My baby has had really bad reflux vomiting that we are told he will hopefully just grow out of. It has really delayed his solids introduction because he only had normal spit ups until six months, and once we introduce solid food, it turned into projectile vomiting. He has weight issues and the vomiting was just too much so we have had to lean on mainly milk so far unfortunately. He also has an overactive gag reflex so he can vomit with self feeding like baby led weaning because he vomits when he sticks it back in his mouth. (This has obviously not been fun and I can never, ever, ever leave the house). I am still barely getting a little bit of puréed food in him along with his milk each day.

Now that his weight is stable (thank god) we are going to try again with more solids. I am thinking  maybe at times he didn’t have long enough between meals and snacks, and I realize I’m not actually sure what the schedule with solids should look like compared to just milk. Like how long do you give your baby in between meals to digest to prevent overfeeding their little belly? Could someone please give me an example eating time schedule with a mix of solids and formula? I would really REALLY appreciate it for my baby’s well-being to eliminate too frequent feeding from being a reflux trigger. The doctor really hasn’t been helpful. THANK YOU

Edit -I really appreciate your responses. We did actually talk to a feeding therapist, the top one in our area, and gave her a detailed history of everything that we’ve done and what we’ve been trying, and she told us that she didn’t want to waste our time because for a baby his age, we are already doing all the things that she would recommend 🤷‍♀️. I could always try someone else,

So essentially we keep trying all the same things and it comes back to his reflux  from an immature, esophagus, and we have been told a certain percentage of babies just get it apparently. And that there’s not much we can do but have him grow out of it. That said, we know certain things make it worse. It really is frustrating. We had started with baby led weaning, but it caused severe weight loss because he just made himself throw up at every feed. Our doctor told us we had caused the weight loss because we should’ve started with puréed food. Obviously, he didn’t support the baby led weaning method, but we definitely gave it a really good try and we have tried since and it’s just the same result. Constant vomiting, followed by total refusal of food because he’s in so much discomfort from vomiting, and then weight loss.  That’s basically how we’ve ended up back here on mainly formula which feels like we’re starting at day one again with eating.

This is definitely not an issue I anticipated having with my baby. I did so much research while I was pregnant and really thought the baby led weaning was going to be the way to go and I researched all the solid starts stuff, but it just didn’t work with my child because of this reflux problem. we increase solids, it gets worse. I’m trying to stay optimistic :/. They say most kids affected grow out of it by age 1. They don’t think he has pyloric stenosis or anything he’s been examined. He also gets a lot of hiccups bc of the esophageal spasm, and those days the vomiting is definitely worse, so there are flares which we have been told are characteristic of infant reflux.

This morning I gave him milk first then some avocado and sweet potato a few hours later but he only had a few bites. Now he’s napping but refused his normal 2nd milk feed bc he’s visibly uncomfortable after the small amount of solids, and I could tell from his face he would vomit if I forced it (and this is what happens the more solids he has). I really want his body to be able get used to solids more than one time a day, but it always comes back down to him having decreased overall intake when we do that, because he’s not comfortable. And if we encourage him to eat a normal amount of calories in the days with more frequent solids, he always ends up throwing up… then too many days of that and the weight loss happens. Then, we are back to once a day solids. Honestly I’m exhausted. My husband is on his last leg of tolerance. Our whole house smells like vomit. And I am just trying to be patient but it is consuming our whole darn life. 

Allison - thank you so much for taking the time to reply again. I really appreciate your feedback. I think we will try a different feeding therapist. That makes sense to feed solids 30 minutes before a milk feed because there hopefully won’t be too much in his belly to throw up. I have noticed that occasionally even if he had milk 2 to 3 hours before, he still throws a lot up, so I’m wondering if there are some times that his stomach is just not emptying well for whatever reason.  He is a very active baby and has pretty much been doing sit ups since he was two months old, which is ridiculous. And he was standing at four months. He’s been slow to babble but very physically active. He’s always doing pull ups on the edge of his playpen and I’m wondering if he just maybe has a tense muscle pattern that contributes to it… but who knows. I was going to try a chiropractor to see if they have any input.

That’s good to hear your sister did recover! I know we have to hang in there because it will get better with time.  I’m about to make some butternut squash sticks and see if he will eat that without throwing up. All I can do is keep trying. I’m in Florida, so we don’t get out much this time of year anyway because we have the summer rains and it is so incredibly humid. I really hope this goes away by his 1st birthday, but realistically at 10 months it’s worse than ever, and my guess is it will be like your sister, and closer to 2.