spitting up lots - does it have to be reflux?

[berolina]

me again
The good news is we've hit 18 weeks and bf is still going swimmingly. 6 months here we come Are still feeding fairly frequently (every 1.5-3 hrs in the day, 3-6 hrs at night) but down to usually one breast per feeding. Weight gain has been steady and he had nearly doubled his birthweight at 16 weeks.
The less good news is that ds has started spitting up a lot. He's always been fairly sicky, but over the last few days it's sometimes been after every feed, sometimes motre than once. He doesn't really seem unhappy with it (sometimes even does a big cheeky grin after spitting ), weeing and pooing fine, and I was wondering whether it's necessarily reflux or just something that's happening atm, maybe because he even takes too much milk in too fast with feeds? Any ideas? TIA!

I found he went through "more spitty" and "less spitty" phases -- we'd have a couple of weeks of very little spitting up and then suddenly a couple of weeks where he seemed to be doing it all the time. So if he seems perfectly happy I'd plump for the "just something" option.

No, not necessarily reflux. At that age he is likely to be more mobile and as he doesn't stay put so readily the liquid comes back or perhaps takes in a bit of air as he feeds. Sounds fine otherwise.

My ds (24 wks) is doing just the same at the moment. It's such a pain isn't it! TBH I am sick of changing both our clothes... Sometimes he doesn't do it very much, other times straight after every feed, or an hour later. But I figure as long as he's happy enough and not bringing up huge amounts then it's just something we have to put up with! When do they grow out of it?

Tatties -- I realised when answering this post that ds (8 months) doesn't really spit up any more. He did the day before yesterday and it caught me by surprise because it was the first time for a couple of weeks. So I think (touch wood, cross fingers) that we may have hit the blessed growing out of it stage.

Now watch him prove me wrong...

DS used to do this. I think when he was little, if he was uncomfy, he thought that feeding would make his tummy stop hurting. So he'd feed. Then the burp that was actually causing the problem would come up...and bring ALL that milk back with it (quite a distance sometimes too!).

Berolina - you're wonderful - all that trouble you had at the beginning and now 18 weeks of feeding! Fantastic!

Ds had a reflux, I was told by a doctor if it is a reflux he will bring back milk with every feed (which he did) and it was projectile.

DS2 used to do it with pretty much every feed, but only very rarely brought up a full feed. Not projectile. And his weight gain was good, and he wasn't unhappy.

So we waited, and now it's mostly stopped. He throws up maybe once a day now, if that, at a year.

hunker - - he makes it very easy for me!
thanks everyone. we'll see how it goes.