The difference between spitting up and spitting up milk

It is very common for babies to spit up and spill milk. After birth, the gastrointestinal function of babies is not fully developed, so it is easy for them to spit up and spill milk. There are many reasons for this. If the mother's feeding method is incorrect or the baby has indigestion, this phenomenon will occur. So what are the differences between baby spitting up and spilling milk?

What is milk spillage

If the baby is laid flat on the bed immediately after feeding, milk will flow out from the corners of his mouth, and he may even spit out all the milk he has just eaten. However, if you hold the baby upright for a while after feeding and then put him on the bed, the spitting up will be significantly reduced. This type of spitting up is called regurgitation in medicine.

Generally speaking, the main reason for babies to spit up or regurgitate milk is that the baby's stomach is relatively shallow and the circular sphincter in the lower third of the esophagus is not yet fully developed. After feeding, because the enlarged stomach creates pressure, and the sphincter contraction strength is not strong enough to prevent the food from the stomach from flowing back, the baby often vomits or regurgitates milk. This situation often occurs in newborn babies.

The difference between spitting up and spitting up milk

After feeding, babies often spit up and regurgitate milk. Spitting up and spitting up milk actually refer to the phenomenon of milk flowing out of the baby's mouth. Spitting up means that the food in the stomach is forcefully emptied, and the amount is relatively large; regurgitation refers to the situation where the contents of the esophagus or stomach are involuntarily reversed to the outside of the mouth. The baby may just have a burp, causing a small amount of milk to overflow from the corners of the mouth. when

Generally speaking, there is not much difference between mild spitting up and regurgitation, and no special treatment is required. Sometimes when a baby has a cold or is sick, the spitting up may be more severe than usual. However, as the baby grows older, this situation will improve significantly. When the baby regurgitates or spit up milk, the mother can pat the baby gently after feeding to help the baby burp, which helps reduce the occurrence of spitting up and regurgitating milk.

However, if the baby has severe projectile vomiting, in severe cases the milk will flow out of the nostrils. At this time, parents must pay special attention and take the baby to the hospital for examination as soon as possible.

Spitting up of milk in infants is a normal physiological phenomenon and does not require special treatment. In order to reduce milk spitting up, you should be careful not to feed the baby immediately after he cries, because crying can cause swallowing of air, which is the direct cause of milk spitting up. Also, do not let the baby suck an empty bottle, and do not use sucking on the bottle to coax the baby.

After feeding, you can gently pick up the baby, let him lie on the adult's shoulder, and pat his back. If he can burp, it can prevent milk from spitting up. After feeding, you should put the baby in a suitable position according to the rules of exploration. You can start by trying the right side lying position to see if he or she spit up milk. If not, you can adopt this position in the future.

Parents can refer to the specific steps:

First: Hold your baby up when feeding, don't feed him while he is asleep;

Secondly: during feeding, you should intermittently pull out the nipple to let the baby take a breath and adjust slightly, and then continue feeding; if breastfeeding, when there is a lot of breast milk, the mother should press the breast slightly to slow down the flow of milk so that the baby can suck and swallow. If it is bottle-feeding, the nipple must be filled with milk during feeding. Generally, the bottle should be tilted more than 45 degrees. Never place the bottle flat. The nipple will be half milk and half air, so the baby will ingest a lot of air. After feeding, it is easy for the baby to bring out the milk when passing gas.

Finally: After feeding, you should hold the baby upright, pat his back gently, let the baby expel the swallowed air and then lie down to sleep.

In addition, parents should also pay attention to some details when the baby spills milk:

1. Change the diaper before feeding and do not turn the baby's body after feeding.

2. When the baby lies down, the head should be slightly raised and the body should be kept in the right side position, so that the milk in the stomach can flow down through the pylorus directly to the duodenum.

3. Wrap a small towel around the baby's neck to prevent vomitus from flowing to the neck and irritating the skin (vomitus often contains gastric acid and pepsin) and causing erosion of the neck skin.

4. After each feeding, hold the baby upright and pat his back gently. Wait until the belching stops before laying him down. If the baby chokes, coughs, turns blue in face and has purple lips after spitting up milk, you should immediately place him prone on your knees with his head down and pat his back hard. After the baby's complexion recovered, he was immediately sent to the hospital for further treatment.

5. For babies with severe milk regurgitation, the upper body should be raised 30 degrees when lying down, and 2-3 drops of 1:5000 atropine should be taken orally 10-15 minutes before each feeding to relax the muscles at the exit of the stomach, so as to facilitate the flow of milk into the duodenum.