# 9 day-old has been projectile vomiting



## Erdbeer (Dec 17, 2007)

My newborn has started projectile vomiting... she's done it at least twice a day for the past 2.5 days... so about 5 or 6 times in total. When this happens, she gags and vomits in waves until nothing more comes up.

During the day she sleeps most of the time with 2 or 3 feeding breaks. At night she is up every hour to 90 minutes and wants to drink. The vomiting happens mostly in the evening or at night when she drinks more.

When she first starts drinking, she is a bit frenzied and sounds like she swallows air along with the milk until she relaxes a bit. I've found that pumping out a little bit of milk before letting her latch on helps this... I think the heavy flow overwhelms her. I've also started taking her off the breast mid-feeding to try to burp her, but I can almost never get her to burp!
Then she gets frenzied to drink more, and I put her back on. She throws up usually out of the blue while resting after her feeding. She will be asleep or half-asleep, and then start moving her mouth and looking uncomfortable, and then WHAM! Out it comes.

Is this something to worry about? I think it has to do with her sudden increase in drinking but how can I help her to stop throwing up? She looks so miserable...


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## MommyJoia (Oct 31, 2007)

how's your diet? do you eat any dairy?

It could be reflux, it could be an over supply, it could be a hind/fore milk thing.

hows her poop? is it yellow and seedy, or green and slimy?


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## Erdbeer (Dec 17, 2007)

I've been eating pretty carefully... usually have müsli with milk or plain yogurt and grapes, apples and dates for breakfast. Salad and rice/pasta and a bit of meat for dinner, sandwich for lunch, occasional chocolate. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning, otherwise only water and fenugreek tea during the day.

Her poop is yellow and grainy, nothing really unusual there.

What do you mean by hind/fore milk thing? I usually feed her one breast at a feeding, she usually doesn't want more than that. Often she doesn't drink for a long time (maybe 5-7 min) and I start the next feeding on the same breast. I don't think I have an oversupply... my breasts were much more engorged when I had my son than they are now. Until now, breast feeding has been going great for us. This is throwing me for a loop...


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## MommyJoia (Oct 31, 2007)

could be reflux then... you could try keeing her upright after each feeding for 15-20 minutes, like on your shoulder... my DD#1 was a big time puker, she could hit the wall 3 feet away over my shoulder, only she mostly puked during the day and nursed fine over night... I'm really not sure what her "problem" was, but she got over it around 7 months...

I'm of the school of though that as long as your baby poops and pees reguarly and desn't seem to be in any pain, then spitting up is just a laundry poblem.

Does she cry when she spits up? or does she just seem uncomfortable?


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## Erdbeer (Dec 17, 2007)

7 months!? That's a loooong time....

When she vomits, she cries afterwards, like she is in shock. I've tried holding her upright but then she fusses like crazy and leans towards my breast again to feed, looking for more milk. If I put her on, she fusses and fusses, just doesn't know what she wants, and ends up inhaling more air and not drinking. I've been handing her off to DH because she will relax more on his shoulder than on mine... she doesn't look for milk quite as much when he has her.

Still, do you think it could be coming from the lack of burping?


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## gsd1amommy (Apr 6, 2007)

Could it be pyloric stenosis?
The first sign of pyloric stenosis is usually vomiting. It may start out as spitting up frequently, but then it tends to progress to projectile vomiting, in which the breast milk or formula is ejected forcefully from the mouth, in an arc, sometimes over a distance of several feet. Projectile vomiting usually takes place soon after the end of a feeding, although in some cases it may be delayed for hours.
A baby with pyloric stenosis is usually hungry again soon after vomiting and will want to eat. After eating, increased stomach contractions may make noticeable ripples, or waves of peristalsis, which move from left to right over the infant's belly as the stomach tries to empty itself against the thickened pylorus.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical..._stenosis.html


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## Yulia_R (Jan 7, 2006)

As a mom of a super EX-puker (my son puked a LOT) I would like to give you few tips:

1. Quit ALL dairy (all of it: milk, yogurt, cheese, ANY food that had ANY dairy in the ingredients). It takes up to two weeks to get dairy out of your system completely;
2. Quit eating chocolate, drinking coffee and generally be careful with foods that are well known offenders to newborns (such as soy, garlic, eggplant, coffee, chocolate etc.)
3. Keep her in up-right position after feedings for at least 15-20 min. (with my son I did more like 30-40 min...it was especially "fun" at night time: I nurse, hold him for 30-40 min and when I am finally done he's back up ready to nurse again LOL)
4. Nurse your baby at one breast at a time: this way she will get both fore and hind milk (because if you are engorged and nurse her on both breasts she will mostly get fore milk)


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## Erdbeer (Dec 17, 2007)

I really hope not... She doesn't vomit a few feet, more like a few inches. It is usually about 20 minutes after she eats, sometimes an hour. Then again, it hasn't happened so frequently yet so it's hard to really say there's a distinct pattern. If it were pyloric stenosis, though, I guess nothing would be kept down and therefore she wouldn't poop... right?


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## PatioGardener (Aug 11, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Erdbeer* 
I really hope not... She doesn't vomit a few feet, more like a few inches. It is usually about 20 minutes after she eats, sometimes an hour. Then again, it hasn't happened so frequently yet so it's hard to really say there's a distinct pattern. If it were pyloric stenosis, though, I guess nothing would be kept down and therefore she wouldn't poop... right?

Yeah - projectile means a "hit the opposite wall" kind of vomit, and a baby with pyloric stenosis will be hungry from vomiting up everything, and will likely stop gaining weight. But pyloric stenosis starts slowly and builds, so it's a good idea to pay attention to it just to see if it builds to happening after every feed.

But from your description it sounds like the suggestions the PPs have made should help (cut dairy and soy, keep baby upright after a feed etc.)


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## Llyra (Jan 16, 2005)

My DD1 was a HUGE puker. We never found any cause. As soon as she could hold her head up, it got better, and it really stopped almost completely when she could sit up with some support, around 4 1/2 to 5 months.

If it were me, though, I'd look for a health care provider's advice, just in case. It's probably not pyloric stenosis; if it were, she'd be vomiting with every feeding. But it's worth it to be sure.

In the meantime, the best way we found to deal with it was to feed before baby gets really hungry, so that baby stays calmer. Keeping baby upright can help, too. And if baby wants milk again right after puking, go back to the same breast, even if it seems to be "empty"-- she might just be wanting the comfort of nursing, not necessarily a full breast of milk. And a breast is never truly empty, anyway.

And I'd really consider the possibility of oversupply, too. It sounds like the letdown is overwhelming her a bit. Block feeding (feeding on only one breast for a longer period of time, like four hours) might really help. If baby wants to eat again during the allotted time, you go back to the same breast, rather than using the other. When the time is up, you switch, for another four hours. Maybe even start with three hours, and then do four if that doesn't help.

Myself, I think that it's not mom's diet half as much as we sometimes assume. I wouldn't go rushing into major dietary changes without trying block feeding first, and giving it some time to really adjust your supply.


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## jbalsam (Mar 22, 2009)

Have you tried putting her in a wrap or carrier that keeps her upright after eating? My daughter is a puker, and started as early as 3 days; got worse at about 3 weeks. If she's fussing and in pain after eating I put her in the Moby wrap and after a few minutes she is calmer. Sometimes she pukes IN the wrap so I put a bib on her first.









My midwife and pediatrician both agreed that she has reflux. Been taking her to the chiropractor for some relief. Her symptoms are not exactly the same as yours but hth.


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## MommyJoia (Oct 31, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Erdbeer* 
I really hope not... She doesn't vomit a few feet, more like a few inches. It is usually about 20 minutes after she eats, sometimes an hour. Then again, it hasn't happened so frequently yet so it's hard to really say there's a distinct pattern. If it were pyloric stenosis, though, I guess nothing would be kept down and therefore she wouldn't poop... right?

a few inches isn't "projectile"

with ,y dd#1, she could go 5 feet (easily) I sill find puke on the wall from her and she's almost 5! mine did not have a gaining issue, quite the opposite she was 21lbs at 6 months and 27 at a year. I had to FF her at 15 months due to the fact she was 30lbs!

are you co-sleeping?


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## cherimoya (Mar 23, 2008)

ds projectile vomited early on until I stopped dairy...then the vomiting stopped too! With dd I just cut it out straight away anyway and I was careful introducing it slowly again after 9 months.


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## Fly Girl (Jan 11, 2008)

DD also vomited a lot in the beginning until I cut out dairy. Even now at almost 6 months, if I accidently have even a little dairy she'll have major spit up.


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## Erdbeer (Dec 17, 2007)

Wow, 5 feet! OK, then this is definitely not projectile. It is not dribbling down her chin, it is shooting out in giant waves, but still... not THAT far.

Well, I saw my midwife with the baby today and spoke to her about it. She said the baby is gaining weight, looks good and healthy, and may just need to get used to feeding. Due to tearing during birth, I had been feeding her in a side-lying position and she doesn't throw up as much when fed like that. As I began healing, I started to try feeding in other positions (like sitting up in football hold), and these seem to irritate her. All through last night I just fed her on the side and did not pick her up right after, I let her lie still and just stroked her, and she did not throw up since then. I think maybe baby and I have to get to know each other's habits better. I think after the first throwing up episode, I started to pick her up too early after drinking and this got her even more agitated.

Today she's been sleeping a lot again, we'll see how it goes when she wakes up. I am going to stick with the side-lying position for now...

That suggestion about block feeding is interesting... hadn't heard of that before but it sounds like a good option for her, because I feel that even after she is "done" on one side, there is still plenty of milk in there. With my son, it would be almost bone-dry when he was done with one side, I'd feel that hardly anything more was coming out.


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