When does my baby's spit-up indicate a serious problem?
Doctor's get concerned when spit-up is causing your baby to be more fussy or it's bothering them when they spit up. In general, when babies spit up they spit up and they go about their business, they even may smile afterwards because it was a release of gas and that feels good. But there are some other causes of spitting up that need to be investigated. More severe reflux or painful reflux and certain allergies. So, with reflux that would show up as your child when they spit up they arch their back and get really fussy and scream, and they do this because the acid, as it comes up, hurts them. Now luckily only about one-third of reflux is painful. So we get concerned with reflux if it's painful to them, so that they're really miserable every time they spit up and it usally happens about fifteen to thirty minutes after feeding or they're spitting up so much that they're not gaining weight. So in that case obviously we would want to investigate, and if we think it's reflux, start them on a medication to help keep the food down. The other thing, of course, the first thing we do with reflux is just positioning. We mention keeping the head of the bed elevated at least at a forty-five degree angle, keeping their head elevated in your arms after feeding, just to use gravity to your advantage.
