Baby Reflux Checker

Because the valve between the esophagus and stomach (the lower esophageal sphincter) is still immature and loose in the first months, milk rides back up easily — especially with a liquid diet, a horizontal lifestyle, and a tiny stomach that overfills fast. Roughly half of babies under 3 months spit up regularly; it typically peaks around 4 months and resolves in nearly all babies by 12 to 18 months as the valve matures, solids arrive, and more time is spent upright. Amounts often look bigger than they are (a tablespoon of milk spreads impressively on a shoulder). The test of 'normal' isn't the frequency — it's the baby: a baby who feeds well, gains weight, and isn't distressed is a happy spitter, whatever the laundry says.

When the reflux starts causing harm — that's the line between GER (the normal process) and GERD (the disease). The signals pediatricians look for: weight gain slowing or the growth curve flattening, regular refusal of feeds or crying through them, pronounced back-arching and distress during or after feeds (beyond ordinary evening fussiness), frequent coughing, gagging, or wet-sounding breathing tied to feeds, and spit-up that persists or worsens well past the typical arc. None of these makes the diagnosis by itself — that's the pediatrician's job, usually starting with a feeding assessment and weight review rather than tests or medicine. If your baby has spit-up plus any 'plus', book a routine-but-soon visit and bring specifics: how often, how much, feeding behavior, and the weight story.

The mechanical basics do most of the work: feed in a more upright position; keep feeds calm and unhurried; burp partway through and after; hold your baby upright (against your chest, not slumped in a seat) for 20 to 30 minutes after feeds; and avoid overfeeding — smaller, more frequent feeds beat big ones. Loosen tight diapers and waistbands. If formula-feeding, your pediatrician may discuss a trial of a thickened or hydrolyzed formula for specific situations — make that change with them, not ahead of them; if breastfeeding, occasionally a maternal dairy trial comes up, same rule. Two things NOT to do: don't use sleep positioners, wedges, or inclined sleepers (they're a suffocation risk — every sleep flat on the back, always, even with reflux), and don't start any acid-blocking medicine on your own. Acid blockers help only a small, specific subset of infants, carry real side effects, and are a clinician's call after assessment.

Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the muscle at the stomach's exit that shows up most often between 2 and 8 weeks of age. Its signature is vomiting that becomes forceful — genuinely projectile, shooting out — and builds over days: more feeds ending in vomiting, larger amounts, an increasingly hungry, then increasingly dehydrated baby (fewer wet diapers, weight loss), classically still eager to feed again right after vomiting. It's fixed with a small, very successful operation, but the diagnosis can't wait, because the vomiting causes dangerous dehydration and salt imbalances. That's why any pattern of escalating forceful vomiting in a young baby — even without the other signs yet — is a same-day call or an urgent-care visit, not something to watch through a weekend. Ordinary reflux, for contrast, is effortless: the milk falls out; it doesn't fly.

Three deserve immediate action whatever else is going on. Green or yellow (bile-stained) vomit can mean an intestinal blockage such as malrotation with volvulus — a true surgical emergency in an infant; go to the ER now, even if the baby seems okay between episodes. Blood in vomit — red streaks or a coffee-grounds look — needs urgent assessment (a small amount from a cracked nipple during breastfeeding is a common benign cause, but that's the clinician's call to make, quickly). And vomiting alongside markers of a sick baby — fever (an emergency in itself at 100.4°F/38°C+ under 3 months), unusual floppiness or sleepiness, a swollen or tender belly, or dehydration (fewer wet diapers, dry mouth, sunken soft spot) — points to infection or obstruction rather than reflux. Add the pattern from the pyloric-stenosis answer — escalating projectile vomiting at 2 to 8 weeks — and you have the full act-now list this checker gates on.

Yes. This checker runs entirely in your browser: your answers are evaluated on your own device and are never sent to a server, saved, or shared — close the tab and they're gone. There's no account and no tracking. What you get back is general educational information based on AAP HealthyChildren, NIDDK, and MedlinePlus guidance; it is not a diagnosis, not a feeding plan, and never a medication recommendation. Its one job is to sort the three reflux stories quickly — and to put the emergencies first.