The Happy Spitter: Part 3 - the tale of the Playdoh Poops

I know it has been a while since the last post - I apologize as my life is upside down right now with my move. I promise more frequent posts next week once we are settled!


As you all know, and I have mentioned countless times on the blog, my daughter is a "happy spitter." She spit up when she was on breastmilk, and has ever since we switched to formula since 16 weeks (she is now 22 weeks). I am not talking little dribbles out her mouth, I am talking a faucet of regurgitated liquid over the period of an hour after each feeding. Needless to say we do a lot of wash in our house, and are big fans of bibs.

Anyhoo - we are now on our fourth type of formula in 6 weeks. In the beginning we put her on Similac Advanced, which she was on at the hospital, just because we had an abundant supply left over from the first week we brought her home - thank you Costco! I then did some research into formula's that are made to help curb the spitting up, and found Similac Sensitive. This we tried for a can's worth, and it made no difference. So I called the doctor's office and they recommended Similac Sensitive RS, which contains rice starch. After three full weeks on this, I saw no change in her behavior after feeding. This was even in addition to the Zantac she is on, as she was diagnosed with Reflux. (I should mention that the Zantac does relieve the pain she used to be in during feedings, but it does not help with the spit-up situation. )

Last week I was at my wit's end...does she have a milk allergy? Is there not a formula out there that can help with this? Should she be in a different medicine? Shouldn't this be getting better the older she gets?

After many conversations back and forth with the nurses at my pediatricians office we decided to try one last formula before putting her on a soy based fancy formula. Enter Enfamil AR. We started her on this last Tuesday, and the only real difference we saw was in her poops! I was shocked when I was changing her diaper and no longer did I see the creamed spinach we were used to, but there lay a clump of what I describe as very light yellow Playdoh!! I couldn't help but break into laughter as I screamed for my husband to come see this hysterical object that lay in my daughter's diaper. She didn't seem bothered by the change, and from the research I did online I found that it was completely normal when switching formula to see these types of poops.

A week went by with the Enfamil, and besides the clay poops, nothing else had changed. I again called the doctor yesterday and they convinced me to try one last thing before switching formulas again: adding one teaspoon of Beechnut rice cereal to the bottle for every ounce (6 ounces - 6 tsps of rice cereal), and to up her dose of Zantac. Well, it has only been 12 hours and three feedings since we started this, and I know it takes days to prove that things are actually working, BUT we are spit-up free for now!

I will keep you posted as to our progress in the next week, but keep your fingers crossed that we have finally found the cure. Also, next week we are going to start some solid foods so I will definitely post about that adventure!!