Spit up or Vomit?

Vomit is chunky and smells like...vomit. At worst spit up smells like old milk. Sometimes older kids do spit up, but then, it's likely to be phlegm, not like baby spit up.

For my kids, vomit was always projectile, and accompanied by crying. Spit-up was usually accompanied by no expression at all (well, maybe they *did* look a little smug, like "Yeah, I know you just put this clean outfit on me... heh.")

Generally spit up can happen a lot in kids that are under 1 yr old.
It's usually a little bit, sometimes burped up and some kids spit up a whole lot more and a lot more often than others.
Vomiting generally has a lot more volume - it'll smell like sour stomach acid/bile and it can be thrown up forcefully (projectile vomiting).
Spit up can happen if a babies stomach is over full or gassy.
But once spit up, they don't act sick.
Throwing up/vomiting they can have a hard time holding anything down for awhile, and they feel pretty miserable for a day to a few days.

I'll quote the Supreme Court and say "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it."

(actually, I think Elyse E has it about right, if it can be described)

Spit up just kind of glurks up and typically happens soon after drinking milk/formula, vomit forcefully spews out and can happen at random times.

Ah, the loveliness of motherhood. lol

For me it's all about the smell.

Spit up=sour milk
Vomit=... Vomit.

Plus, vomit is usually more forceful. It is the stomach expelling it's contents, vs. a bit of milk on top of an air bubble. (Though, spit up can be pretty forceful too.)

A huge consideration is how baby is acting. If baby tosses chunks and acts fine, I'm not worried. If baby is fussy (and not gas fussy, but not feeling well fussy...) then I keep a closer eye.

Depends on how old the kid is, but when mine was very young, the pediatric nurse said anything more than 2TBS crossed the line from spit up to puke. Also, puke might have a different smell about it as it has been further along in the digestive track.

Best,
F. B.

To me spit up as like the overflow valve when you feed a baby or a very young toddler.
Vomit involves food in various states of digestion.

Spit up is caused by trapped air from eating. Vomit is anything that has nothing to do with trapped air.

For us..

Spit up was accompanied by a burp. Sort of happened at the same time. Vomit came with a few gag sounds before it hit.

Just gotta say that I love some of the answers here - funny and clever! Especially Mynewnickname! Thanks for the laugh!

(Hope your baby is doing well, K.!)