Spitting Up

Spitting up is nature’s pop off valve for babies.  Most, if not all, babies spit up from time to time. A baby’s stomach is small and not very muscular, which allows overflow from the stomach back up the esophagus and out the mouth after circumstances like mild overfeeding, quick changes in positions, pressure on the tummy due to tummy time or baby leg movements, or burps and hiccups.  Spit up should not bug your baby and should not be associated with retching or discomfort.  As parents, we are much more appalled with the mess on our clothes than the baby is by the actual spit up.  We usually expect spit up to slowly increase over the first 4-6 months of baby’s life and then plateau until milk intake goes down and solid food intake increases around 12 months of age.  Though even toddlers will, at times, over feed themselves or overindulge on milk and then immediately start running around, which can cause the toddler version of spitting up. 

If spitting up is associated with abdominal pain or discomfort and the baby is not chill afterwards, we may need to discuss the possibility of GERD or reflux.