Worried About My 3 Week Old Daughter

It doesn't take much spit-up to look like a lot, especially when you're a new parent! I worried about every little thing my first baby did! The best rule I learned is if they're thriving, it's all good. Lots of babies have reflux -- their little bellies are very tiny and if they're over filled, they spit up. I breastfed exclusively, so I don't know how much to give in a bottle, but perhaps experimenting with giving a little less at each feeding but feeding more frequently (if you're worried it's not enough) would help.

I agree with busymom. It really looks like it's more than it really is. If she was loosing all her food by spitting up she would not be growing. If she was really uncomfortable she would not be sleeping :) hang in there.

My daughter is 4 months old and spits up a lot to. The only difference is she's breastfed. Some babies are like that.

Your best indicators are if she is pooping, peeing, and growing. If she is doing all of those, she is very likely perfectly fine. Some babies spit up after every feeding, especialy on formula. If she does not seem uncomfortable or excessively fussy, don't worry. I totally understand- they are so tiny and fragile-looking!!! But remember that their tummies are about the size of their little fist- it does not hold all that much right now, so even a little gas, jiggling, or overfeeding (overfeeding by even a teaspoon, nothing that you are doing wrong) can cause spit up.
You will definitely know if it is vomit rather than spit up. Spitting up should not upset her, should kind of ooze out, and should be no more than a couple of tablespoons. Vomit is much more violent, often comes out of their mouth and nose, will upset them and make them cry, and will seem like an endless stream. Found this out the hard way, trust me, you will know the difference!
Best of luck on your new baby girl!!

It's probably normal, some spit up quite a bit the first month or two.
If she's gaining weight and doesnt seem to be in pain she's probably ok.
Sometimes it's good to do a second burping a few minutes after the first one.

Think about how little they are, so when they do burp there's not a lot of room to work with and it usually creates spit up along with it if they've swallowed a lot of air. You might try a different shaped nipple on her bottle, that might help.

We worried about our third (first one to spit up) and then my pediatrician took 1 oz of water and spilled it to show us what it looked like...which was good cause we realized that an ounce makes a huge mess and we never saw that much spit up each time...so it seems like a lot but it really is not.

Congrats on your baby

most babies spit up.. some spit up a lot. there is a valve at the top of the stomach that is not fully developed in babies.. so they spit up the food they just ate.. my daughter did this for 7 months.. my son for a year. both were fine healthy adn gaining weight..

try to keep her uprtight after she eats.. in your arms.. in a bouncy chair or swing or car seat.. as long as she is gaining weight and happy dont worry.

I'd try switching to a soy formula. For my son, it was dairy that caused an issue for him. Acid reflux was also an issue so he was on medicine for a while, but once we eliminated dairy, things improved for us GREATLY! He's a year and a half now and has grown out of this. Hang in there!

Oh of course it's wonderful that you are a dad concerned about your baby!
sounds all pretty normal, but of course keep checking with the doctor if you feel something is amiss. And the nurses in the hospital are great if you are worried, just call and a lot of times they are great help. My children are way older but I will never forget those days.

I'm reading your post with a big smile on my face :) Both my kids, especially my daughter, were HUGE spit-up kids. It was sorta funny b/c each time Auntie got a hold of them they would really let one fly. We have several pictures where the whole front of shirts were wet. Gross, I know, but funny. We couldn't have too many bibs, spit up cloths and blankets around. I couldn't let me kids lie directly on the carpet otherwise it would smell like spoiled milk....

Not to worry, your daughter is clearly thriving. I'd suggest is switching to Dr. Brown's bottles. The straw part is supposed to reduce the amount of air taken in while sucking. It worked a little for us. I also found that if I overfed her (c'mom, just finish that last 1/5 oz....) that made it worse.

my 4 month old is the same way, he's a very happy baby, he just spits up all the time. weight gain is good ect. He's my 5th, I've had a baby with allergies (number 4) and one with reflux (number 2), so I know that isn't what I'm dealing with.

If she's happy, not screaming after feedings, eats well, is having normal messy diapers and it isn't like she is puking across the length of a room, it's pretty normal. It isn't fun, but it is normal.

My doc said we could try switching formulas but my little guy is happy, thriving and while the spit up is annoying I worry changing things will make matters worse so we haven't done that.

After any feeding... keep her upright for a few minutes... 10-15 minutes etc. Don't lay her down immediately. And yes, burp her during or after.
Infants are very young. They do and may spit up. And their organs/development is still immature. Even their digestion.
She is still gaining weight well.
Spit up is smelly. But not "vomit."
And they do still need to feed on-demand as often as they need to, day and night 24/7.

Are you making the Formula correctly???
I don't mean to be rude... but you need to put the water in first, then put in the scoop(s) of Formula. I know some friends that were putting in the Formula first in the bottle, then putting in the water. But if you do it that way... there will not be enough water in the bottle and the Formula will be too concentrated.

There are a few Dads on this site.
Even Grandparents.
Any "parent" or grandparents, can come here.

Mine spit up an hour or so after every bottle until he was 9 months old! Then it just stopped. If the doctor isn't worried and your daughter doesn't seem to be in pain, then try not to worry about it TOO much (I think we all know that us "first-timers" never stop worrying).

Some kids are just 'spitters'.

If its new, it's probably that she's getting more active and is blooping it out, as opposed to GERD, etc. Hmmm. Well 3 weeks is a bit young for 'new'. So it may be reflux after all... Or it may be burping issues or the 'wrong' formula.

My son I had to marathon burp (30-60 minutes), because he gulped air while eating. I'd get a normal burp in the first few minutes, and then a few chapters later (I read while burping, or I'd go insane w boredom) a BwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrP! Dinosaurs are attacking/ T-Rex sounding burp.

Changing formulas may help or make things worse. Sensitive formula induced projectile vomitting in my son, extreme gas, and general badness. The more 'sensitive' the worse it was. Oy. Ditto, powdered formula made him sick. Like many babies mine had a 'one and only' formula that worked beautifully with him (PREMIXED enfamil). But give his Halleleujah! formula to another kid and they could react as badly as he did on their formula. Just means there is no 'best'... And it's really trial and error to find The One.

I am sure others have told you that is what babies do...so I am not going to reiterate that. I would look at how her mood is...is she fussy after she eats or does she just spit up? If she is fussy, I would take that to mean she is in pain/uncomfortable. If not, it could just be spit up.

Try burping her half way through the bottle. She might fuss, but that could be fussing because she has a gas bubble ready to come out! My son would fuss just before letting a big burp!

You could also try changing bottles! I have heard wonderful things about Dr. Browns...I liked Playtex Ventaire myself.

Try switching things up before automatically assuming it is something specific like acid reflux. :-) Good luck!

PS...I think it is great that dads use this site too!!! :-)

I agree with all the advice u have recieved. For some babies LOTS of spit up is normal.... It was for mine. I just wanted to give u kuddo s dad. U rock!!!

Hi M.,

Welcome to Mamapedia. Of course you can ask questions. There are a few other dads on here as well.

I agree with everyone else. It sounds like she is OK. My third child spit up all the time until he was about three months old. We eventually switched him to a formula that contained rice starch (I believe it was made by Similac). It's thicker and designed to reduce spit up, and it did seem to help.

Best of luck and congrats on your sweet baby girl!

Spitting up is pretty common for up to about the 1st year.
And some kids spit up a lot more than others.
As long as she's gaining weight and meeting her milestones, she's doing fine.
Just double up on the receiving cloths and try keeping her upright after feedings for awhile and it sounds like you're doing a great job with the burping.
Being a new parent, you can't help but worry.
It sounds like you are all doing great!

I'm sort of in the camp of if the ped says its okay, then its probably ok. I nursed and form fed w/ Similac Isomil b/c my daughter was allergic to the reg milk based and needed soy. But then at a year we stopped the form and had zero problems w/the transition to real milk. I would talk to the ped before changing her though. She is still really young, maybe burp her more often during feeding? I just wanted to add that my mom bought me a nice robe when I brought my daughter home for the hospital and by 12months I had to toss it. I really didn't want to and washed it a hundred times, but from all the spit up stains, it had to be tossed :) Congrats on your new baby and all dads are most certainly welcome!!!!

Welcome! Yes, Dads are welcome to participate here!

Ditto the other posters who said, the Dr said she's ok, she appears to be thriving, and it probably isn't as much spit-up as it looks like.

But I did notice one thing at the very end of your post that I wanted to comment on. You mentioned that you fill the bottles with water first. (Good job!) But I am wondering how long before you feed her, do you prep the bottle? I found that if I prepared the bottle and immediately fed with it, that it wasn't mixed quite as well as it was if I let it sit for a few minutes first. Perhaps if you mix the formula and let it sit for a few minutes before feeding it might help just a bit too?

To be totally honest, with my daughter, I mixed up the formula for the whole day the night before. I prepared it in a rubbermaid 2 quart bottle (?) and put it in the refrigerator just before I went to bed. Then, it was ready to go first thing the next morning. Just poured from the rubbermaid container directly into the bottle, however much (or little) I needed, and put the big rubbermaid container right back in the fridge. I also was told by my kids' doctor, that it really wasn't necessary to heat up the bottles either. Unless my kids seemed like they were getting stomach cramps from the cold or something (I had summer babies, born in June and July in the DEEP south---hot & humid), that heating was unnecessary. I gave them their bottles cold. They never hesitated about it. Probably found it refreshing.... Personally, I can't drink milk myself, unless it is ice-cold straight from the fridge. We never had any issues. And it made feeding them on the go that much easier. Just pull out a prepared bottle from the cool pak and feed. :)

See if mixing the formula a bit beforehand helps, though.

My daughter and first grandson spit up CONSTANTLY! I too worried but the doctor said as long as she was gaining weight, she was getting what she needed from the formula before spitting it back up. I assume he was right because she never had a weight problem (at least not under weight!). As long as she is gaining weight, pooping without distress and is otherwise happy, I think it's probably okay.

I remember one time she spit up a huge amount directly in my face. OMG! I couldn't believe it! And of course we were not at home so it was a real mess and problem!

Finally, of course it is okay for dads to ask questions here. I always love seeing posts from concerned, involved, loving fathers.

I don't remember the exact age, but mine started spitting up at a weeks old age, just out of the blue. My doctor tried to tell me that it was acid reflux and he required a prescription. Other people kept saying, "Oh, that's what babies do. Just keep lots of burp cloths around." They didn't listen to me when I said, "Not my baby. My baby does NOT spit up, so this is something else." He was breastfed but not exclusively. (He had a little formula when we ran out of milk for the day.) It didn't help to keep him sitting upright after feeding or to sit him up after nursing. We had to switch his formula to soy from dairy. Gerber worked better for him than Similac. I had to figure out some stuff about the way that I was nursing him. Once we got that together, he stopped spitting up, just as suddenly as he had started. No, he didn't seem to be miserable, but even that bit of discomfort wasn't all right with me if I could stop it. That's what we want for our children, right?

It sounds like your baby might very well be "fine", and I'm not looking to make you worry. I just don't like the dismissive tone that others use--"Oh, that's what babies do." That tone keeps you from trusting your gut and getting to know YOUR baby for yourself in a way that helps you to pick up on the tiny things that might seem "normal" to many others.

Watch your baby. Pay attention to those little things. If the spitting up persists, continue talking about it and do some research. Do what makes you feel comfortable, what helps you to feel like you have a good understanding of what's happening with your little girl. Even if your baby is a designated spitter, there is reason for it. Even if you are okay with letting her spit a little as long as she's still looking and behaving like a healthy baby (and that IS okay), don't do it because other people convinced you that it's "normal". Do it because you know your kid and your soul tells you that she is fine. Don't just settle on the word of someone who doesn't know YOUR baby and doesn't look into your baby's eyes all day every day. Become an expert on your baby; don't give that power over to the doctor or to others with experience. The doctor is your partner in your child's care, not the authority. And no one else has experience with YOUR baby.

Oh, and congratulations on the new beauty in your life!!

You sound like my husband. He swore something was wrong. As long as she is growing and does not seem to be in pain, she should be fine. Both of my sons spit up a lot.

As long as she is gaining weight and content, she is fine!

As long as she seems happy when she's awake I wouldn't worry about it. If she's uncomfortable she'll certainly let you know. It seems like most babies spit up after most if not all meals for a few months or so.

And of course dads are welcome!

Hi M.,

Welcome! My son was a world-champion spitter-upper. It's just a normal part of babyland.

I'm not at all knowledgeable about formula -- sorry -- but I do think it'd be worth looking for a soy-based or sensitive brand. My son was super gassy, spitty, etc., until I eliminated all dairy from my diet (I was nursing), and then he settled right down. Check with your ped., though, and if necessary, a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Best wishes,

Mira