Hey everyone - I'm new here from the pregnancy board! My little girl is 3 weeks old and I have a few questions:
1. She seems to eat so fast that she chokes and her eyes water, is this normal? We are bottle feeding and she eats between 2-4 oz at a time. But she gobbles it like she is starving...
2. Yesterday she started spitting up and today she vomited. It wasn't projectile but it was def. more than a spit up. Is this due to overeating? She had about 6 ounces 1 hour prior to her vomiting. What is considered normal and what is cause for concern?
3. I know we are supposed to put them on their backs but what happens if she had spit-up/vomited while in her bed on her back? Would she have choked?

Thanks

I can't answer your question about the vomiting, but I can relate to the choking. My son ate so fast that he would choke and spit up every time he ate. Just make sure that your using a slow flow nipple.

How often are you burping in between the ounces? You may want to have her drink an ounce, burp, drink an ounce, burp, etc. My friend is going through this with her son who is 6 weeks. He has a condition where his esophagus is immature, something he will eventually outgrow.

six ounces seems like it might be too much for a three week old, so that might have caused the projectile vomiting, especially if she was eating too fast. definitely make sure she is eating with a slow flow nipple, and as someone else mentioned, try burping her more often. if you're already burping after each ounce, then do half ounces.... it's a pain, but it's less of a pain than having to change her clothes (and yours) every time she eats and spits up! you could also take the bottle away every couple of gulps to slow her down, but you'd have to be careful not to do it mid-gulp so she isn't swallowing more air.

and if she already is using a slow flow nipple, you may want to look into getting a different bottle. some slow flow nipples seem to be slower than others. i found that evenflo, gerber, and parent's choice slow flow nipples came out a lot faster than the playtex nurser slow flow nipples. another thing to try (***but you'd need to check with her doctor first to rule out any other issues!***) would be to add a little rice cereal to her bottle to thicken it up a bit. i did this with my older daughter but she was almost 2 months old by the time we tried that.

and for the spitting up and choking while laying flat, i really don't know what the statistics are. both of my girls were spitters from the day they were born, and i always worried about it. i had them sleeping in the play yard bassinet next to my bed and i do remember a couple of times when my little one would spit up and start choking on it. i rolled her to her side and she finished spitting up and was fine. we always tried to get her to sleep with side positioners, but she always wiggled back to her back. we ended up putting a folded towel under her bassinet mattress to keep her at an incline and i always kept her upright for at least half an hour after she ate, and that seemed to help her not spit up at night.

anyway, i hope it gets better for her! and congrats on your new little one! :)

HI

Dr. Browns bottles have preemie nipple before the level one. I am not sure if other bottles do. . . even if she wasn't preemie may want to get the slowest flow nipple for now

I have to agree with everyone else, including the posting about the Dr. Brown bottles. We love them. One thing to add.... we would turn/twist the bottle every so often to slow our kids down; it wouldn't totally break their suction, but slow up their rhythm(if that makes sense:confused: .)
Congrats on the baby and good luck!!!

HI

Dr. Browns bottles have preemie nipple before the level one. I am not sure if other bottles do. . . even if she wasn't preemie may want to get the slowest flow nipple for now

I don't want to scare anyone but this was my experience.
My daughter had acid reflux and when she was born, it appeared to us she was always hungry since she looked at food for pacification which in turn gave her more problems. She was gulping down ounces and ounces but kept crying (as though for hunger) but it was actually the pain fro mthe reflux.

The "choking" and hicups come from the food coming back up the food pipe.

I would rule out the possibility of acid reflux first. We got a bunch of diff bottles including Dr Brown bottles, but they didn't do anything much for us since we were battling reflux issues.

Most babies spit up until their a few months old. That's what they refer to as reflux. Their digestive systems are still developing. Most of the time it's mild and not a serious problem and they usually outgrow it by around 6 months, but if she's in pain or bothered by it, her doctor can prescribe something for her to help with the pain. I agree with all of the other posters on trying different bottles with slower nipples and burping her more often. The studies have shown that healthy babies laid on their backs will turn their head to the side and not choke on their vomit. I asked our pediatrician that too. If' you're really concerned, you can try propping her up on her side with a sleep positioner. You don't prop them totally on their side so they can roll over onto their stomach, you lean them against the positioner so they're on an angle. We bought DS a wedge that goes under the crib sheet and matress pad so his head is elevated slightly above his stomach. This really cut down on the spit-up when we lay him down to go to sleep. We also lay him on his side with a sleep positioner, but that's more for his head shape problem than the mild reflux. Also, during the day, we were told to keep him upright (hold him or put him in a bouncer, but don't lay him down) for a half an hour after he eats. That really helped too. He has a mild case of reflux and isn't on any meds for it and it doesn't bother him, we just deal with spit-up here and there, especially if he sucks down too much and doesn't burp often enough. Burping more often really does help.

As far as when the spit-up becomes a concern, I was told that projectile vomit that goes several feet across the room warrants a call to the pediatrician. Also, if they're spitting up the entire feeding after every feeding or quite often, it could be a sign of a stomach problem where the part where the stomach meets the intestines closes up, and that usually happens right around 2 months.

It could also be a sign of a milk protein allergy if she's spitting up a lot after every feeding, especially if she's really crabby and seemingly in pain after eating or has wierd poops. If you're concerned, call the pediatrician or mention it at her one-month appointment. Her doctor will be able to discern between reflux, a milk protein allergy or a more serious problem.

Hi again - Thank you everyone for your responses :) Thankfully, she has not thrown up since that night. And maybe spits up once a day...We decided that we must have way over fed her. We also have been trying to keep her upright for 30 min after she eats and been pulling the bottle away when she starts to get a red face while she eats, that usually happens when she eats super fast. We try to feed her every 2 hours so she doesn't get famished but sometimes that doesn't work. Like today for example, she ate 7 ounces in a 1 hour time span. I thought she was crying because she had a bellyache, she had just eaten about 5 ounces but her dad insisted she was still hungry so I (reluctantly) gave her 2 more ounces, we do 2 ounces at a time, and she ate, burped and was happy as a clam for the next several hours...
Sometimes she seems to grunt and turn red on and off for hours at a time but her diaper is always just pee, does it sound like she is constipated or having a belly ache? She does have a bowel movement several times a day but in the time between she does grunt a lot...even while she sleeps...

So many questions, I'm sorry :) we are going to the doctor's next week but I just wanted to get some other parent's perspective. Don't get me wrong we have a wonderful baby and we are very lucky she is healthy, but I just get so nervous something will be wrong and I won't know it....
I hear her grunting :) so I'm off!!!
thank you again everyone for your advice!

You can also try holding her on her side while you feed her. That way if the nipple is flowing a little too fast the extra milk will pool in her cheek rather than in the back of her throat, which could be causing her to choke on it.