Acid Reflux Treatment

It can sometimes be difficult for a parent to understand whether the baby has colic or reflux (and even GERD) since some of the symptoms (e.g. poor sleep, constant crying) can be similar. It is also extremely important to eliminate reflux as a cause of this uproar, for it is widely recognized that many cases of colic are actually undiagnosed and untreated cases of reflux. In these cases, simply treating the reflux may eliminate the colicky behavior.

The easiest way to determine if a baby has colic or reflux is to look at the definitions and symptoms of each. Then compare them to your child’s symptoms.

COLICO

Colic can be defined as uncontrollable crying, prevalent in infants who are otherwise healthy and well-fed. All babies cry, but when they scream for more than three hours per day, three to four days a week, they are said to have colic.

Symptoms of Colic

The main symptom is continuous crying for long periods of time. This crying can occur at any time of day but usually gets worse at night. It is not believed that colic is caused by pain although a colicky baby may look uncomfortable or appear to be in pain. They can lift your head, draw their legs up to their abdomen, pass gas and become red-faced. The habits of poor sleep are also common.

REFLUX

The term reflux is a shorter way of referring to GER (Gastro Esophageal Reflux) and is simply defined as the backward flow of stomach contents up the esophagus. GER is a physiological process that happens to everyone-young and old-from time to time, particularly after meals and often is not even aware of it we are going. In infants generally occurs from immaturity of the LES (lower esophageal sphincter) which is the muscle between the stomach and esophagus.

Some common symptoms of simple reflux can include:

crying or colic * constant or sudden symptoms like
* Irritability and pain
* sleep habits typically with frequent waking poor
* Arching their necks and back during or after eating spitting up or vomiting
* or wet burp or frequent hiccups
* ear infections or frequent sinus congestion

Your child need not exhibit all these symptoms, in fact, just having one of the above could mean they have reflux. It does, however, half need treatment. If your child is showing one or more of the above symptoms but is otherwise happy and healthy then some simple modifications of lifestyle will probably do better life until you pass. InfantRefluxDisease.com Visit for more info on treatments.

GERD

However, GER (Gastro Esophageal Reflux) is referred to as GERD (gastro esophageal reflux) when complications arise. GERD is a disease process and complications can be typical (failure to thrive, feeding and aversions, esophagitis, oral etc) or abnormal (wheezing, pneumonia, chronic sinusitis, etc). Patients with GERD have complications of the present GER that necessitate medical intervention. GERD refers to as “GER disease”. It is estimated that approximately one in three hundred children have symptoms of GERD and is more common in children with neurological impairments.
Disease symptoms suggestive of reflux or GERD:
* Refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry or the exact opposite requiring constant
liquid meals or small *
* food aversions / oral
* Anemia
* Excessive drooling
* running nose, sinus infections
* swallowing problems, gagging, choking
chronic hoarse voice *
red throat, sore * frequent without infection present
* Apnea
* chronic ear infections
* respiratory problems-pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing, asthma, night cough, aspiration
* Gagging with your fingers or fist (sign of esophagitis)
* weight gain of the poor, weight loss, failure to thrive
* Erosion of tooth enamel
* neck arching (Sandifer syndrome)
* bad breath