Please help with feeding (bottle/spitting up) issues

Hi everyone,

Our little guy (babies are 4 months old) is having a terrible time at every feeding.

First of all, he acts like someone is going to steal his bottle and literally gulps down his formula as fast as possible. We stop half way through and burp him, and he freaks out when we do this. Sometimes we get a burp, but sometimes he just freaks out so bad that we surrender and give him back the bottle because it seems like he is so upset and crying so hard that he is actually just gulping in more air.

Second of all, because of this gulping he spits up a ton when he is done. We get at least one huge or two big solid burps from him afterwards (sometimes he burps so loud he scares himself).

He takes 6.5 ounces and we have tried every possible bottle/nipple combo we can think of: Advent with Level 1 and Level 2 nipples, Playtex Drop Ins with slow and fast nipples, and now we are on to Dr. Brown's and I thought this was working at first, but last night and today we had the same massive spit ups at feeding. It's not "projectile" or foreceful spit ups, but the poor guy probably loses a good ounce or more when spitting up.

He was on Enfamail Lipil, and then our ped. switched him to Gentlease a couple months ago. Should we look at some other formula?? I need to call our ped. Monday and see what she thinks, but thought some "been there done that" wise mamas could help me out, too.

Any suggestions??

 

It sounds to me like he has reflux. There are a couple of different medications for that. One, zantac, worked for us. But there have been a lot of different responses from other people on here who have had other things that work on the reflux for them. Mention that to your ped. and see what she says. My first dd had an upper GI to diagnose it, but the others were just all diagnosed due to symptoms and family history.

 

It sounds like an eating issue more than a formula issue. I'd just use the lowest flow nipple possible with him and continue what you're doing. If he's going to gulp down the bottle, there isn't much you can do about it. Maybe if you add some Mylicon to the bottle, that will help cut down on the gas afterwards. Our girls were on fast flow nipples since birth due to eating issues and they spit-up a lot. As long as the spit up doesn't hurt them, it isn't really a problem and spit-up after every meal is perfectly normal.

 

Sound like your little man might have reflux. My Iris had that and did the same desperate eating and then spitting up all the milk she shouldn't have eaten. As long as she was eating (or sucking on a pacifier) she did not feel pain from the reflux. As soon as she stopped it would start hurting again.
Does he have other reflux symptoms like the following?

Painful blasts of crying (more than the usual baby cries)
Frequent spitting up (but not always)
Inconsolable bouts of abdominal pain
Painful bursts of nightwaking
Fussiness, particularly after eating
Arching or writhing as if in pain
Seems to be more comfortable when carried upright, sleeping on the stomach, or sleeping propped up at a 30-degree angle.
Frequent, unexplained bouts of wheezing and chest infections and episodes of apnea
Sour breath; throaty noises (Note: Baby may have many or only a few of these signs)

Check with your pedi. We found gripe water was helpful, holding her upright about 20' after she had eaten and let her suck on a pacifier instead of overeating. I know many babies get medicine.
Hope he feels better soon!

 

Thanks so much for your replies.

Our ped. does not think he has reflux, as he has no other symptoms other than the spitting up (I think the "freaking out" crying he does when we try to burp him half-way through is because he is ticked we took his bottle away, lol). Otherwise, he seems fine. I am so confused.

I will talk to her again on Monday about it and talk about the reflux again. And I will try some of your suggestions here.

 

My son does / did exactly the same and he has been diagnosed with reflux. He's on Prevacid (Zantac didn't do anything) and he's so much better. He just felt more comfortable eating and that's why they'll do everything to continue eating. It seemed like he never had enough. However, he did spit up mucusy blood as well, so apparently something was very irritated.

 

Both mine had a little reflux & my son was colicy. Different things worked for different babies. My daughter did better with a slower flow nipple. She took her bottle too fast and would puke it. My son needed a faster flow because he was a lazy sucker.. Neither required meds for the reflux. My doc said he prefers to only give the meds if the reflux us painful or causing problems with weight gain.

 

What if you fed him at smaller intervals. He may just be so hungry when it finally time to eat, that by giving him a bottle a bit earlier he may not freak out so much. One of my girls does it first thing in the morning, and I know its just because she is so hungry, she usually calms down when her bottle is almost finished. Good luck.

 

Hi.

Our babies spit up all over until about 9 mos. They also had reflux too but even with medication and the reflux under control they still spit up all over everything. They medication did not solve that portion of the problem.

One thing I heard over and over again was that some babies spit up a lot. I was also told that solids and sitting up on their own would help it stop. At 10 months it has stopped almost entirely. They are also off all of the reflux meds.

It does not sound like your baby has reflux since there are no other symptoms other than spitting up. Besides, reflux meds will only stop the pain associated with spitting up but not the actual spitting up. That was true in our case.

My advice would be to continue to stop halfway and burp even though he gets mad about the bottle being taken away. I really think that helps with the amount that comes back up. Also, keeping them upright while feeding and for a significant amount of time after really helps too. A slower nipple might help too so that he can't gulp it but that might make him mad. Maybe talk to your pedi about adding rice cereal to formula to thicken it up? I can't remember if that helped with the spit up or reflux or both.

Good luck. I know how frustrating it can be but it will not last forever.

Carey