Just spit up?

[bdb84]

My DD is 5 months old and exclusively formula fed. The past few weeks or so she has been spitting up constantly. Sometimes it just flows out like drool, but the past two days it's been projectile.

She's gaining weight and is a happy, content baby, so that's where I get confused. I always heard that actual reflux was uncomfortable on babies.

She's also about to break her two bottom teeth, so I believe that's causing some of the upset tummy.

At what point is no longer "just normal spit up", though? I don't recall my oldest doing this as much, and I breastfed my second child and she rarely had any spit up.

 

[_Meep_]

All babies have reflux. That's what spit-up essentially is. It only becomes a problem when it causes pain or stops the baby from gaining weight.

So no, your baby doesn't have problematic reflux.

If this goes on for more than a few days though and she isn't keeping any of her milk down or you're seeing a reduced nappy output, then she will be at risk of dehydration and should see a doctor.

With regard to the drooling, it's highly likely that this is causing the increase in spit-up. My baby ALWAYS spat up more when a tooth was coming. The constant swallowing of saliva upsets their stomach and makes it more acidic. They're also likely to swallow more air along with the drool, leading to wet burps as the bubbles of gas bring up everything on top of them.

Mine used to projectile vomit entire feeds occasionally when she was teething. I think sometimes her whole system felt so unsettled that she'd gulp down far too much, too quickly, to try and soothe herself.

The good news is that pukey teethers do grow out of it. She's 13 months now and I haven't seen any sick for many months. And she's teething four molars right now.

 

[Perplexed]

Both mine spit up a lot. My first was exclusively breastfed till 4 months, and second was combination fed for a week then exclusively formula fed till now. No major difference in amount of spit up for both my kids I think. Ds' spitting up hasn't been too bad but it is starting up again now and I do believe his bottom teeth might be coming (much earlier than his sister's did but not unheard of) as they are swollen and they do seem to get more swollen every time. So I guess it could be the teeth!

 

[_Meep_]

Mine only ever had breastmilk until we started solids at 5.5 months. She is still breastfeeding now. So yeah, it totally depends on the baby.

 

[sezzolou]

My 7 month old spits up a lot. He is formula fed and has always brought up a lot of milk but it has never really bothered him. I was hoping weaning would help reduce it but it's no better so far. He's been on solids for a month now and he brings up milk and food 😔 the milk vomitting never bothered me but the food vomitting is starting to get me down....messy and smelly! He's gaining weight and happy though, just hoping he outgrows it soon.