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While every baby does have reflux and sometimes severe reflux, some kids have a harder time with it. While we can’t always control this, there are some things that do contribute to this. First, your stomach is about the size of your fist. If you look at your fist or you look at your baby’s fist, you realize that it’s pretty tiny. If you overfeed the baby, and that’s pretty easy because when they’re born, it’s about an ounce, an ounce and a half that can fit in there, this overstretches the stomach and triggers movements that will push the milk out. Some goes into the intestine, which is good. Some comes back up, which is not as good. Feeding smaller, more frequent feeds can help. A lot of babies will also swallow some air if they’re bottle feeding. And if you do this, this can lead to increased gas and more reflux. Try cycling through different nipple types or different bottles and see if one generates a better outcome for your little one. It’s somewhat hard to predict what’s going to work for different kids, although breastfeeding consultants and lactation consultants also sometimes help with that as well. Reflux tends to peak around three to four months of age. So don’t be surprised if once it starts, that it gets worse before it gets better.
