What to do if baby vomits milk due to acid reflux

Spitting up milk is a common phenomenon in daily life. Babies spit up milk because of stomach discomfort. Some parents will find that their children's stomachs are a little abnormal, and the spitted milk will have a sour taste. Many parents think that this is spitting up milk caused by stomach acid. In fact, when the baby spit up milk, you must go to the hospital for examination because you cannot rule out other problems.

Reasons for baby spitting up

Newborn spit-ups are not only caused by changing the holding position after feeding, but the main reason lies in the physiological characteristics of the baby. First, let us understand the structure of babies' stomachs and the characteristics of their feeding methods.

The reason for spitting up: the baby's stomach and throat are not yet fully developed

The stomach of a newborn baby, viewed from the front, is lying horizontally and is in an unstable state, while the cardia (the entrance to the stomach) is relatively loose. That is to say, when adults eat, after food enters the stomach, the cardia will contract to prevent food from flowing back into the esophagus; but because the cardia of infants' stomach cannot contract well, the milk that enters the stomach can flow back into the esophagus more easily. In addition, compared with adults, the larynx of newborns is higher, and their way of sucking the nipple is clumsy, which makes it easy for air to be inhaled into the stomach along with the milk when feeding. Therefore, when the child burps or shakes his body, the milk he eats is more likely to be spit out.

When does a child need to see a doctor after spitting up milk?

When it comes to avoiding spitting up, babies who are breastfed are better than those who are bottle-fed. Children who are bottle-fed will swallow a lot of air, but those who are breastfed will not, because the baby's mouth and the mother's nipple form a vacuum adsorption, and air is not easy to invade. As for the amount of vomited milk, it only looks like a lot, but in fact most of it is gastric juice, and the child will not be hungry because of it. As long as your baby doesn't show any discomfort, isn't losing weight, or has any abnormal symptoms such as frequent and large amounts of vomiting, greenish color, crying, coughing, etc., there's no need to see a doctor.

However, we need to pay more attention to the child's mental and physical state after spitting up. After the vomiting is relieved, if the baby still feels listless, only wants to sleep, is emotionally restless, cannot fall asleep, has a fever, has a bloated stomach, etc., he may be sick and should see a doctor.