Baby spitting up frequently - reflux?

[NettleTea]

My son is 6 months old. He did not begin to spit up so frequently until the past month or so. Is there something that I need to cut out of my diet so that the breastmilk will be less acidic? Is there any advice out there for a situation like this? I do not want to go the prescription route except as a last resort. I would like to get to the root of the problem, not simply mask it.

[Knitting Mama]

It does sound like reflux to me. Has he started solids? If so, when and what?

It's my understanding that it's not the acidity of your breastmilk, but rather sensitivity to foods you eat. I could be totally wrong on this, but if I were you, I would start by cutting out the most common allergen, dairy. If that doesn't work, soy is next. You can Google elimination diets to get more info.

[NettleTea]

No solids.

I'll cut back on dairy and see if things hopefully improve. Thanks.

[NettleTea]

[Plummeting]

Originally Posted by NettleTea

No solids.

I'll cut back on dairy and see if things hopefully improve. Thanks.

I think you're misunderstanding about the dairy. You need to STOP eating it, not cut back. It takes 3 weeks or so for all the dairy to get out of your system and out of your milk. You need to eliminate not only milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc., but all baked goods that include dairy, processed foods that include dairy, etc. THEN if you wait the 3 weeks and notice some improvement, you can try adding a tiny bit back in to see what happens. If you only cut back you might not see any improvement, though. Some babies are that sensitive, and if yours is, cutting back isn't going to help much. In that case, rather than realizing your baby is dairy intolerant, you'd simply assume that he wasn't, since he wasn't noticeably improving. You have to just stop eating it for a while.

My DD1 was that sensitive. Cutting back wouldn't have mattered. I had to completely stop eating dairy. Once it was eliminated, eating just one piece of bread baked with milk would cause nearly the same amount of reflux as she had when I regularly ate cheese and drank milk by the glassful. If I'd simply tried "cutting back" I would've assumed it wasn't the dairy causing the problem and she would've continued to projectile vomit until we put her on Reglan.

Many people's babies aren't that sensitive at all, and they're able to find a nice balance, where they can enjoy some dairy without upsetting their babies' tummies. However, you really ought to try completely cutting it out for at least a couple of weeks, or else you just can't be sure that dairy isn't the culprit if the reflux doesn't improve.

All that being said, does your baby have any kind of cough right now? Does the spit up contain a lot of mucus? These were symptoms of pertussis when my DD was a baby. The doc dismissed them as just more reflux, because she insisted my daughter wasn't "sick enough" to have pertussis. She was wrong.

[NettleTea]

Originally Posted by Plummeting

I think you're misunderstanding about the dairy. You need to STOP eating it, not cut back. It takes 3 weeks or so for all the dairy to get out of your system and out of your milk. You need to eliminate not only milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc., but all baked goods that include dairy, processed foods that include dairy, etc. THEN if you wait the 3 weeks and notice some improvement, you can try adding a tiny bit back in to see what happens. If you only cut back you might not see any improvement, though. Some babies are that sensitive, and if yours is, cutting back isn't going to help much. In that case, rather than realizing your baby is dairy intolerant, you'd simply assume that he wasn't, since he wasn't noticeably improving. You have to just stop eating it for a while.

My DD1 was that sensitive. Cutting back wouldn't have mattered. I had to completely stop eating dairy. Once it was eliminated, eating just one piece of bread baked with milk would cause nearly the same amount of reflux as she had when I regularly ate cheese and drank milk by the glassful. If I'd simply tried "cutting back" I would've assumed it wasn't the dairy causing the problem and she would've continued to projectile vomit until we put her on Reglan.

Many people's babies aren't that sensitive at all, and they're able to find a nice balance, where they can enjoy some dairy without upsetting their babies' tummies. However, you really ought to try completely cutting it out for at least a couple of weeks, or else you just can't be sure that dairy isn't the culprit if the reflux doesn't improve.

All that being said, does your baby have any kind of cough right now? Does the spit up contain a lot of mucus? These were symptoms of pertussis when my DD was a baby. The doc dismissed them as just more reflux, because she insisted my daughter wasn't "sick enough" to have pertussis. She was wrong.

By cutting back I meant cutting it out altogether. I guess I didn't make that clear. What I meant at the time was zero dairy in my diet for now. Which I've been doing.

No, cough. Just lots of acidic spit-up. I was hoping for some insight into maybe something I could do to help dissolve the excess acid in his stomach. Like, that could be eaten and passed onto him.