Recent statistics show that one fifth or so of the eight million babies born each year in the US suffer from acid reflux, also known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and babies that face developmental or neurological challenges are even more at risk from this complaint. Baby acid reflux is a condition that remains incompletely researched and that is often subject to misconceptions as well.
In a healthy person, there is a circular muscle acting as a valve at the junction of the stomach and the esophagus (called the lower esophageal sphincter) and stopping stomach acid from flowing back up the esophagus. Gastroesophageal reflux disease happens when that sphincter cannot retain the acids in the stomach. These then move into the throat sometimes as far as the larynx. In simple terms, GERD is a mechanical problem in the digestive system, which can be corrected. Numerous symptoms can result from GERD leading to complications like infections, pain, ulcers, difficulties in eating, vocal disorders and even cancer in the long run.
In addition, reflux condition is easy to confuse with usual vomiting in babies. For the first 3 to 4 months of an infant's life, frequent vomiting happens in 50% of all cases, peaking at 4 months. Vomiting is both painful and distressing when caused by acid reflux. Because infants cannot speak about their feelings, it is difficult to determine if they are suffering from a medical problem. Baby acid reflux can be particularly challenging to diagnose and treat.
The best solution for the right diagnosis of infant gastroesophageal reflux disease is to have a specialist diagnosis performed by an ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor or a gastroenterologist. To correctly diagnose infant GERD, several further symptoms need to be identified. Besides sporadic vomiting, these symptoms include: infections of the middle ear, enlargement of the adenoids, abdominal pains, asthma, crying non-stop, anemia, waking in the night without reason, vomiting of blood (hematemesis), continual coughing, a high-pitched sound when breathing, repeated croup, reluctance to feeding and inflammation of the nose and the sinus.
Possibilities for remedies to gastroesophageal reflux disease can be: medicaments, surgery and holistic programs. However, even for adult patients, surgery is rarely an option in normal situations. For baby acid reflux, neither medicament nor surgery is optimal answers. Medicaments may be sub-optimal in particular for infants for any of the three reasons below:
1. Medicaments for GERD treat merely the symptoms but do not fix the deeper cause of the condition.
2. Medicaments for GERD can impact an infant's immune system, leading to weakness and vulnerability in immunity, possibly also leading to different health complications other than acid reflux as well as the worsening of acid reflux condition.
3. Medicaments for GERD can cause multiple secondary effects that are present but hidden in infants.
The optimal solution to baby acid reflux is a holistic one while taking into account an overall set of changes in diet and lifestyle. Strong support is lent to this concept by research done recently. Research demonstrated that a transition to soy-based formula from cow's milk based formula gave infants a 40% recovery rate. Other research showed acid reflux symptoms juice products as an aggravating factor for infant gastroesophageal reflux disease. Altering feeding and sleeping position was also seen to be of benefit in treating baby GERD.
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