No. 6, November-December 1998, pp. For most babies, spitting up is just part of a normal day's activities. GER occurs when the muscle at the entrance to the stomach fails to keep the stomach contents in the stomach. The milk or food, along with acid from the stomach, backs up into the lower esophagus and irritates the tissues there. Adults recognize this feeling as heartburn.
Babies just know that they're miserable.
Some spit up. Others cry or act as if they are in pain. Physicians used to dismiss these symptoms as colic, something which they could not explain and parents just had to survive. Now they believe that at least some cases of unexplained, inconsolable crying may actually be reflux. Most babies outgrow GER by their first birthday, and for many, symptoms begin to improve around six months of age, as they learn to sit up.