Happy Baby, Happy Family: Learning to trust yourself and enjoy your baby

You can choose products that go into the formula to break down the curds, as it were, or remedies that you give to your baby before the feed which work by bringing all the little bubbles of wind together to help your baby to burp them up, and they may posset and vomit up a little milk as well, which is to be expected with these products.

You can also use gripe water from the ages of six to eight weeks by giving a 2.5 ml spoon in 1 fl oz of cooled boiled water in a sterilised bottle. I usually say gripe water works best when your Little One is experiencing colic as it will help to bring up any wind if you give it to them 10–15 minutes before their formula feed, and make it more likely they’ll have an easier job finishing their bottle of milk.

What works for your baby may not be the same as for your friends’ babies, so keep an open mind and use only one product at a time. I have known mums who been having such a hard time and are so desperate to find a remedy they’ve given all the products together, but not only would this mean you wouldn’t know which product worked for your baby, it would be unsafe as well.

Posseting

Posseting is common in most babies and is an old-fashioned word that we use for babies who bring up little bits of vomit after feeding or sometimes even during a feed. It is normal for babies to posset because, as they burp, often some partly digested feed comes up. Many babies will be experiencing symptoms of colic as well as posseting from birth to six months, so it is no wonder it makes many parents feel anxious. Posseting is nothing to worry about unless you think it is affecting your baby’s weight gain and well-being.

You cannot stop your baby being sick but you can help them by feeding frequently (usually every two to three hours); raising the head end of their crib by placing a folded blanket or muslin underneath their mattress so your baby can rest in a more upright position; and giving your baby the opportunity to be on their tummy during regular supervised ‘Tummy Time’. Once they can sit up with support, being upright may help lessen their vomiting reflex. Once babies start to wean and are having solid food and spend more of their day in an upright position, most parents notice they posset less or not at all.

Reflux

A small number of babies have Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD) when acid from the stomach leaks out and back up into the oesophagus. Sometimes this is confused with posseting, which is very common in new babies who frequently posset or vomit up some of their milk feed during or after a feed. In babies, reflux occurs when the milk feed ‘flows back’ up the baby’s food pipe and is either projectile-vomited or, in the case of silent reflux, is regurgitated back up in the oesophagus and swallowed again.