Spewy Spewerson

Is there anything we should be doing to reduce one of our girls spewing all the time?

Whether she is on the breast, bottle EBM or formula, it's usually the same story. She feeds for a bit, then spills a bit, feeds again, spills a bit more and so on. Once she is put down, she often brings a lot back up, but is never upset about it and doesn't seem uncomfortable.

When she is on the bottle we gently burp her regularly. One thing I have noticed in comparison to her sister is that she sucks quite aggressively, and it can be hard when she is on the bottle to get her in a position where she isn't sending little bubbles of air into the bottle. This make me think that as a result of her sucking action, she is introducing air into her stomach as well?

This is a very similar question to human bean's thread - but I wasn't sure if it was the same thing and didn't want to hijack.

Thanks peeps.

Is she gaining weight? If she is happy and thriving then it is probably happy chucking. With bottles you can get slower floe teats but that doesn't help much with BF as you can't control how fast she sucks. I found that I needed to keep DD2 upright after a feed, burp regularly and have lots of flanalette nappies handy as spew rags. She still spewed a lot but it did settle after 6 months or so - although when she started crawling it did come back briefly.

DD1 and DD2 spewed a lot, and I mean all the time. We called them our happy chuckers. They chucked but were happy about it. As Nai said as long as they are gaining weight they should be ok. With both girls we raised the head of their bassinett/cot to help keep it down, dummies help them swallow more regularly and keep it down and keeping them upright as much as possible (we used a sling with DD2).

Other than that I used to change regularly as I was usually the target of said spew and cut up old towels and used flanalette nappies to mop up the mess. It does go away, eventually. Ours calmed down when we introduced solids.

HTH

ETA - just remembered we gave both girls smaller more frequent feeds. This reduced the amount in their tummies so that it was easier again to keep it all down

Unfortunately there isn't that much you can do, except be patient until that little valve at the top of her tummy starts closing more effectively. We had a major happy spewer and things got much better after 6 months, but we still have some spewy days.

What we did was try Infacol in an effort to get as much of the wind out as possible. In all honesty, I don't think it made that much difference because he would spew even if he didn't burp. Infacol is also a sythetically-derived compound and contains artificial sweeteners - so if you do use it, only use it for a short time unless it proves very effective.

Here are some tips of things we found helpful:

To avoid the major spews, always change their nappy before they feed - doing it afterwards would almost always resulted in a fountain of spew after we lifted him up from the change table.

Elevate her cot mattress

Pop towels under her head in her cot. That way, if there is a big spew you can usually just pull the towels out without a major disruption and waking.

Try and keep them upright for 45 mins after a feed. This isn't always possible (especially not with two I imagine!), but if you can, it does help.

Try and get a new bouncer (which is generally more stiff than a used one) and pop them in that after a feed. A new one will still be quite upright and not very bouncy. We used a Brightstarts one and it was a lifesaver for those 45 mins post-feed.

It is hard and I thought the spewing would never end - but it does! Just be very thankful that she isn't in pain (when he was brand new, our little man was spewing and in pain due to a milk allergy - it was awful).

As long as she is thriving and gaining weight, there is nothing, medically, that can be done either. In the event of failure to thrive as a result of spewing, they actually stitch that valve closed, which just introduces a whole variety of other issues. So monitor her weight at this stage and, if all is good, then just invest in a bulk pack of terry flats for spew rags and a whole heap of patience...

I hope this helps. I really feel for you - it is so hard :(

The MCHN and paediatrician both pointed out to me that the valve at the top of some bubs tummies is not very strong initially - and that it does get stronger. In a few months the vomiting should go away - and as long as weeing, pooing and growing are all happening then things are on track.
Do you have a sling (and are your little ones big enough for you to feel comfy using it)? Keeping uprightish after feeds (maybe even for an hour - bubs will happily sleep in slings) helped us a lot too.
I also dressed my little guy in separate tops and pants so that we could usually just swap one half of his clothes, since he hated being naked, and hence changing him made him sad. With the bottle feeds, stop and wait a few seconds maybe 4 or 5 times during the bottle - don't let her guts the lot. This is partly from a chucking point of view, and partly from a that-is-what-breasts-do-so-keep-it-as-similar-as-you-can point of view.

Congrats on your twins safe arrival too!

Ahhhh you have a happy chucker?

I've had a couple of them. They will eventually grow out of it and solids help a bit too, though my No1 DS didn't stop till he was walking. He marked the occasion of his first roll off the blanket with a hearty spew on the carpet :clap: The first of so many I lost count lol.

Just to be on the safe side though keep note of her wet/dirty nappies and weight gain. If there is an issue then maybe a thickener but I wouldn't go down that road unless it's necessary because I think thickeners can cause other end problems.

Awesome tips and advice everyone, thanks heaps.

We've basically been doing everything you're all suggesting which is good. Yes she is gaining weight too, faster than her sister and the doc is very happy.

Speaking of output, how long between poos is normal? Initially they were doing real rippers in the hospital, but since they've been home I don't think they've gone at all. So maybe 5 days now? Lots of wee. They are mainly BF'ing, but I have been doing one feed on formula the last couple of nights so DW can sleep longer, and expressing is just wearing her out after spending so long feeding each of them.

I think BF bubs can go for 2 weeks without a poo. I'd consider them BF'd - and they are just saving up poos for daddy.

Just want to mention that when feeding a baby with a bottle, the bubbles of air going back into the bottle are completely normal. As the milk is sucked out it needs to be replaced with air, otherwise they create a vacuum and can get nothing out. It just may be that as she is sucking harder than her sister the air going back in is a little more obvious.

We had a happy chucker too - we tried infacol, which seemed to help a heap but didn't stop it completely. We thickened his formula for a while but that really only made for slower, easier to catch spew. We just kept lots of spew rags handy and made sure everywhere we went we had a change of clothes for him. We would hold him facing outwards so as to get us less often. It started to ease up when he started solids - but don't be tempted to start solids early. It's an age thing rather than a solids thing.

BW

Looks like we could start up a BB Spew Crew ;)

I'll second what BW said about the bubbles of air in the bottle being completely normal, and I've found that if you screw the lid on really tightly they have to suck really hard to drink, loosen it a little and they don't have to work as hard to drink, it seems to flow easier. Hope that makes sense, and good luck.

another member of the spew crew here - DD was a shocker - i wouldn't hand her over to anyone unless their clothes were protected or they knew they'd have to change their clothes soon! she was a happy chucker though - for a while, she seemed to be in pain from it (arching back, screaming etc) but it only lasted maybe a week, so i'm guessing she had a bug at the time - the rest of the time she'd have her little piggy fill, sit up, and spill half of it back into the puke rag!

she got much better before we started solids, but was still chucky even at 4/5 months - since starting solids at 6 months, she's only been sick from being really upset about something, or when she's been unwell in general. a huge difference - we can actually go out without four changes of clothes for everyone!

if her weight gain and output are normal (comparible to non-pukey sister) and she doesn't appear to be in pain, i'd say all is normal

oh, on the output thing - BF babies can go up to two weeks (they generally only take in as much as they need, and are very efficient at processing it) - given your bubs are primarily BF, i'd assume it was something like that, but given they're not that old, keep an eye on them - they are having a FF in there as well, and formula can bind them up a little more as it's heavier in their tummies and not so easily digestible. if they haven't gone soon i would contact the MCHN - having a constipated bubba isn't fun (when DD was exclusively BF at around 4-5 months, she averaged once every 10 days and it wasn't pretty that day - she was very uncomfy)

Noted re the air bubbles. You're right of course in hindsight, it's just that they seem more intense when G is feeding but that's probably just the way she does it.

Yep, her weight gain is good, and even ahead of C who rarely spews. Poo output is the same for both girls.

Thanks spew crew :)

Hi, there,

You've gotten all the good advice already. Basically, with little babies, the sphincter at the top of their stomach is relatively weak and when there is too much pressure it just flops open and out it all comes. Only the "tincture of time" will really solve this problem. As others have identified, it's more a *cleaning* problem than anything else - they usually grow and thrive just fine. One thing that many people find helpful is to give them smaller, more frequent feeds, so as to not put so much pressure on their stomach. We have a tendancy to try to "overfill" them - living in hope that they might sleep longer - but usually babies deal with smaller more frequent feeds better.
The poo situation is interesting. You have a couple of things going on here. For newborn babies, lack of poo (several soft poos per day) is a red flag that babies might not be getting enough milk. It's not always the case - but it can be. However, your description that they are putting on plenty of weight would seem to indicate that this is not the case. When are you getting their weight checked next. On the other hand, formula can bind babies up, meaning that they don't poo as frequently. So, I would say, get the babies weighed sooner rather than later to check that their weight gain is still on track.