Spitting Up/vomiting

My daughter did this too! She had the HUGE vomit you mention about 1-2 times a week, with no reflux or problems in between. It stopped completely when she was about 3, 1/2 months old. I just always brought a change of clothers for her and me when going out and when it began I literally caught most of it with my shirt and bra and then changed. A big pain for awhile, but it seems to be over now. The pediatrician couldn't explain it, but wasn't worried since she was always gaining weight.

It IS normal- and I promise- if there were a problem - he would NOT be gaining weight--- some babies spit up a bit more than others- it's just the luck of the draw. Bibs- 'burb' cloths-- a change of blankets if you keep him swaddled -- it's all something us '''''old''''' Moms ( I've been blessed to have babies in my life for 50 years) do by habit --

Enjoy-- it gets even MORE fun-

J.
aka
Old Mom

You sound like you're up on the medical advice angle, so I'm not going to go there at all.

If it's NOT projectile, our son was that way. Wheeee. He was also a REALLY big eater, and any of the normal "tummy bump" or "bending" him could and would set him off. That's in addition to needing to be burped really well. (We found burping for about 10-15 minutes after each feeding was what he required. Most of our friends' kids only needed a minute or two, but I have no idea what the "norm" is.)He spit up less and less as the months went by, but yep! even just the act of handing him to another person could set him off. Now that's love. "Oh! Can I see the baby?", then me cringing, "Ummmmm....well??? He's a spitter, so what would offend you the least?"

If it's projectile, that's a whole 'nother matter (of which I have no experience), even though it CAN fall into the range of normal. Your doc would know.

What I did was carry a backpack with all the usuals +
- A few shirts for me
- A few changes of clothes for him
- babywipes (of course, but they work great on little drips on clothes that don't warrant a full change, and on hands, and faces)
- A box of big ziplock bags (for garbage & laundry)
- Makeup (because if you've been sweating while doing this in public, and wipe off with a babywipe...so refreshing...it's great not to look like a raccoon afterwards;)
- I also took a lot of showers...I'd even just leave my son in his car seat (in the bathroom) while I'd pop in and rinse off. I figured, hey, if he can be in it in the car to keep him safe...2 more minutes in the bathroom is nada.

Don't get trapped in your house!!! Baby spit up is in a whole other realm than vomit. Rather like the screaming & crying thing. If (for an imaginary example), my husband was screaming and crying I wouldn't take him anywhere, or would leave immediately. I can't count the hundreds of places I been with my wee one in a fit of temper. Babies do both, spit up and scream like banshees. In fact, they also go to the bathroom in their pants. Different rules apply.

You'll be surprised both at how quick you adapt, and the number of looks (the, "Oh! I remember when...." looks) you'll get from people. Jerks tend to be few and far between. Once in a restaurant when my son DID spit up all over the table (at a very nice place to boot!) I got a huge laugh from the waitress. She had four kids of her own, all grown, and can't wait for grand babies. We even got free dessert.

One trick, if it's all over your shirt, is to wipe it "clean" with a (or a series of)babywipes, put your new shirt on over the "cleaned" one, and then take the other shirt off. That way you can change in parking lots, or your car, or the park, etc., and not have to search for a bathroom.

((If you don't know that trick, you
1) put on the second shirt like normal.
2) pull your arms out of both sets of sleeves.
3) put your arms back through the arm holes of your 2nd shirt, but not the first, so the first is only on around your neck under the second shirt
4) pull the first shirt off through the neck hole of the second.
5) Use a babywipe on any skin that got wet through your shirt & Voila! Ready to attack the day again, and you smell nice too.
* * * You can see why it's important to clean the spitup off the 1st shirt....OTW it just gets all over your clean shirt, and then your hair. ewwwww, yuck. Got distracted and BTDT* * * ))

Soooo glad that stage is over, :)
~Z.

M.,

Wow, I could relate. My second daughter, Natasha, spit up every day, MULTIPLE times a day, and very often it was projectile. I went to the doctor and she explaned to me that in some babies, there's a valve that doesn't close (for possibly up to 9 months). I don't remember the name of the valve but I DO remember that Natasha's valve did take the whole 9 months to close! Anyway, she was fine. Like your baby, she had normal weight gain and was very healthy and is a very happy and healthy 8-year-old today.

It was a major inconvenience though to go through all the clothing changes, bib changes and cleaning up the furniture, floor, etc. One of my friends had the same spit up problem with her young son and she couldn't find anything to keep her son dry, without having to change his clothes all the time. Anyway, she ended up designing her own solution. She started a company that makes tops with waterproof liners (all are made locally). Check out her website www.babychaleco.com. You can order them online, and you can also find them at Whole Foods. While you can't control the spit up part necessarily, you CAN reduce the amount of laundry you have to do. Good luck!

Congrats on your new baby! My daughter was a preemie and we dealt with tremendous reflux. She started projectile vomiting at about 7 weeks. She was put on Zantac, then Prevacid, neither of which really helped. Finally her doctor had me stop eating dairy and soy as they are 2 of the most common food "allergies", and said that there was something I was eating that is irritating her stomach enough to cause the continued vomiting. She also informed me that it takes 6-8 weeks to get all of the dairy out of your system. I ended up going back on Soy when she was a few months old and that was fine, but I was off dairy the entire year that I nursed her. It took many weeks (really about 6 weeks!) to see the difference with her vomiting, and she continued to spit up - it just wasn't as intense or as much. I too dreaded leaving our house for fear of her vomiting in her car seat and aspirating, or just plain making a huge mess out at the mall or restaurant. I also hated having other people hold her because I was scared that she would vomit all over them...it is different when she vomited on me, I was used to the smell and mess! Good luck!

My second baby had this - was due to reflux. It is a bit disconcerting to see that much fluid coming up out of your baby! I had to keep a full-sized bath towel handy, and got good at racing her to the kitchen and holding her over the sink when she heaved once or twice, just in time for the gushing. She did this every few days.

My main concern was that if it happened when she was sleeping on her back, she could choke. She wouldn't sleep on a reflux wedge so when it became too difficult to sleep with her on my chest in the recliner, I started putting her to bed on her tummy on a firm crib mattress. I know that's generally not recommended but choking seemed like a higher risk than SIDS in our case.

I didn't want to stay in the house, and really couldn't because I had to get my older child to school, etc. So I just kept a towel and change of clothes (for her and me) handy. Also I would save my longer errands and do them after a big spit-up/vomit when I didn't have to worry that it would happen again.

She outgrew it around 3-4 months.

Good luck!

Wheww, I understand your concern. My son is now 5 months and he spits up quite a bit. Some days it seems as if he spits up almost everything that he takes in. I was told the same things. It is normal and it will pass. I watch for signs of pain and try to monitor his intake. Unfortunetly our son is not exclussivly breast fed so one of the things we have done that seems to work well is to feed him smaller amounts more frequently, sort of letting the last feeding really settle before we feed him more. My grandmother also suggests that we stop once of twice during a feeding to burp him and that seems to help a little. I have also read that keeping the baby in an upright position after feeding can help. sometimes after I feed the baby I pass him to dad and if it is not smooth with him in the same position he is likely to spit up.
I believe that the muscle or sphinctor at the top of the throat is not fully developed and not very strong so even the slightest amount of pressure in the esaphagous can cause it to open up and then out it comes!
As far as getting out goes, don't feel bad if the little guy gets sick while your out. It is more important that you stay sane - just forget about what others may think. I always take lots of receiving blankets, extra clothes and sometimes even an extra shirt for myself. I find that generally people are pretty supportive although I have rushed out of the house to the grocery store only to be waiting in line when I realize that I forgot to change my shirt before I went out LOL!
Hope it goes well! Can't wait till it passes!

Spitting up is very common. My little girl (now 8.5 months old) has reflux and she spits up all the time. As long as your son is gaining weight appropriately and not in a lot of pain, he should be fine. If either of those are a problem, the dr will probably recommend trying some sort of medication (my daughter was on zantac and is now on prilosec). As for the mess, my daughter just wore a bib all the time until she started crawling (then it got in the way). Keep lots of spit rags handy, put spare clothes for him AND YOU in the diaper bag, and you'll get used to it.

This could be a case of "food stagnation" resulting simply from too much food. Try feeding him less for a while: less often or less in amount. If it's still happenning after you try that basic thing, acupuncturists have a way to heat a few acupressure points to strengthen the digestion.

My son started spitting up a lot when he was 5 weeks old and then it just kept getting worse and worse. He was gaining wait so we thought it was infant reflux. Finally, our doctor sent us to Children's Hospital for an ultrasound just to rule out Pyloric Stenosis. He was diagnosed and scheduled for surgery that afternoon. They said that first born sons from the ages of 4 weeks and 12 weeks are at higher risk. After laparascopic surgery he is all better. You might ask your doctor for an ultrasound just to rule it out. The ultrasound is painless and it is so much better to catch it early on before it gets to the point that he is no longer gaining weight.

M.,

This sounds like he's still just spitting up. When my now 5 year old son was about his age I had just finished a marathon nursing session and less than 10 minutes later it all came up and it was a huge amount (think cupfuls here).

If just a few mouthfuls are coming back up I'd call that spitting up. Again, my son was more of the spit up king than my daughter. We'd always go out with several of our rags that we used to clean up messes, some bib if we remembered and a couple changes of clothes with plastic bags for the mess.

One thing that helped with my son was to try and burp him between sides while nursing, and then after he finished. He was such a farter though he seldom burped. My husband was better at getting him to burp than I *ever* was.

Hope this helps and good luck,
Melissa