One of my daughters was a happy spitter. It was annoying, but short lived. She was pretty much over it by 12 weeks. Her younger sister has full-fledged reflux and the two are very different. The only thing they have in common is the puking. Reflux baby is in pain, afraid of eating, and not growing. She refluxes all day (burp, hiccup). Sounds to me like your Ike is truly just a happy (and cute) spitter.

I had a happy spitter myself. I spent many months in a constant state of cleaning up the spit up. He finally graduated out of the happy spitting faze about 8 months. He's 3 1/2 and we are all glad to have lived through it and it made us stronger.

From a Mother of one Happy Spitter and one Normal Spitting Up Baby, lemme tell you - at least we got a happy spitter and not a colicky baby. These are the little platitudes we must tell ourselves whilst doing fifty seven loads of laundry every day. (Actually, my Happy Spitter is now 3, and doesn't puke ever anymore. I forget when it all ended, though.)

*Story time* My female in laws (SIL and MIL) are much, shall we say, cleaner people than me (I shall not say "prissy" about my beloved in laws.) One of them once THREW my two month old child onto a couch in order to avoid getting vomit on her shirt, because she'd already changed once that day. I was not amused by the tossing of the wee baby. I had to train them to either wear a tarp or just grit their teeth and suffer the river of not-even-really-digested milk, because I could not handle them dropping him on the floor in order to protect their coiffed hair or perfect outfit. Harumph.

Um, what you're describing sounds just like my son. And what your doctor said is just what our pediatrician said for 12 months, because the kid was happy and growing. Never mind that we had to enact a crazy strict regimen of feed, that strap him at a perfect angle in a stroller for a whole hour to keep him from barfing. And when he started solids and it didn't stop, I felt trapped in my house, because he would release the huge rainbow vomit everywhere. I got adept at cleaning vomit off the crevices of the car seat and high chair. I carried an entire diaper bag stuffed with burp cloths and bibs for even a 5 minute outing, and we'd come back and I'd have to throw them all in the wash. At 12 months, I went into the doctor sobbing, with a puke log I'd kept for 3 weeks (we're talking about 2-5 pukes a day), and they finally said, "Oh, he has acid reflux. Guess we should have diagnosed it earlier. And come to think of it, he has a shadow on his tooth where the acid has been eating the enamel, and his throat is probably burned too so we really need to start medicating." Prevacid 15mg a day, and the puke vanished overnight. Just listen to your gut, those docs are not always right.

Hmmm. I'm not sure I like to learn new things about babies when I'm expecting my second one... but I'm glad he's a happy one as opposed to an in-pain reflux one. Oh, and those pictures of Ike are so darn cute!

LOL, oh I love this, because my little guy pukes all over the place ALL THE TIME! (He was 3.5 weeks early and just about 6 months and starting solids right now. He's still yakking everywhere). He's gotten more stealth about it as he's gotten older, though - the puke used to come after feedings and you'd know to expect it. Now he keeps it all down for a few hours (so you think you're safe, see?) and then out of nowhere you realize, "My arm feels kind of sticky, wait, what??? How did you puke over your BACK, so that it went down my arm/torso/leg/foot and is now in a puddle on the floor without my noticing it??" Now that we've started solids, it's the same deal, except orange and carrot scented ;)

You had me laughing out load with the cleaveage for later comment.

I had 3 happy spitters. Well, probably just 2. My oldest was the worst - thank goodness. She did it until past 12 months. I kept pestering the doctor about when it would stop. We got an indoor-outdoor rug for our wood-floor family room, a bajillion burp rags, and would try to hold her inwards when visiting others. As a gracious hostess put it when my 13 month old yakked milk all over her carpet "You breastfeed right? No worries - that stuff doesn't stain. It's organic and whatnot..."

This. This post is one of my Big Fears About Having Babies. Which I know is stupid, because there are much worse things I should reserve my worrying for.

But 1) I have an endless supply of Worry and 2) ICK. I just... can't deal with barf.

IS THE CUTE ENOUGH? Really? Obviously, Ike is adorable MAX. But I am wholly suspicious that even someone as cute as he is makes the baby barf thing okay.

Ohhhhhhh, man! I remember those days. I thought they would never end! Every time he ate he puked out what seemed like half of his bottle. I don't even remember at this point when it stopped completely... sometime before he turned a year old. :)

Charter member of the Happy Spitter Club here. FWIW, my endless days/nights of burp rags ended abruptly as soon as we started him on solid REAL food (ie., Cheerios). The spit up had become so much a part of my life that I swear I didn't even realize it for like 2 weeks! (My couches though? Completely ruined.)

I thought Noah and Drew were our only common bond but apparently not. M is a happy spitter though, he does occassionally make the acid face so we think it is acid reflux. He takes baby zantac and it helps. It doesn't sound like Ike has that.

I have also heard that things will get better at 6 months or 9 months but I also hard solids help. They do not. Although, as others have said, the rainbow colors from solid foods do make the vomit more attractive. lol. Hang in there laundry friends! Between Cding, Bfing, and making homemade baby food....the laundry from spit up is just too much to bear!

Cutest pictures yet.

Those SMILES oh my WORD. I am dead of the cute. I am typing this from beyond the grave.

My daughter was exactly the same way---not fussy, not obviously in pain, happy (most of the time) and gaining weight perfectly fine, but good lord the constant spitting up, usually all over me/the freshly washed Boppy pillow, preferably at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night. I can't remember when it settled down, but I don't remember it being an issue after we started solids and she started breastfeeding on a more regular, less frequent schedule. Although as a toddler, she was more prone to throwing up when she cried too hard, threw a tantrum, choked on something and coughed too hard (fun!), etc. I kind of didn't realize it was an issue until my son was born and he NEVER spit up (though he required constant knees-to-chest to get him to poop). Now we're waiting to see what excitement #3 will bring. :-)

Hope Ike gives you a break soon.

My friend had one of these. She carried beach towels with her wherever she went.

Oh, also, my GP told me that what looks like a lot when it gets yakked up probably isn't the entire feed. Try spilling an ounce of liquid on your counter, it looks like a lot when it's spreading out everywhere. So Ike is most likely not yakking up an entire feed, just maybe 1/2 ounce or 1.

Yup. Been there, done that. Don't wear silk.

My happy spitter is 8.5 now. And she is the LEAST pukey of the three of my kids. I figure she got it all out when she was little, unlike her older sister who I swear to God and anyone else who cares that the child never ever ever so much as dribbled a bit of milk out of her mouth, let alone actually spit up.

Then again, that would explain why the older was 32lbs on her first birthday while here sister was a mere 16lbs.....

Good luck to ya. Those cloth diaper burp cloths make great car cleaning rags later on.

It was always hard with a happy spitter, nobody believes you when after handing them a stack of towels, you say "she spits up a lot, you'll need these". Usually the towel gets set on the floor or tucked neatly beside them...never where the vomit eventually lands. My daughter was breastfed...nothing like apologizing to your husbands boss for your breastmilk that is now coating their neck and shoulder. I always felt like I sprayed them directly from my boob or something.

Both my kids did the same thing 15+ years ago. Worried my fool head off about it. I figured it was somebody's way of making me deal with my abject fear of puke. Yep, I got over that.

Wow ... this has brought up memories of my eldest (now 6 1/2). He was a spitter. Our hardwood floors were ruined and we had to re-finish them when we sold our condo. I don't remember when it stopped but he is still definitely sensitive to choking and gagging. Once he scared me half to death when he proceeded to gag on a piece of cheese as I was driving on the fast lane of the beltway!! I almost crashed as I tried to pull over to administer the baby Heimlich. So NO EATING IN THE CAR!! Then more recently he choked on a school-lunch PB&J sandwich and threw up all over the cafeteria. So now he refuses to eat peanut butter (bad association) which if fine except that it severely limits the lunchbox options (especially if a certain mommy has not planned very well and there is NOTHING in the fridge but peanut butter and bread).

I have no helpful advice at all, just felt the need to point out that the third picture from the top is KILLER! Love it! Heehee!

Oh, dear. I think I have one of these - nonchalant reverse milk river is a perfect description. My husband was sure it was because I don't burp the baby enough until the day he got coated after 2 burps, while maintaining the perfect upright posture. Fortunately, the baby makes a peculiar gurgle right before, so if there's a prefold right there, I can usually stem the tide long enough for help to arrive.

We are at 9 1/2 months in now, and little Sunny still does this. I would say it is less than projectile vomiting and more than the occasional spit up. It generally happens at least once or twice a day, no warning, and enough that you have no choice but to change clothes if it lands on you. But it does not faze her in the slightest. So, whatever. We deal.

my first was a happy spitter. my second, now 7 mths, is still a happy spitter. I FEEL YOU.

it gets better. i don't recall when, but it does. now if you'll excuse me, i have urp to clean up... :)

all three of my boys have been happy spitters. the earliest stopped around six months, the latest around ten months. it's gross, but it does pass :-)

So I am going to tell you this, and you are going to say "I ALREADY SAID THAT WASN'T IT!" but I am going to tell you anyway. because it's my comment, and I will write what I want. (please don't block me)

My baby was a happy sitter. All the time. ALL. THE. TIME. And we were told the same stuff. Nothing to do about it. It is what it is, bla bla bla. Then, one day the pead said to maybe try cutting out dairy. Just to see. I mean, it didn't seem like an allergy AT ALL, but you never know, it might help. Because sometimes it isn't an actual allergy as much as their digestive system hasn't developed the ability to break down lactose.

So I did it, I cut dairy. AND IT CHANGED EVERYTHING. Like it made all the difference in the world. I also had to cut peanut butter. And cutting back wasn't an option. They had to be cut out. All the way, which was painful But my happy spitter turned into a normal non-spit up child.

I did question if it was just timing and ate a bunch of cheese one day. It was not just timing. The vomit was impressive.

I worked dairy back in around six months when he started solids. We never had issues after that.

Anyway, it might help. Who knows. or maybe you don't want to try it because you can't walk away from dairy. If that's the case, I will not judge. But I will say that the very best meal of my entire life was when I gorged myself on Dairy after 2 months off (and gave him bottles of pumped breast milk). BEST. MEAL. EVER. I still dream about it.

Yep, another parent of a happy spitter here. Never bothered my son one tiny bit. But there were days I thought I was going to lose.my.shit if I had to clean up another pile of puke. Same doctor's advice, baby growing fine = nothing to worry about. Situation improved drastically around 10 months when he started walking. He's 13 months now and we still occasionally get small amounts of spit up, maybe once a week.

Another mom with a happy spitter. I remember realizing I hadn't needed to use a burp rag in a while some where around 4 months. And this is totally just anecdotal about my kid, but she has only actually puked twice (in one day) due to sinus drainage in the rest of her 2.5 yrs.

This too shall pass. Till then, well we just kept bibs on our kids for the first 12 months. Seriously. Our first was a happy spitter, but our twins had reflux. Same mess, but it hurt them. So they were on zantac which just turned them into happy spitters. Aw well. They all did outgrow it by 12 months though. soemthing about the valve to the stomach maturing and finally closing blahblah doctor-speak.

And it's totally a good thing babies are so cute!

Yep. I had a happy spitter. I have absolutely no useful advice because I have absolutely no idea what finally made him stop. I wasn't sleeping much then...
Ike IS totally cute!

My first spit up, maybe once a month for the first three or four months? Then never again? My second, who will be ELEVEN FREAKING MONTHS OLD THIS WEEK still spits up pretty much daily. When she randomly goes a day without it, we're all "she's outgrown teh spits!!" and then the next day, well, wearing black is just a bad idea with a happy spitter, right? Good luck! Neither turning 4, 6 or 10 months old has helped, neither has walking or eating solids, formula, breastmilk, or cow's milk. It has reduced in frequency though, from after and during every damn feeding, down to once or twice a day. Enjoy!

My first 2 were happy spitters. It was so annoying and yes, a very good thing they were so cute. I was pleased when #3 did not have this issue. He was, however, a crap sleeper. I would much rather have a happy sleeper than a crap sleeper!

And yes, as I read the post, all I could think was, "Ike is sooooooo freaking cuuuuuute!"

Ugh, I remember dealing with this with my first baby. I washed a full load of burp cloths every single day. I swear I went to the store every other day to buy more because there were NEVER ENOUGH.

lol love it

I'm sorry I missed this on the twitter, because I would have thrown my hat into the advice-giving ring. Wait, no, I HAVE no advice, because my son spit up constantly until...about...9 months? 10 months? It just sort of slowed down and then one day I realized I hadn't washed a burp cloth in an entire 24 hour period and rejoiced.

We basically didn't leave the house for his first 6 months because he was guaranteed to throw up on someone/something and I couldn't carry enough clothes for all of us. And they get kind of mad at stores when your baby pukes on merchandise.

Best/worst part of my experience was when he started spitting up BLOOD and I died dead of concern and we took him to the special children's hospital at 1 am and waited for four hours...only to realize the blood was actually coming from my boob (some sort of burst capillary while I was nursing) and the baby was just as happy about the spitting as ever.

GOOD TIMES.

My third TOTALLY did that... he didn't just suddenly stop one day but got better and better until I put the rags away a little after 12 mo. He does have dairy intolerance- drinks soy milk now instead, but that probably is unrelated since he was on soy formula at the time. Good Luck with it!

You made me belly laugh through this post!! My oldest did that too for a few months, but that was 26 years ago and I don't remember how long it lasted. Mostly I remember having my hand on her belly, feeling it heave and me making a mad dash to get the burp rag in place in time. You are right, Ike is adorable.

My daughter was a happy spitter too! She gradually tapered at about 6 months when she started solids. All babies on my mom's side of the family (including me, mom, gramma) were all "happy spitters" too, so we all knew how to roll with it. In-laws? Not so much. Every single time my daughter spit up, my MIL would SHRIEK and be so concerned with the sheer volume of the spit-up. It was annoying. And one time she nearly dropped her and also scared her by suddenly thrusting her aside to miss the spit-up waterfall. Ugh. Baby was fine, gaining weight, and happy. So quit freaking out, lady.

Both of my girls were/are pukers. My first was a happy spitter - puked all of the time but it never bothered her. She stopped spitting up sometime around 9 months or so (by that time, she was sitting and crawling and well into solids). My second is an UNhappy spitter and is on Prevacid for her major reflux issues. Both girls spit up the same amount but it was obvious, right off the bat, that my second was in much more pain from the start. At six months, sitting up and eating solids, she still spits up though it's not nearly the volume it once was.

Mine was a quiet happy pucker. He wouldn't make any noise or anything just smile and open his mouth and out came unused milk. We used to line his crib with layers so we wouldn't have to change it return 17 times a night. It was rubber sheet, two flat cloth diapers, rubber sheet, two cloth diapers. Repeat twice more. The kid wore disposables and I still washed a load of cloth diapers every day. He got so used to laying on cloth diapers that they were his blankies for years. He's eleven and starting 7th grade and there are still a few in the back of his drawer. He outgrew the pukes with solid food. We were just happy he didn't projectile vomit like his father and aunt, it's a family trait.

Oh, yes, I remember this. I have a 3 month old that is spitting up more than average, but nothing like her brother who drenched everything. I used washcloths for spit up rags with my firstborn, I went through 2 cloth diapers to catch my sons spit up. The 'splat' on the hardwood became a regular noise, that would make the dog would (eww, sorry) come running. He stopped cold turkey around 6 months...hope Ike does the same!

My children did this until 9 months. All you can do is wait it out. For what it's worth, neither of them have been pukers since then. There was the occasional anomaly in the months after that dramatic drop-off--a very few spit-ups until maybe 12, 14 months. But no puking.

I highly recommend throwing on an old, ugly t-shirt over your actual outfit whenever you're at home. I didn't think of this until my second child was several months old. It took far too long, but I was happy to finally find a use for all my husband's old t-shirts. It saved me a LOT of cute outfits.

Oh my God, those pictures cracked me up!

I had the opposite, twice. Silent reflux. Less laundry, more screaming. It'll be a miracle if my little guy has a liver left by the time he's 5, he has had medicine (Zantac) every single day of his little life. :(

Our little guy has reflux-he rarely actually spits up, just screams, draws his legs up, crys and crys. Zantac helped some but now we have omeprazole(prilosec) just started it today, we'll see. In 5th percentile for weight, with feeding every 1.5- 2 hours since birth except at night:( but he's tall, 50th percent. Guess I'm in the it could be worse-situation.

I know someone else mentioned it, but there might be something in the dairy issue. My son was a happy spitter while he was still on breast milk (almost exclusively for 5.5 months, and then 1-2 bottles of formula per week until about 7 months, ramping up to almost exclusively formula by 9 months). When we switched him over to nothing but formula with only one bottle of breast milk per day, he pretty much stopped spitting up. When we started giving him almost exclusively breast milk again to clear it out of the freezer faster, he started spitting up again. And now that he's on whole milk (he's 14.5 months old) he still occasionally spits up if he drinks too much milk at once (usually only for his first cup of milk of the day - we weaned him off the bottle but he still wants a cup of milk as soon as he wakes up!). I'm planning on bringing it up at his 15 month appointment.

Drool drips. Oxytocin surges. Bile rises (must admit puke is hard for me).

Yet—he is still the sweetest, cutest, best-natured baby.

Is he adoptable ?~! thought not.

Hey - congrats!! Baby Ike is absolutely adorable!! I check out your site randomly - sometimes more and sometimes less. Anyway - I was wondering - where is Ceiba? I mean, not like you haven't been off to hospitalland having baby's and all - so I know you haven't been at all busy. LOL Anyway - I was just wondering. :)

My sister-in-law became a yak, barf, spew containment professional. Her son Nick barfed till he was 4 (I'm sure that won't happen with Ike). but she began to recognize the signs, a reddening of the cheeks and then a glottal CLICK CLICK CLICK followed five, four, three, two, one by an eruption of the entire stomach and perhaps a bit of the large intestine. You'd be hanging out with her in the mall... click, click click, she'd casually stick Nick's head in the automatic trash can. You'd be swimming in the pool with her and Nick..click, click click, she'd open the lid to the pool spillage and in would go Nick's head. That kid's head has seen the inside of storm drains, busboy tubs, fake indoor palm tree pots, someone's rain boot at a mall play gym and and the empty cavern that is Charlie Sheen's soul. But I'm sure Ike will stop tomorrow.

Both my boys blorked (our word), but my youngest was the worst. Though they both stopped somewhere in the 4-6 month range. My suggestion, and what I used constantly, is to get a bunch of towels you don't love and wear them. Seriously, I have finally be able to stop having a towel covering my entire front and back. Though that still doesn't make up for the fact that my youngest aimed for the dog once.