2.5 week old with HUGE spit ups every day

[jsh7809]

My 17 day old daughter has been spitting up in that huge, exorcist, entire contents of her stomach way at least once a day for about a week and a half. Yesterday she spit up on me 3 times, and once again this morning. It doesn't seem to bother her but I'm starting to think this is outside the normal range and am getting worried.
It seems to happen most in the mornings after we get up and the evenings when she's super fussy. They are also the times when she needs to do a ton of nursing for comfort, and my let down is so intense she definitely is gulping and choking a little. I've tried slowing her off and letting some initial milk dribble down - I've tried feeding her in different positions - burping gently vs. no burp - etc etc but nothing seems to make a difference and I am getting so frustrated
We're going to see a lactation consultant tomorrow and a pediatrician friday, but I'm looking for any useful advice I can (even if it's just, "this won't last forever!". Please tell me it will stop by 6 months?!).
I am not considering switching to formula but I am starting to see how hard breastfeeding really can be. We were blessed with an easy start but now I am constantly on boob duty, and wondering if it will even stay down is stressing me out!

[beebalmmama]

My ds 2 was also spit up a lot. My first was not like this at all and so I freaked out a bit too. But he was was over it by around 2 or 2.5 months or so. For him it wasn't reflux, he never seemed upset by it. It would just all come back out at once. I was more worried about it than he seemed to be, but an extra trip to the midwife confirmed he was still gaining weight really well.

He also was a very gassy baby, not uncomfortable gassy or colicky, but just gassy. I was always trying to burp him to get the bubbles out but at one point it seemed that could have triggered the spitting up. I would usually nurse him and then prop him upright but without pressure on his tummy and not burp him. I also held him pretty still after feedings and tried not to jostle or bounce him around. Dh and I had a very careful handoff maneuver if I needed to give ds to him.

Oh yeah my let down is also very strong which I thought contributed to his tummy feeling so fast. When they over fill their tummy often they will just bring everything back up to relieve it. I tried feeding him more upright, like in a foot ball hold and tried reclining on my back to slow the flow, but honestly I don't think it helped. My let down sprays regardless of any position I took.

[hergrace]

Originally Posted by beebalmmama

When they over fill their tummy often they will just bring everything back up to relieve it.

DS1 had a vicious cycle where he would comfort nurse beyond where he could hold the milk, then spit it up, which irritated, so he would comfort nurse. It turned out that the initial issue was a dairy allergy and he worked his way out of the cycle once I eliminated ALL dairy from my diet.

[DevaMajka]

My mw said that lots of spitting up is normal in the beginning. Ds spit up a lot, quite frequently, when he was younger. My family was actually concerned that something was wrong! It slowed down a lot as he got older. It slowed down by 6 mos or so. He rarely spits up now at 10 mos old.

I've read that it could be related to food sensitivities, but since my mw seemed to think it was pretty normal at that young of an age, I don't think I'd stress about that yet. (fwiw, we do think he has food sensitivities. But he didn't have symptoms until he started solids).

For the let-down problem, have you tried block feeding? You feed on one side for a period of time (4 hours or so) then the other for the next block. I think it's supposed to help with letdown. Or is that foremilk/hindmilk imbalance? Well, at least it's something you can look up.
I do a variation of that- one side for a few nursing sessons, then the other for one session, repeat. But that's mostly because ds much prefers to nurse on my left side, and nurses much better on it.

[Norasmomma]

DD was a puker, we changed her clothes and our clothes at least 5x's a day. I have a forceful letdown and she would choke. It stopped around 3-4 months. I was surprised she could even gain weight with her amount of spit up, but she grew just fine.

DS never pukes, so it would be odd for him.

[texaspeach]

I had oald too and ds was getting flooded by milk. he had truly epic barfs it wasn't until I cut out dairy for other reasons at 10 weeks that I saw improvement. it might have been coincidence but I figured I'd put that out there.

[Alisse]

In the first 2 months our son spat up a lot. The things we did to decrease it to non-exorsist levels was:
- letting milk spray into a cloth when the let-down came
- block feeding
- burping then holding him upright for at least 1/2hour (and during that 1/2 the holder would hold him very still and gently...even a little bounce would cause him to spit up)
- laying him down on a wedge

He still spat up a lot but to levels that no longer worried us.

[jsh7809]

Thanks, ladies! As with everything, it helps to know we're not alone. I am thinking of trying to cut out dairy for at least a week to see if there's any improvement (though I know it can take longer to see big changes - a week is a start, and I am a BIG dairy eater so even that will be a challenge). Sounds like some babies just have this issue, and she is still gaining weight too, so it's more a worry that something is wrong. I'll check with the pediatrician but sounds like it may be normal and something we can't do anything about
Although it's a big relief that it will get better, I'm kind of freaked out that it can take 4-6 months to get better! Aaaagh.
Although I will say that this morning when she did it I thought, "I can't take this for one more day!". 5 minutes later I was like, okay, I guess I can deal. Have to keep finding the humor in all of this...
I don't think it's GERD/ acid reflux because she doesn't seem in pain or arch her back or anything. If anything, she's surprisingly calm when it happens. It seems to me and DH both that she's just overdoing it with the eating - she came out awfully small and eager to catch up weight-wise, so I will focus on being grateful that she is such a good eater and try to work on my patience.

[jsh7809]

Oh, and I hadn't heard of "block feeding" before but I think I've been doing it unofficially by instinct - letting her nurse from one breast for several hours (since she often during the day will only nurse for a few minutes), hoping that the milk flow will ease up and that she'll get both fore and hindmilk throughout those nursing clusters. Glad to hear I'm on the right track!

[blessedwithboys]

sounds normal to me (a mama with 7 yrs total bf experience)

if bf ever seems like trouble to you, or hard work, just think of how hard it would be if you had to wash bottles on top of all the laundry, NTM the formula would probably make the spit up even worse. i would def keep doing what youre doing and just try propping the LO up for 30 mis after feeding like the pp said.

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by jsh7809

Although it's a big relief that it will get better, I'm kind of freaked out that it can take 4-6 months to get better! Aaaagh.

IIrc, it improved gradually over his first few months. It kept getting better, looking back. But he was probably 5-6 months old when it occurred to me how much better it had gotten, kwim?

[tessie]

I posted pretty much the same thing a while back!

She puked constantly. She was diagnosed with reflux and we tried medicating but it did absolutely nothing so, as she obviously wasn't in pain and was gaining plenty of weight, we chucked the medicine and just did a lot of laundry. She was described as being a happy chucker. Not all babies with reflux are in pain.

We tried all the tips but nothing made a difference. It was around the time she started to sit up, about 5 months ish, that we suddenly noticed she was puking much less. By six months she'd more or less stopped, I think? Apparently it can take up to a year for the sphincter to develop properly. She's still prone to puking if she coughs or chokes.

BF is definitely better for sicky babies because breastmilk is more easily digested and doesn't reek quite as much when regurgitated.

So, I'd see the dr to check for any underlying cause, maybe try meds, and don't panic because she will grow out of it.

[Kmama2]

Originally Posted by tessie

I posted pretty much the same thing a while back!

She puked constantly. She was diagnosed with reflux and we tried medicating but it did absolutely nothing so, as she obviously wasn't in pain and was gaining plenty of weight, we chucked the medicine and just did a lot of laundry. She was described as being a happy chucker. Not all babies with reflux are in pain.

We tried all the tips but nothing made a difference. It was around the time she started to sit up, about 5 months ish, that we suddenly noticed she was puking much less. By six months she'd more or less stopped, I think? Apparently it can take up to a year for the sphincter to develop properly. She's still prone to puking if she coughs or chokes.

BF is definitely better for sicky babies because breastmilk is more easily digested and doesn't reek quite as much when regurgitated.

So, I'd see the dr to check for any underlying cause, maybe try meds, and don't panic because she will grow out of it.

If baby is gaining weight and not screaming in pain don't worry about it. Both my kids were/ are "happy spitters" My daughter spit up probably 60 times a day.. it slowed down about 8 months but she still spit up occassionaly until around 15 months old.
My son is 7 months and he still spits up 7-8 ( > 50 times a day) times after every feeding. He crawls and we have to cover the rugs with blankets because he pukes so much. Dr. Sears says its just a laundry problem. I don't medicate my kids since they are happy and gaining weight ( they are small but I think its genetic)