>>Deena Zimmerman writes:
>>Gastrointestinal reflux is a condition that affects most babies - their
>>sphincter at the bottom of the esophagoes we think is just not quite mature.
>>That is why babies spit up. There is large variation in whether this causes
>>any problems. Most babies just spit up and the only problem is the need to
>>change the clothes of those carrying them.Parents need to
>>expect babies to spit up and do laundry.

Could our acceptance of spitting up in babies be another artifact of our
cultural beliefs and practices concerning child feeding and rearing?  Just
as we have come to accept thumb-sucking as normal behavior?  In Mali, where
babies are nursed on cue, and very often, as much as several times an hour
if they want, and are held upright 90% of the time, either in someone's
arms, on their lap, or tied to mother's back -- BABIES DON'T SPIT UP.  In
over 2.5 years of research there, I never, not once, saw a baby spit up, and
I watched literally thousands and thousands of nursing sessions.

I suspect it is our cultural practice of feeding infrequently, and then
loading the child's stomach with a lot of milk at one time (breastfeeding
like you were bottle-feeding) that is the cause of much of the spitting up.

Malian babies are also never "burped" and their mothers find the U.S.
practice of patting babies on the back after feeding ridiculously silly.



Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University