My baby spits up a ton

Its good news that there is no evidence of any problems so my advice would be to perhaps alter the angle you hold your baby while feeding him/her. Doing this may make digestion easier for your little one, and reduce the amount of air he/she inhales when feeding because that can also cause "spitting up"

Additionally I have experienced that it is useful to pause the feeding after half the formula has been consumed and make your baby burp and then continue with feeding again, this may help with the digestion and avoid build up of gas too.

You could also try to use a spoon when feeding formula that has cereal added to it and see if that makes a difference.

A few of things that you could try:

• using a slower flow nipple on the bottle: if he's eating more slowly, that may reduce the amount of air that he's ingesting

• try a different type of bottle: again to try to reduce the amount of air ingested - the ones with liners claim to reduce the amount of air compared to plain glass/plastic bottles

• removing the cereal from his diet: perhaps his system isn't ready for the cereal yet. The CPS recommends holding off on solids until 6 months (http://www.caringforkids.cps.ca/pregnancy&babies/Feeding.htm) A note about that though: every baby is ready for solids at different times, I personally started both my kids on cereal at just after 5 months.

Or, as long as he is gaining weight, seems happy and hitting his milestones, then maybe he is just a kid that spits up a lot?

How much is a lot? Is it projectile? Does he seem fussy after feeding? Does he arch his back and pull off of the bottle during feeding? If he does any of those it might be reflux. My son has reflux and was on Prevacid for it. He had projectile spit ups - he would eat 2 oz and then spit up almost all of it. It would fly over our shoulder and at times it hit the wall behind!! He'd eat another 2 oz and then spit up. He was also in pain.

The suggestions we got from our doctor were:

• Feed smaller amounts more slowly
• Burp really well during & after feeding
• Thicken the milk to help it stay down (I feed breastmilk in a bottle so use Simply Thick) There are special formulas for reflux -- one is Enfamil RS
• Keep your baby upright for 30 minutes after feeding
• Let your baby sleep in his car seat or in the swing with it turned off if you are having lots of problems with reflux at night

If your baby doesn't seem like he is in pain and is gaining weight, then it is probably just a laundry problem. Our pedi said that most babies grow out of their spitting up problem around 6 months. Some babies spit up more than others and whether or not it is an issue is really determined by weight gain & other fussy signs that might point to a medical problem.

Another common thing that causes excessive spitting up is a milk protein intolerance. Symptoms of that are spitting up, green mucousy poop and blood in the stool. If you have any of those I'd talk to your pediatrician.

Milk Protein Intolerance Infant Acid Reflux

Have you tried lactose free formula? If not get that started asap for a few days and see if it helps - our daughter was the same way and the lactose free formula stopped it within 48-72 hours - amazing. If it does not make a difference you can always go back to what you are using now and lactose free formula will do no damage at all to a child who is not actually intollerant.

My daughter also spit up a lot. We found she spit up less when we switched her to a soy formula. It didn't stop completely, but it was a much more normal amount.

Also, giving your baby a little Mylicon (infant gas drops) may help.

I breast fed my child and he spit up a ton! We were a little concerned for awhile but our doctor said it was completely "normal" for a child to spit up. But right around the 6 month mark, he completely stopped and we were thrilled!!! So it will end sooner or later as he grows and develops!