How to stop constant spit-up?!Enfamil AR doesn't work!

Both of my babies, but especially DD, spit up a TON lately after eating. They are in no pain or discomfort and after talking to the pedi, he doesn't think it sounds like acid reflux because of this. They have been on Enfamil Lipil since they were born (I was supplementing with it early on and they've been on it soley for the past couple of months) and I decided to try the Enfamil Acid Reflux (AR) even though pedi said switching formulas wouldn't stop it from happening...DH and I decided to give it a shot. Well, our pediatrician was right. Now their spit-up is chunkier, granule-like (probably b/c the AR formula is so thick and gritty)...

We were told there's really nothing we can do for this by the baby's doctor...that just doesn't sit well with me. We burp them both frequently too. Again, they aren't crying or fussing at all, but they are covering themselves (and thus DH and me) in formula. Any suggestions?

 

Some babies are just pukers. They have an immature muscle at the top of their stomach that doesn't stay closed so the formula comes back up.

Hate to break it to ya, but mine would puke up WHOLE bottles at times (or what seemed like whole bottles) even until 10-11 mos. Now, at 14 mos, mine STILL spit up, although it has cut down in severity & frequency by a LOT. I think the crawling stage was the worst because they'd crawl off the blanket & puke all over my carpet! When they were little, you could never see their cute outfits because they ALWAYS had a bib on & no one wanted to hold them because they puked all the time. When we started solids, their puke got colored & has stained outfits, carpet, & me!

It sucks having spitty babies, but they do eventually outgrow it. Just be thankful that yours aren't in pain because mine were & I spent months adjusting meds to keep them comfy....

 

Yeah I agree with the pp - some babies just spit up. My neice was like that - she always had to wear a bib b/c you never knew when she would spit up. They will outgrow it!

 

My only suggestion would be to try and keep them upright after they eat. Put them in a bouncy or a swing that has an incline to it, so they aren't laying flat. It might help a little.

ETA - also my ped told me to practice "gentle" burping. When I had DS, I would burp him very aggressively, and he hardly ever spit up. With baby H, she spit up all the time. So to burp her, I would prop her up and just rub her back, not pat it.

 

I had a happy spitter too. Pedi also wasn't worried since she wasn't upset, or in pain and was growing just fine. We just kept tons and tons and tons of burp cloths all over the place (real cloth diapers are awesome for that!) I think she was 7/8 months when things settled down.

Solids did help a little, but as pp mentioned when they first started crawling, that was rough again!

You know your little one spits up a lot when the pedi says to you "Boy you weren't kidding she spits up a lot!" After said baby spit up 6 times in the hour we were there (once on his shoe ! ) and then says "I have kids who've come in with the stomach flu who haven't thrown up this much in the time they were here!"

 

Some babies are pukers.. just like PP said..
BUT we did the whole rice in the bottle thing.. and then switched to AR and then we switched to nutramagen.. and it stopped. So even if it doesnt seems like they are in pain.. they might still have an intolerance to milk or something. but this isnt always the case.

GL!!

 

One of mine vomits sometimes and she doesn't seem phased by it at all. The other one though.. that was a different story. Alyssa would projectile vomit and SEEM fine, then later on she'd freak out [This was at about 1.5 mos]. The pedi gave her an Rx for acid reflux and she stopped vomiting AND freaking out. We used the Rx for a few weeks and she's been doing fine since.

Keeping them propped up [maybe a car seat, sit up bouncy chair, or a swing..] after eating can help this also. I know mine would vomit right after eating though, but the crankyness was due to the Acid reflux, so propping up helped in our case.

We have the girls on 1/2 Enfamil AR [Added Rice - I thought it was for Acid Reflux for a while too ^_^] and 1/2 Similac Sensitive.

 

We added rice cereal to Enfamil AR for all bottles at about 3 months because of spitting up, it was very thick but it worked.

Some people / Dr's say not to (add rice) and some swear by it, I’m in the camp that says do whatever you have to do to keep the formula down. Try it and see, if it doesn't improve, ask the Dr. again about reflux. Just because they're not in pain, doesn't mean they can't have reflux (IMO). Good luck!!

 

We were on the enfamil AR too and it didn't work. My babies have silent reflux though. Once we switched to the nutramigen, things were a lot better!!

 

DD was a spitter too and we switched to soy formula and it decreased the spitting by a lot. Looking back I wish I had tried another formula first (lactose free for example), with all the controversy on soy, but oh well.

 

Thank you all so much for your responses! I feel so much better now...Haha, it makes TOTAL sense that the AR is added rice due to the thick consistency of the formula I guess I just have two happy spitters!

 

My DS has acid reflux and I opted to try cereal in his bottle before going on meds. This has helped tremendously!!! Try a little at first then up the amount if it seems to not help--Dont forget you will need to get a larger sized nipple for your bottles. We went from level 1 to level 3 Dr. Brown nipples. Hope it gets better.

 

the rice in the bottle helped TONS for DS. he stopped spitting up almost completely. i made it really thick and it worked. now he refuses to take a bottle with rice and gags, but he's been sick so maybe thats why. good luck!