Burping Cooper

Cooper has a bad habit of swallowing a lot of air when he eats or drinks too fast.  He will gobble up whatever it is he wants, then burp a few minutes later.  Unfortunately, when he burps he often throws up what ever it was that he just gobbled up.  With this being an all to frequent event, I needed to figure out what to do to avoid having him vomit all over my carpet, bed, couch, motorcycle, wherever he was at the time of the very messy burp.

A couple of years ago I decided to try to get him to burp in the bathroom or somewhere where it wouldn't matter if he threw up.  Having to keep him in one room until he burped was becoming a punishment to cooper so I had to find some other way to keep him from throwing up all over the place.  I started to pat/burp him more as a matter of giving him attention than to actually 'burp' him.  Through the course of following successes, I found an effective method.  After he finished gobbling his meal or drink, I could call him to me so I could stand him on his back legs.  I thin tapped his ribs until he burped.  He doesn't mind this so much.  He can give a better burp when he is upright.

I feel silly when I do this in front of people.  They already think I've got a strangely mothering relationship with him.  I can tell you about the one time when we had stopped for ice cream when I decided I would rather feel weird than to clean up vomit all the time.  Especially in public.  I had given him ice cream with some water in it because he hadn't had enough to drink.  He had been very thirsty and LOVES ice cream, so he ate quickly, then got on my bike.  I guess I don't have to tell you what he did next.  He puked all over my bike seat, down the side of the bike, all over the parking lot.  GROSS!  From then on, I didn't care what people thought.  One burp is all he needs.  He can burp my way with no mess and go on our merry way, or he can burp his way and get it EVERYWHERE.  

My choice is to seem a little silly and pave the 'Merry Way'.