Spitting up in babies is the regurgitation of a small amount of food. When an infant swallows air with her meal, sometimes milk comes back up with the gas. Adjust your child's mealtimes and rest times to make her more comfortable and to lessen the number of spitting up episodes.
Position
Keeping your baby in an upright position during feeding and sleeping is a home remedy that can minimize spitting up episodes. Your baby's lower esophageal sphincter, or LES, is a muscle at the base of the throat that opens and closes in a valve-like motion. The valve keeps food from reversing back into the throat after eating. Holding your baby upright while you feed and burp her helps keep the LES closed and reduces the chances of spitting up. A baby who spits up frequently might benefit from sleeping in the semi-reclining position of an infant car seat rather than on her back in a crib.
Schedule
Your baby might spit up because he eats too much at one time and his small stomach cannot accommodate the larger meal size. A natural remedy to this problem is to feed your child smaller volumes of liquid several times throughout the day. Parents who give their child infant formula have an easier time controlling the amount of milk their child drinks at once; cut the usual amount of formula in a single feeding in half. Burp your child often during feedings to bring up air without also bringing up the meal. Breastfeeding mothers may choose to feed on one side only to give the baby enough time to digest before switching to the other breast. Try not to feed your infant right before putting him down for a nap or for the night to reduce the chances of spitting up.
Diet
Your baby's diet -- and yours, if you nurse your child -- is a possible cause of spitting up. The thin consistency of breast milk or infant formula contributes to increased spitting up in children who are prone to reflux. Consult your pediatrician about thickening the milk with several tablespoons of rice cereal before giving your baby a bottle. Breastfeeding mothers are encouraged to keep a journal of the foods they eat and note any changes in their child's spitting up habits. Dairy and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are foods that often produce gas in a breastfed baby, and may increase the frequency of spitting up. Removing the offending foods from the mother's diet may be the only remedy needed for symptoms to improve.
Considerations
Babies who spit up green fluids, regurgitate more than a couple of tablespoons of milk frequently, suffer from projectile vomiting and do not gain weight may have a more serious problem than the occasional gas. Gastroesophageal reflux, or GERD, can hamper a young child's development if he is not keeping down the nutrition he needs to grow. Speak to your pediatrician about your concerns; acid-reducing medications are a possible solution.
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