Some newborns and young infants will experience these difficulties. Here are some tried and true remedies and solutions to help you track down the causes and enjoy a happy baby again:
Babies who are breastfeeding:
- Overactive milk let-down: If a mom’s let-down of milk (the first rush of milk that baby get during the first few minutes of every nursing session) is too fast, it can overwhelm a baby and cause him to swallow more air and gasp and choke through the first part of the feeding. If this sounds like you, read about how to adjust your feedings on this lactation website here.
- Foremilk overload: The first 5 to 10 minutes of milk from a breast is higher in sugar, which can create more gas during digestion, especially if baby is taking a short feeding from both breasts (she’ll be getting all foremilk). If you think this may be the case, try to prolong baby’s feeds to 20 minutes or longer on a breast so baby gets to more of the hind milk (higher fat, less sugar). Overactive let-down can also be a cause of this too (baby gets too full too quickly on the rush of foremilk).
- Cow’s milk sensitivity in mom’s diet: Mom can eliminate all sources of this from her diet and see if baby improves (it may take a few days to see improvement, and can take as long as 2 weeks). This is also more likely to be the culprit if there is visible blood in baby’s stools.
- Other food sensitivities could also be at play, like gluten/wheat, corn, eggs, peanuts, nuts, soy, or overload of any particular food. Gassy veggies in mom’s diet can also affect baby, like beans, peans, lentils, legumes, cabbage, broccoli and other greens.
- Runny, mucousy, green stools: Breastfed stools are supposed to look like yellow gourmet seedy mustard or small-curd yellow cottage cheese. If the stools are liquidy, mucousy, and/or green, this is a clue that there may be a food sensitivity or possibly a lack of hindmilk.
- Tongue tie: this, along with lip ties, can cause babies to swallow more air during nursing and contribute to colic. Seeing a lactation consultant to rule this out may be useful.
Babies who are formula feeding:
- Cow’s milk formula intolerance: Try switching to a goat milk formula. After that, try a formula labeled as “sensitive.” If that doesn’t help, make an appointment to discuss.
- Try a different bottle or nipple type: I don’t have any specific guidance to give you on this, but it may help.
- Raw milk homemade formula: Some practitioners feel ok about recommending raw cow’s milk to make a homemade formula. Due to the risk of food poisoning, this isn’t something I proactively advise in any of my writings. However, this is a long-standing option that some feel is appropriate for infants. Raw cow’s milk does seem to be much better tolerated that any processed cow’s milk. Some infants who seem very sensitive to process cow’s milk or milk-based formula will do fine on raw milk. Those who support the use of raw milk generally advise fortifying the milk with various extra nutrients according to the Weston Price Homemade formula recipe seen here.
Other remedies and treatments: in addition to trying to find the root cause above, here are some things to try that may bring baby some relief:
- Probiotics: these may improve the gut microbiome and reduce colic. Any infant brand with multiple strains of bifidobacteria is appropriate.
- Gas drops: simethicone gas drops (OTC) from any drug store can help move gas through the GI tract faster and easier.
- Homeopathic or herbal gas/colic remedies or gripe water: I don’t have a favorite one, but you can safely try a variety of these and see if any bring relief.
- Lactase digestive drops: some infants can be partly lactose intolerant, so adding these drops to baby’s feeds (breast or bottle) can help digest milk sugars, and if that’s the culprit then this should really help (Colief is one brand).
- Chiropractic or Craniosacral care or Osteopathic manipulation: these can help improve colic.
Happy Spitters: Babies who spit up a lot, but are overall happy and have healthy stools, likely don’t have a medical or nutritional cause of their spitting up. You can certainly try to account for over-active letdown or foremilk overload and see if baby improves. If formula-feeding, you can try a change. But if baby is happy and thriving, I wouldn’t try to chase down the cause of spitting up beyond these simple steps.
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