Spitting up during or after feedings can be uncomfortable for your infant, and frustrating for you as a parent to watch. Yet spitting up -- a key symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD -- is common among infants, and often causes stomach acid and food to splash up through the esophagus. Most infants outgrow the condition around age 1. Meanwhile, you can help treat your infant's acid reflux.
Liquid Food
Since overfeeding can trigger acid reflux, it's important to consult a pediatrician to make sure that your baby is nursing for the right amount of time or drinking the right amount of formula at feedings. You can also try reducing the amount of breast milk or formula that you offer your infant at each feeding, but increasing the frequency of feedings so he or she can still gain weight but not have too much food in the stomach at once. You can also try thickening formula with 1 tbsp. of rice cereal per 1 oz. of formula to help your infant keep his or her food down better, the American Academy of Pediatrics adds.
Solid Food
If your infant has started eating solid food, you may be able to alleviate his acid reflux by refraining from feeding him types of food that contain a lot of acid, such as tomatoes, pickles and citrus fruits such as oranges and limes, since those foods tend to worsen acid reflux.
Feeding Considerations
If your infant is sitting up rather than lying down, the force of gravity will help the stomach's contents stay in the stomach, so hold your infant in a vertical position during feedings. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping your infant in a sitting position for 30 minutes after every feeding.
Medical Help
If your baby is gaining weight normally and doesn't seem very uncomfortable when he spits up, you probably don't need to seek medical help for his or her acid reflux. But you should have your infant evaluated by a pediatrician if he doesn't gain weight well, regularly refuses to eat, cries even when you try to comfort him, suffers breathing problems, or spits up blood or phlegm that's yellow or green. Your doctor may prescribe some medications to help reduce stomach acid in your infant's body or help food pass through his or her digestive track.
