on either above website). For local support SFfoodallergy.org is a nice resource. It's been a hard road, but definately doable. My son has adjusted well and seems very happy.
Hi M.
My advise would to bring him to a holistic center to have a full allergy test done.
I did with my son when he was 9mths to discover that he was allegric to wheat,dairy,apples,the smell of strong cleaning products and perfumes. No doctor picked up on this(no offense doctors).
My son is now a very healthy three year old.
It would be best to try to get it sorted now as not to give him issues around food.
Also in my oponion its best to try the natural route to find the source of the problem instead of having to give him medicines for the symptoms he is experiencing.
Best of luck
B.
I had the same issue with my first boy. I thought it was his reflux, but it wasn't. Then I thought it was a gag reflex issue and tried to press through it, despite all the vomit. Within a day of switching to soy formula, all the vomit was GONE. It was a milk protien allergy--they often go hand in hand with reflux. I'd give soy formula a try for three days and see if you get improvement. Good luck. I cleaned up a lot of vomit back then, and it wasn't fun.
What does the pediatrician say? I really think this is a question for your pediatrician.
