Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Spit-Up Woes

From the time Jackson was born, he has been a "spit up" baby. He even spit up in the hospital. For the first 3 weeks of his life, I solely breastfed him, only to have to start supplementing when I found out he had only gained 2 ounces in 2 weeks at his 3 week check-up. I just never could give him enough milk, and after a few more weeks of supplementing, I dried up completely and just had to give him formula only. However, even on breast milk he would spit up.
I started out giving him Similac advanced because thats what we got in the hospital. He did alright on that, but would spit up a few times a day. It was never a large amount and he didn't seem bothered by it, so I didn't really think much of it. After we went through all the Similac advanced formula we had gotten from the hospital, doctor's office and from Similac themselves, I asked the pediatrician if we could use some Similac formula I had gotten that was for sensitive stomachs. (Similac sent us a couple cans to try.) The doctor said sure, that it wouldn't hurt anything to give him that since we had a couple cans, and it might even help with the spit up. So I gave it to him and never really noticed a change with the spit up. I even tried buying the Similac for spit up and that never really worked either. He was still spitting up on a pretty regular basis, but it still didn't seem to be bothering him, it was just bothering me. Haha.

As time has gone on, it seems to be getting worse. He spits up with almost every bottle, multiple times, and sometimes even several hours after he's eaten. Its still not a huge amount at any one time and he's gaining weight just fine. In the last 2 weeks I've tried giving him Enfamil's Gentlease formula, because several people who have babies that spit up said it helped their babies. It doesn't seem to be helping Jackson. :-( In fact, I think it has even gotten a little worse. Last night he spit up a couple times, once way after he had eaten and the other time during a feeding, and they were both quite a bit of spit up. I had to change him and the boppy pillow cover.

 
So now I don't know what to do. I've mentioned it to the doctor and he said they have medicine they can give him for reflux, but if he doesn't seem bothered by it, then he'd rather not prescribe it. I agree with the doctor, and would rather not give him medicine that he doesn't really need. I just wish there was something I could do to at least calm down the frequency of spit up. I know there are just some babies that spit up more than others and if he's just one of those babies then I guess I'll have to live with the dirty laundry and spit up stained clothes, but I just wonder if there's something more I could be doing or trying to maybe make the spit up a little less frequent. I don't want to keep changing his formula all the time to see what works best for him, but I'm just not sure which one I should continue giving him. There are so many options and I'm not sure which one is really best for him.

So I was wondering if any of you moms out there, might have some suggestions for me. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has dealt with this problem before and I'm hoping someone has a suggestion for me to try. Is there some secret out there to helping your baby with spit-up that this first time mom doesn't know about?? If so, I'd love to know about it. Or am I just being paranoid?? Any and all suggestions/remedies are welcome. ☺

2 comments :

Anonymous said...

Aw, poor little guy! Hope it gets better very soon! Baby girl seems to mostly have outgrown it but it was so distressing when she did!

Alexis said...

Hi Amy,

I am afraid I do not have a quick fix for the spitting up issue although I can definitely sympathize. My 14 month old is breastfed and he spit up exactly how you are describing your little man. It was VERY distressing for me too and I was convinced I would send him to kindergarden still spitting up ; )! Low and behold at about 12.5 months he just stopped. It was literally overnight. Hang in there it will come to an end, but unfortunately it seems to be on their timetable. I remembering getting sooo frustrated because we would all be dressed and ready to walk out the door and he would spit up everywhere.

He is a definite cutie!