12 week baby vomiting forcefully

[kisaki333]

Hi all, I am a FTM so probably over reacting. Looking for advice from more experienced moms out there.
My now 12 week baby has had 3 episodes where she threw up via mouth and nose pretty much the entire contents of her stomach. First two times (8w and 10w) we called 999 and the ambulace took her to the hospital to get her checked. I didn't feel like they did anything useful as she was fine by the time we got there. I just spent a very stressful 6h in a hospital and then got sent home basically.
Today it happened again. I didn't call the ambulance this time as i feel they will do the same and it will just be another huge waste of time for everyone.

My gp is useless and the hv the same. I just want to know how normal it is for a small baby to throw up like this. I don't see how she could have gotten a stomach bug. But she has been a bit off all day long...

That doesn't sound like a normal thing to me, and if it's happened three separate times it doesn't sound like a stomach bug to me either. I think it needs investigating further. Sorry I can't be more helpful with any suggestions for what to look for but I'm sure some knowledgeable posters will be along. Is she breastfed or bottle fed? Just wondering if there could be some issue with the type of milk she's getting or the bottles being used.
It sounds very stressful, poor (both of) you. You're right to keep making a fuss.

Was she also feeling poorly or otherwise well?

Two common things are either reflux or a tummy bug. However when my kids had reflux I don't remember it coming out through the nose as well. It can however be really forceful and come out as projectile vomit.

Re tummy bug, it's common for babies to become temporarily lactose intolerant afterwards. My daughter had this at 6mo and was constantly projectile vomiting her milk. It was only when I cut out dairy (both from her solids and from my diet as I was breastfeeding) that it finally settled down.

My advice would be to ask to be referred to a Paediatrician or go privately if you have health insurance / can afford it.

Is she gaining weight and otherwise well in herself? Some babies can vomit incredible amounts and be fine. If it's happening frequently and there are weight gain issues then it could be pyloric stenosis but I'd imagine this would have begun earlier and been picked up by now?

She is gaining but slowly. She was born very small and is still under the 0.4 percentile. Only 3.5kg at 12 weeks... i am so incredibly tired with the whole being passed around from gp to hv to emergency and nobody is flipping doing anything to help!

My son had violent sickness around a similar age and was taken to hospital. It then happened again about a month later. Both times he had been bottle fed when normally breastfed. It seemed obvious to me that there was a link but it took for a sympathetic GP to push for a referral to a paediatric allergy consultant to diagnose him with milk allergy. Once I stopped breastfeeding he had specialist milk on prescription and grew out of the allergy by 2 (we also were advised to avoid egg too). Looking back he was quite a wiggly, tricky baby and I think any dairy I was eating was going through and making him uncomfortable. All the best.

Is it reflux?

Was it projectile vomiting OP?

Some babies are ‘spewy’ and some aren’t.

one of mine didn’t bring anything up until 4m old when he was sick once and the other vomited like you describe every few days. He’s 1 and still does if he coughs. It’s like he has got a really intense gag reflex

I would ask to be referred to a paediatrician (where I am - Scotland - they have community paediatricians who are generalists who can make further referrals) or a paediatric gastroenterologist. Ask for it on the basis of the projectile vomiting and her small size as below the 0.4th centile is outwith the normal range. Doesn’t mean to say there is a serious issue - might just be small baby with reflux in which case she will grow out of it soon. Possibly also a referral to a dietician would be helpful -my son was on the 0.4th and his nhs dietician was great.

You called 999 for it? I'm surprised the ambulance took baby in. Two of my three kids have done this, both reflux related, one had tongue tie and he used to do this once or twice a day for weeks. He was gaining weight fine and I wasn't in any pain so we didn't need to get it snipped. Have you had your baby checked for tongue tie? Forceful vomiting and slow weight gain would usually be markers for checking for this.

Yes my kids did this at the same age. Occasional incidents of this very heavy sick, over the course of a couple of months.

Surprised an ambulance took them in. I wouldn't have called 999 personally although was seen by GP about it who (with all DC) sent us in to the local hospital to be checked out. No concerns.

My 9 week old is the same she gets so upset and yes it comes out of her nose too. GP thinks it’s just reflux but honestly it can be really scary we’ve had gaviscon but that made her constipated and she was clearly in pain with it. Now been prescribed omeprazole and waiting on a paediatrician referral.

Personally I am suspecting it could be CMPA and am going to cut dairy from my diet to see if this helps (she is exclusively breastfed) if you want to go down this route make sure you take a calcium supplement. The next most common allergy is soya. I really think it’s luck getting someone who will actually listen properly and take things further. If you’re seen to be just about coping then things must be fine 🙄

OP, the big disclaimer is that you know your baby and you know what is normal for her. If this isn't normal for her, I'd go back to the GP.

Otherwise: one of mine did this. The others used to shriek "nose posset!" when poor little DC managed to puke through her nose as well. Because she was DC5, we did not do anything and thought she'd grow out of it (which she did). I think it was probably reflux.

But the differences were: she was DC5 so it was just part of the wallpaper; and she was also well over the 99th centile, so I didn't have any concerns on that score. She was also clearly absolutely fine.

If you have concerns, definitely return to the GP, and be insistent that you are worried.

I did the first two times because she'd become quite lethargic after the fact. 999 treated it as a high priority due to that and her being very young/small. But by the time we got to the hospital she was pretty much ok. Typical.... I did ask the emt's if i overreacted and they said no, it was right to call.

They told me she does not have tongue tie...

I take it they ruled out pyloric Stenosis?

Yes I went through this with my DD. Projectile vomiting is difficult to deal with and very worrying at the time. I wonder if it was connected to bottle feeding as DD has now (many years later) been diagnosed as lactose intolerant. I don't know if that was the cause but it does make me wonder.

Interesting. Same story with me, gp gave gaviscon which made her horrendously constipated. He then claimed that's not possible. Like i said, shit GP.

I did see a private Paediatrician but he focused more on her other issue which was grunting for hours and hours at night trying to poop. He dismissed my reflux concerns saying it's probably just mild reflux. Re the grunting, he suspected mild lactose intolerance and that she was getting too much foremilk. So i changed the way i feed her (i now give her the same breast the entire day and express from the other). That seems to have fixed the grunting and she does poop less now but she still cries in pain when trying to poop/fart. And she's become more farty! So i went back and now he suspects CMPA. So he's had me cut out all dairy and soy from my diet. Still, it's been a week and not much has changed. Plus now the vomiting! I need to go back again but now he's on holiday 😔

I will book a different doctor and see what else they say. I can't believe there's no flipping tests to figure out what's wrong ! Why is it all just guesswork!

It was forceful but not projectile (i.e. did not go across the room). It basically came gushing out through mouth and nose.

Who told you she doesn't have tongue tie?

Mine did that but it was forceful. It was an allergic reaction to cows milk. I started mix feeding and had to change to a different formula. I never drink cows milk myself so I didn't need to change that for breastfeeding.

At first family dismissed my concerns as "all babies spew a little" but I knew it was more than that (and more than just a spew, it was vomiting whole feeds for a day). Turns out my kid is allergic to cows milk, egg and several nuts. And any time she comes in contact with a little milk or egg she vomits for more than a day. So listen to ypur gut. You KNOW as a mom when something is wrong. You KNOW when it's "just reflux" and when it isn't.

Mine did that sometimes because my letdown was too strong. They'd get far too much milk and it would all come up again. I lay back to feed them and it happened a lot less often. So that might be a thing to check.

My dd had reflux. She would projectile several times a day like this. Gaviscon helped. She did get constipated so I halved her dose on instruction from the gp and had lactulose if it got bad.

This has happened to my daughter (now almost 5 months ) 3 or 4 times when she was younger.I realised it was when she was coughing (if I held bottle differently etc) and the minute she coughed too hard it triggered gag reflex.Milk is liquid...if you have ever been sick whilst having a stomach full of liquid that is what it looks like.
It hasn't happened in months now she is gaining weight welll and I was told that occasional projectile is normal

I was told to eliminate dairy for 4 weeks before CMPA could be ruled out.

My DS had similar severe vomiting when a baby and it ended up being undiagnosed tonsillitis.
He had a course of antibiotics and it cleared it up and the vomiting stopped. But it had gone on for a couple of weeks before.

I'd imagine your GP checked tonsils, but at the time my GP said at the beginning the tonsil inflammation isn't necessarily externally visible so can be missed.

It might be worth asking a GP to check that too, if only to rule it out.

Can you see a different GP at the practice / change practices if you have no confidence in your current one? Some are absolutely brilliant, others not so much.