Why does my baby vomit the breast milk, not formulas?

[aliss]

OK, so here's a strange one even the nurses don't understand.

My boy had a birth injury (fractured left clavicle) and is currently unable to nurse from the breast because of that. I tried exclusive expressing breast milk but couldn't provide enough. He lost 1.5lb/11% birth weight in the first 2-3 days. We started supplementing with formula and he digests/eats the formula fine - but vomits the breast milk.

The nurse says it is impossible for him to reject breast milk, but I have been tracking and the enfamil is the only thing he keeps down (nestle and similac came up as well).

Does anyone have this issue, or know what the heck is going on??

He's only 6 days old

 

[bubbles123]

My LO used to vomit breast milk as well but to be fair he also vomited up his formula too! Only thing I can suggest is that the BM/other formulas are too thin and he does better with a thicker milk? I'm in the UK so don't know what Enfamil is like though so that might not be it. If he keeps Enfamil down I'd just go with that (and continue to give BM if you want to).

 

[broodylocket]

recently my lo has been vomiting my breast milk so now im ff. i dont know why or anything and my hv said she dont know why it is an issue now.
if hes ok on enfamil stay on that hun xxx

 

[tinkerz23]

I found my LO started spitting up a lot on breast milk as well. She was latching on, but smacking all the time and I guess taking in air. She got plenty of milk, she just liked to smack I guess..LOL. I began weaning her at 3 months off the breast and noticed that when she breastfed she spit up a lot more than when she took a bottle of formula. As someone else said, it could be because formula is thicker. My LO is also on enfamil.

 

[Mrs.W]

Yes we've had the same thing, we've always had latching on issues and HV thinks because he still doesn't quite latch properly he's taking in air and because breastmilk is light, everything is coming back up. Formula is heavier so the wind passes it on its way up, plus he doesn't need to have a perfect latch to drink from the bottle properly

 

[AimeeM]

it could be because the breastmilk is thinner, in reflux the idea is the heavier the milk the more it stays down. That is why the anti reflux formula is a lot thicker.

it could also be your breast let down is too fast and he is taking the milk too fast and causing it to come up again, squirting some out prior to feeding can help.

Sorry about your LO's injury xx