To burp or not to burp?

When we first brought Edric home, my heart was doing the twirlies inside as I was happy as a teacup filled to the brim. I had to leave him at the hospital for the first 4 days of his earth-being due to jaundice. I couldn't really describe the dismay I felt when I was discharged and have to go home alone. The little guy had sunburnt (literally) when he got back home.

The confinement lady fed my breastmilk from the bottle to him. Then came the burping part. He gave quite a loud burp and without anticipation from anyone of us, out came the milk. By the look of it, the volume was almost 1 oz. Hmmm..probably this was just a one-time, off and on kinda thing, but sorry to say, not. So, the nurse actually leftout one tiny itsy bitsy info; Edric is a spitting baby.

According to an article I read, reflux is common in infant and can affect up to 50% of young babies. Most of the babies will grow out of it during the first year. As long as the baby is gaining weight, there should be nothing to worry about except for the nuisance of having ingested milk thrown up everywhere plus the additional washing. I had to purchase 4 dozens of hankies for him. To save myself the confusion of which hanky belongs to who, I have to sew each one of them with Edric's initial. Can't really go for colour-coding coz Alden's hankies consists of a variety of colours. I swore to myself to find a better way if there should be another new member of the family in the future.

As for the burping part, Edric's paeds suggested to observe the occcurances of reflux when burping against non-burping. My mom tried not to burp him. After feeding, she would lay him down with his head raised. The refluxes were lessened but Edric was sometimes uncomfortable due to the trapped tummy gas. Nowadays, I just burped him once and waited for a few seconds for his reverse peristalsis to settle and then lay him down on his crib.
When he was about 3 months old, the paeds also suggested to add in a spoonful of cereal in his milk to thicken the feed, which will be less likely to be brought back but it will also harden the stool. Being more concerned with constipation than the messy regurgitation, I opted to hold from introducing cereal to his diet. When he was about 4 1/2 months old, I added the cereal in.
His regurgitations were lessened as he grows and I think the cereal helped a lot too. Even when he rolled over on his tummy, he would not throw up as much as I anticipated.

The following tips helped Edric's regurgitation more or less :-

1. I have to ensure that he is relaxed during feeding time. If he started to writhe and kick, I'll
stop the feed. Feeding resumes again only if I manage to soothe him.

2. If he is gulping too quickly, I'll pull the bottle off for a few seconds and then reintroduce it.
This action sometimes needs to be repeated several times until he finds his so called sucking
rhythm.

3. After feeding, I'l lay him on his cot immediately but with his head raised up. No upright
position or 'jiggling' for about half an hour or so. Sometimes, he'll just fall asleep after he is full.
So that's another bonus.

4. I have to ensure that his diapers, either disposable or linen, are not secured too tightly around
his tummy. If the diaper is fastened snugly, it might press on the baby's tummy when you put
he/she in a sitting position. My rule-of-thumb is to ensure there is a two-fingers space
between the tummy and the diaper.

By the way, I read that acidic drinks, such as fresh orange juice, may stimulate reflux.