Lots More Spit Up

I have had the same problem with my 4 1/2 month old daughter. She was spitting up a lot and also went a few days without bowel movements. I started seeing black spots in her stool. My Dr. tested her diaper and found traces of blood, and he feels that she is allergic to dairy in my breast milk. I have cut out all dairy products (which is not easy!) and have noticed a big improvement. Not sure if this is what is happening with your little one, but it might be worth talking to your pediatrician. Good luck!

I feel your pain trust me! My daughter is now 20 months but she started throwing up really, really bad around 3-4 months. I was breast-feeding and bottle-feeding. I had to reduce the amount I fed her at a time. That helped for a while. Then I switched to soy based formula, again that worked temporarily. She eventually grew out of it around 8 months or so. I thought it was a GI problem as well but the doctor said it wasn't. It was a rough time but we made it through. Oh don't forget to try to burp him every 2 ounces or so. I hope this helps! You can e-mail me at ____@____.com because I am sure I left something out.

Meredith -
How recently did you start the formula feeding at night? In my experience, formula is much more difficult for the babes to digest than breastmilk, and it caused my kids' way more gas, caused their bowel movements to be much more firm, and they became more infrequent (and stinkier!). Have you tried different kinds of formula? Is it possible to breastfeed him for a few nights instead of the bottle to see if anything changes?
J.

That sounds exactly like my son. He is now 8 months old, and still is kinda spitty. His bowel movements have gone back to about once a day. So I would say from birth to about 6 months he had the infrequent bowels. The doctors all said he was ok, but I do know if there is a problem you do want to have it checked out. So I say ask your doc. If he says nothing is wrong, you may even want to get a second opinion to make sure.
I hope everything is well. I have been so frustrated so many times about how spitty he is. So if you ever need to vent or just talk to someone send me a message. I'm here to listen.

Good luck

Hi Meredith!

My son went through the same thing at 4 months. He has always spit up since he was born, but it heightened at around 4 months til he was about 6-7 months. He was already on Similac Isomil. So there wasn't too much I could with that. My pediatrician recommended giving him rice cereal 1-2 times a day to help with the acid in his stomach. My son pretty much lived on Mylecon drops. It made him much more comfortable, and it's safe enought to give at every feeding.

Also, how soon have you started doing both breastmilk and formula? I babysat for a woman who gave her son both, and that baby was projectiling spit up. I don't think it's easy for babies to digest the two different kinds at once.

My son didn't have regular bowel movements until he started with the solid foods around 4 1/2-5 months and when I gave him juice at 6 months. He pretty much grew out of everything.

Good luck!!

I don't want to be an alarmist, but you should press your doctor to make him/her run tests to figure out what's going on. If you in your gut feel as though something is wrong, you need to trust that. Our oldest son had similar symptoms starting at 5 weeks, and finally after four weeks and 13 doctors visits, we finally got someone them to run an ultrasound where we found out he had a duplicate stomach and pancreas (for which he had emergency surgery the next morning and two blood transfusions). Now, this is super-rare, and I'm sure he doesn't have two stomachs ( :) ), but my point is we just knew something was wrong and had we not pushed the issue, we may have lost our son (he had extensive internal bleeding from the trauma this was causing to his insides, therefore the need for the transfusions). Mom's always KNOW. Follow your instincts. Let us know how it turns out.

Meredith,

My baby just turned 4 months friday. He spit up all the time. He was gagging and spitting up a lot. He has acid reflux. I told the doctor what he was doing and his symptoms and the doctor said yes . I am breastfeeding to and giving him formula. I hope this helps

meredith,

hi. have you tried soy milk at night?? i breast fed mine, but also did bottles at times. it seemed all of mine did better with soy based formulas. but not to fear, because they all turned out to be huge milk drinkers !!!! ( i have 5 of my own ages 7 yrs to 27 yrs.)

Hi Meredith,

At four months old my son went through the samething with the pooping situation. He was only going about once a week and when he did boy oh boy did he go. I asked the pediatrician about it and he said breastfed babies eventually will only poop once every 7-10 days.

I am not sure what tell you about the spitting up except to ask if you are sure it is not throw up ( i am sure however you can tell the difference) I would recommend calling the doctor about all of this just to be on the safe side. Good luck.

Hey Meredith,
Noah had this problem too and still does sometimes and he is almost 10 months. Our pediatrician recommended babylax. Its a liquid glycerin enema "shooter" as we call it. I always know when he needs it because he goes from no spit up at all to basically spitting up after each feeding or meal. You can get it over the counter at most drug stores although you may have to ask the pharmacist for it depending on which store. If you want more info call me and I'll explain but it does work. hope this helped,
S.

Hi Meredith,
I feel your frustration. You may be right about his GI system, especially if he's having bowel movements that seldom. I'd be glad to share what I think would help if you'll contact me at ____@____.com't despair, but don't ignore it either.

S.

Milk (dairy products) are hard on most people's systems to differing degrees. It takes about 2 wks to get dairy out of your system after you stop eatting/drinking it...so try no dairy--and cut out the formula at night, and you will see a drastic change in a week or two...
:)