Posset
Also called possetting, posseting, posseted, possets
A posset is the small amount of milk a baby brings up during or after a feed, often a little curdled. It's a verb too: a baby possets, and parents talk about posseting.
How it's said
How much does your baby posset?
Posseting is such an annoying thing and then suddenly you realise that they haven't done it for ages and you haven't even noticed!
...DD1 never posseted, and I was puzzled by all the bibs I was given and the muslins I was advised to buy.
Who says it
In the US the same thing is usually called spit up.
Not to be confused with
- Reflux is the medical name for milk flowing back up from the stomach. Posset is the everyday word for the bit of milk that comes out, and health guides often use the two for the same thing.
Where it came from
Posset is an old word for a drink of hot milk curdled with wine or ale. It goes back to Middle English, and Shakespeare used it in Macbeth. Today it also names a cold dessert of cream and lemon.
The baby sense shares the curdled milk. Dictionaries define a baby's posset as sick made of curdled milk and list to posset as a verb, and baby care books used it in 1990 and after.