Parents learn right away that their baby does not barf, puke or vomit. Instead, the remnants left from baby feeding that most of us refer to as throw up is called "spit up". Is leaving a bit of baby spitup on your shoulder a good career move? If not, how can you get the gross stuff off? (Hint: Those burp cloths you get at baby showers help.) To understand why babies spit up so much, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad get Baby 411 author and pediatrician Ari Brown to set us straight. Also, learn how to keep it from happening too often and what your cleanup options are. DadLabs Ep. 337 The Lab. Brought to you by OxiClean Baby.

Daddy Clay: Hey there! Welcome back to the lab. This week we’re brought to you by Oxi Clean Baby – powered by they air you breath – activated by the water you drink, Oxi Clean Baby.

Daddy Brad: It’s a good thing we’re being sponsored by Oxi Clean Baby this week because we’re going to be talking about one of the messier aspects of fatherhood and this is one they don’t tell the expecting young due dad.

Daddy Clay: Yes dads know about dirty diapers of course! Blow up diapers they’re a disaster, but there’s other kind of mess you only find out about at the baby shower when you start getting as presents, all these blankets and cloths, and you turn to your wife and you say “Hey, what’s that?”

Daddy Brad: And she says “That’s burp cloth”.

Daddy Clay: And you think to yourself “You know, except for a couple of times in college, I don’t generally need a cloth when I burp”.

Daddy Brad: And that’s what they don’t tell you – Babies are barfing machines!

Daddy Clay: Now lets get one thing perfectly clear. Babies do not yak, babies do not barf, babies do not vomit – babies spit up.

Daddy Brad: If you tell your wife that the baby puked on the couch – she’s going to get upset, but if you tell her the baby spit-up on the couch, she’ll say, “Aww isn’t that cute?”

Daddy Clay: Now why do babies burp-up all the time? - And burp-up is actually an acceptable alternative to spit- up. To find out why, we asked pediatrician and author Dr, Ari Brown.

Dr. Brown: Well your gastro-intestinal track – which is the part that digests your food, is just one big tube okay? So you’ve got an esophagus that attaches to your stomach. And in babies there’s a muscle between the esophagus and the stomach that’s very loose when they’re first born, and it tightens up - usually around 6 months of age.

So while that muscle is still kind of loose, the milk will go down and the milk can very easily come right back up. Once it gets thicker and tighter – just like adults, the food doesn’t keep slushing and sloshing up and down. All babies spit-up to a certain degree. If you have a particular spitty baby, there are some maneuvers that you can do to minimize the amount of stuff that is coming up.

So first of all is trying to keep your baby as upright as possible for about 15 or 20 minutes after a feeding – so its probably not a good idea to go play helicopter with your baby right after a feeding because, you’re going to see the food come right back at you, so it’s a bad idea. So keeping them upright, keeping them calm, not putting them right down to lay down, because the symptoms are going to be worse when the baby’s lying horizontally.
Daddy Brad: Even when the dad can’t feed – a dad can burp so to speak. Burping is an area of daddy value. Make sure you spread that cloth on your shoulder as wide as possible, but no matter what you do – spit-up is going to happen.

Daddy Clay: Compared to the up-chuck at later stages of development, spit-up is relatively innocuous – it just looks like this white watery, anyway you get the picture. Don’t be fooled by the appearance. If you succumb to temptation and just rub that stuff in, you’re going to be rewarded with some nice brownish-yellowish stains all over the ones used as bibs, which may not bother you that much, but your wife is going to say something like “you cant wear that” and go buy a bunch of new clothes.

Save yourself some money; get a little Oxi, bang! Hit that stain; throw it in the washing machine – no stains.

Daddy Brad: Which brings up the question – you’re all dressed for work in the morning and you’re helping out burping the baby, and boom! You get tagged with a little spit-up right there. What do you do?

Daddy Clay: Well clearly changing is a terrible idea because that spit-up, that’s a badge of honor.

Daddy Brad: You want people to see that you help out.

Daddy Clay: Exactly! That’s a badge that you want everyone to see. You want to set an example for the next generation of dads, to get spit-up on them.

Daddy Brad: When you get home, you put some Oxi Clean on it and save the dry cleaning bill, but wear it proud!

Daddy Clay: You know I read somewhere that being perceived as a good dad can actually help you in your career, so I was thinking, if you don’t get spit-up on, maybe you want to get some yogurt or cottage cheese or something and just put a little dab.

Daddy Brad: Well, that’s all for us here this week in the lab. Make sure you go to dadlabs.com and get registered on the community site, and you will be eligible to win a great giveaway this week, which is?

Daddy Clay: This week we’re giving away 5 of the Oxi Clean baby care kits, and these are cool because you get 2 - 1½lb tubs of baby stain soak, and 2 of the 22 ounce bottles of the baby stain remover. We’re going to give away 5 of those kits and to be eligible all you have to do is create a profile. We’re going to pick 5 profiles from the community, and those guys are going to get the kits, so get on the community at dadlabs.com and get registered for a cool gift.

Daddy Brad: It’s like 100lbs.

Daddy Clay: No, its 22 ounces and 22 ounces, that’s 4lbs?