Spit-up On My Shoulder

I’m back from vacation and feeling great. The weather was beautiful and it was so wonderful to have some downtime. I don’t know about you, but it takes me at least a day to decompress. Luckily I had 3 nights away, which felt perfect. Of course, even more wouldn’t have hurt!

Does your baby spit up? Over half of all babies under three months do. Most outgrow it by a year or so.

My oldest, Danielle, was a huge spitter. When she spit up, it would hit the floor after leaving a lovely mess on whatever clothes we were wearing along the way. We did so much laundry during the first months of her life that it was ridiculous.

Funny thing - Danielle ended up not being a big barfer as a kid. You would think she would be considering the way she started out, but her sister was much more prone to barfing. I sure hope nobody is eating while they read this post!

All of Danielle’s spitting scared me that there was something seriously wrong, but she was fine. Our doctor recommended not to feed her so much at each feeding and that made a huge difference. A heavy load washing machine didn’t hurt either!

If you’re concerned about how much your baby spits up, here are some suggestions from Parenting magazine:

• Hold your baby upright after a feeding as gravity will help keep the food down. With Danielle this didn’t make much of a difference, but it might with your baby.
• Give your baby smaller portions more often like we did.

When is spit-up a sign to call your doctor?

If your baby:
• Has projective vomiting - think The Exorcist.
• Isn’t gaining weight.
• Cries when he spits up or is generally very irritable.
• Has diarrhea, a fever, constipation, blood in the stool, or is lethargic.
• Is coughing a lot or has trouble breathing.

Part of becoming a mom is realizing that the laundry never ends. If you have a spitter, you learn that very quickly.