It is not unusual to see your little angel spitting up milk or clear liquid. Sometimes, you see it's becoming difficult for them to keep anything down. This makes mothers to ask a question, "Is baby spitting up clear liquid normal?" Keep reading to find out more about what causes this situation and if you can find something to eradicate the issue.

Is Spitting Up Clear Liquid Normal?

Spiting up, also called gastroesophageal reflux or simply reflux, refers to mild vomiting or regurgitation of milk, food or even saliva. You will have to deal with this when you have an infant at home. This is more common when you feed your baby – it usually happens when your baby burps. If you're only noticing clear liquid coming out of your baby's mouth, that's nothing to worry about because it's just saliva. You don't usually need to worry even if your baby's spitting a milky-white liquid because that's usually formula or breast milk.

However, you need to understand that there is more than just one type of spit-up. The most common type is when your baby spit up water liquid with a few small chunks of white cheesy-creamy stuff in it. You notice your baby spitting this way quickly after a feeding. This usually happens when your baby burps that brings up excess saliva and partially curdled milk.

Sometimes, you will notice your infant spitting up a large amount of milky white stuff with white chunks in it. This usually results from a strong gag reflex triggered by a burp. Excessive horsing around right after eating may also cause this situation. One rare but possible cause of spitting up milky-white chunky stuff is nausea from a sickness.

All in all, baby spitting up clear liquid is normal in most cases. If you think it's caused by nausea from a sickness, you may consider getting in touch with your doctor to ensure there's nothing serious.

What Causes Spitting Up in Your Baby?

Whatever you drink or eat goes into your stomach through the feeding tube,different acids will mix with food in your stomach and pass it into the intestines where further digestion will take place. There's a valve between the stomach and the esophagus that ensures what you eat or drink doesn't come back up and out of your stomach. However, the valve is not well developed in infants, so you will more often see milk and saliva coming out of their stomach. Similarly, if you're feeding too much of food, it will again result in regurgitation because your baby's stomach is still quite small. The valve will develop as your baby grows, and this will keep anything they eat from coming out of the stomach when fully developed.

Is Your Baby Spitting Up Too Much?

There's no such thing as spitting up too much, especially if your baby is eating regularly even after a heavy spit-up. Another sign that can show whetherthere's something wrong with your baby spitting up too much or not is his/her body weight. If they continue to gain weight, it just means they are getting enough to eat. Actually, a baby spits up entire feeding in very rare instances. That's mainly because the digestion begins as soon as an infant swallow the first mouthful. For a 3-4 months baby, the rate of digestion is around 1ounce every 15 minutes. It means that if you're feeding your baby about 5-6 ounces and the process lasts around half an hour, your little angel tends to have already digested most of their food.

However, it is a good idea to discuss your concern with your doctor if you think your baby empties everything in his/her stomach. This will help rule out the possibility of having an underlying health condition.

When Should You Worry About Your Baby's Spitting Up?

As mentioned already, there is usually nothing you need to worry about baby spitting up clear liquid. However, you may notice certain symptoms that indicate an underlying condition. Be sure to contact your baby's doctor if you notice the following symptoms:

• Your baby isn't gaining weight.
• Your baby vomits consistently and forcefully.
• Your baby spits up yellow or green fluid or fluid with blood in it.
• Your baby doesn't allow any feedings and has blood in stool as well.

You should also seek immediate medical attention if your baby is spitting up clear liquid and has difficulty breathing at the same time. Your baby's doctor will consider other symptoms and prescribe medication to treat the condition.

How to Reduce Your Baby's Spitting Up

Spitting up clear liquid isn't anything you should worry about, but you can use certain tips to help reduce his/her spitting up.

• Make sure to keep your baby in an upright position while feeding and help your baby be in a sitting position for half an hour after each feeding. Don't play with your baby right after feeding.
• Be sure to limit the length of each feeding, especially when you're breast-feeding your baby. Small, more-frequent feedings will help reduce the frequency of spitting up.
• Be sure to help your baby burp because this prevents air from building up in your baby's stomach.
• Make sure to put your baby to sleep on his/her back because this will reduce the risk of SIDS or sudden infant death syndrome and also play a role in limiting how often your baby spits up.
• Try to change your own diet if you're breast-feeding to see how it affects your baby spitting up clear liquid.