Baby possetting

Regurgitating food, or posseting, after eating at times is normal for babies and young kids. Reflux affects around 40% of babies, although it tends to happen less often with age.

After your baby swallows milk, it glides past the back of the throat into a muscular tube (the oesophagus) and, from there, into the stomach. At the junction of the oesophagus and the stomach is a ring of muscles (lower oesophageal sphincter) that acts like a valve. It opens to let the milk drop into the stomach and then tightens to prevent the milk (and the stomach contents) from moving back up into the oesophagus. If the stomach contents should happen to re-enter the oesophagus, this is called reflux, and if they rise back to the throat or mouth this is known as regurgitation. The irritation from reflux can sometimes trigger vomiting, and may cause other symptoms.

Infants are especially prone to this because:

• Their stomachs are quite small (about the size of their fists or a golf ball), so they are easily distended by the milk.
• The lower oesophageal sphincter may be immature and may not tighten when it should.

Every baby possets, or vomits, occasionally and some do quite often or even with every feed. Despite the possetting, is your baby:

• Content?
• In no discomfort?
• Growing fine?
• Experiencing no breathing problems from the vomiting?

If the answer to these questions is yes, they are simply a normal baby who possets and no treatment is needed. Typically, the lower oesophageal sphincter matures during the first year, usually around four to five months of age, at which time the possetting up may go away.