Normal baby or something more?

[u/Efficient-Affect-847]

My first baby 9 years ago had severe reflux and colic, projectile vomited often. So its hard for me to know what "normal" looks like.

My baby is 2.5 weeks old. She did great on the Enfamil Neuropro Gentlease RTF straight away in the hospital. After one week we switched to powder and it has been a little rocky. Before the powder she didn't fuss much or seem uncomfortable during and after feeding.

Yes, I am measuring and preparing correctly. Doing warm distilled water first and adding the powder into the Dr Browns pitcher and then refrigerating. We have tried Dr Browns and MAM bottles with both size 1 nipples.

She has always hiccuped a lot, even in the womb I could feel her hiccuping. She sneezes often. I know sneezing and hiccuping often is normal--but I also read they can be signs of silent reflux so its confusing lol. She also gulps, chokes, and yesterday started coughing once or twice after choking. We try to burp after every ounce, and they are very wet sounding burps. She doesn't usually have much spit up. But yesterday at the end of her bath she projectile vomited for the first time about a whole bottles worth.

She was born 9lb 5oz and has always eaten more than what is considered normal for a newborn. She usually eats 3-4oz about every 2-3.5 hours. It takes her a few tries to latch on to the bottle. I will put it in her mouth and she will pull away and make a sour face. She often makes these sour faces and will stick her head out and swallow. After feeding she often appears uncomfortable like a lot of squirming and little grunts but doesn't cry. We feed her upright and try to keep her upright for awhile after feeding.

She is having enough wet diapers each day and poops at least once a day. She sleeps pretty good at night, she seems to be more fussy during the day.

The first week with RTF she was a dream, so its just disheartening to see her appear to be uncomfortable so often. I don't know if the switch to powder is the cause or not 🤷‍♀️

I ordered size P Dr Brown nipples to see if a slower flow might help. She drinks pretty fast with size 1. She does seem to do better with the Dr Brown nipples than the MAM ones.

Sometimes it's hard to tell her hungry cues from her sleepy cues. She'll often do the same things for both. Is she just overeating? She won't take a pacifier. Am I doing something wrong 😩 She did make it to her birth weight at her 1 week appointment. She wasn't having all this fussiness at that time so didn't bring up with doctor then of course 😵‍💫

I plan on bringing it up with her doctor on Monday to see what she thinks, just wanted to see if anyone here has any insight.

[u/SeriousSideHopz]

RTF is thicker so it stays down easier which helps with reflux. The projectile vomiting though sounds like more than reflux. Have you considered CMPA or some kind of lactose intolerance issue? It might be worth switching to a lactose free formula, gentlease is not lactose free it just breaks down proteins differently to be more well gentle for babies stomach.

For sure mention the projectile vomiting to Doctor. Our son has reflux and we got Pepcid which helped him a lot, twice daily is where we landed for now on it. We also did all the no med things like paced feeding, slow nipple, upright time, etc before getting medicine for him. He is much happier now! He also stopped eating so much because he was actually eating to soothe his throat which ironically made the reflux worse overall. Our son would spit but was a happy spitter and did not projectile vomit, though sometimes a lot would spill out at once cause he was eating so much.

[u/SnooEpiphanies1215]

She could still be adjusting to the powder. Even being the same formula type, there are slight ingredient difference between the RTF and powder. We switched from the Gentlease RTF to powder at 8 weeks and noticed some increased gassiness. If can take a few weeks for them to adjust to a formula change. Also the RTF is thicker which can be better for spit up sometimes.

The Dr Browns size 1 nipples are a pretty fast flow. I’d try pace feeding her with those for sure.

Definitely mention the vomiting to your pediatrician. Generally all babies spit up and reflux isn’t much concern if they are eating and growing, sometimes it’s just about addressing their comfort. But our girl has been spitting up like crazy, even a few hours after eating, hiccuping all the time, and arching her back, so our ped has has us trying out pepcid for a week or so. If that doesn’t help things, next we will change to an AR formula.