This
article discusses acid reflux in infants and
related issues.
Acid
reflux or gastro esophageal reflux disease
involving back flow of a part of the acidic
stomach contents into the esophagus causing
moderate to severe heartburn is a distressing
disease in adults. With infants who can hardly
express the agonies, it is indeed pitiable.
Nevertheless, though it is quite common among
infants during the very early stages of their
lives, the agonies of GER go away on its own by
the time the infant reaches 12 to 18 months in
age. The reasons for the coming and going of GERD
in infants are simple.
A
ring of muscles forming a valve-like structure at
the bottom of the food pipe (esophagus) that leads
to the stomach opens to allow nutrients to enter
into the stomach and closes to disallow back flow
of the same. However, due to malformation during
infancy, it often fails to perform its duties,
opening its doors when it shouldn’t. That
occasional minor opening backflows or refluxes
part of the acidic stomach contents into the
esophagus and eventually into the mouth, causing
sudden vomiting and associated discomfort to the
baby. As the child progresses in age, the
valve-like structure clinically called LES also
progress in performance and by the time the infant
reaches the age of 12 to 18 month, its feat is
fully accomplished.
The
indications of acid reflux in infants
include frequent ‘spitting up’ and vomiting out
the acidic stomach contents, difficulty in
feeding, arching the back during feeding time,
‘wet’ burps, sudden hiccups and coughing,
unusually disturbed sleeping habit and bad breath.
In certain cases, symptoms associated with acid
reflux in infants also include weight loss or
insufficient weight gain, difficulty in
swallowing, excessive drooling, sore throat and
redness in the palette, hoarseness and respiratory
problems like asthma, bronchitis and in extreme
case, pneumonia.
Though
acid reflux in infants seldom turns fatal, doctors
in doubt prefer lab tests that include
pathological examination of blood, urine, etc to
rule out other complications. Esophageal pH
monitoring is often needed to measure the
intensity of acidity in the baby’s esophagus while
Upper Endoscope is rarely done to evaluate
strictures, if any, that might have developed in
the infant’s food tube or the
esophagus.
Treating
acid reflux in infants usually consist of ‘No
treatment’ for the simple reason that anti-acidic
medications are unsuitable to them while acid
blockers will complicate the baby’s newly formed
digestive system. In any case, the problem goes
away on its own as the infant soon turns into a
child with well-performing LES. Parents worried
with severe acid reflux symptoms in their babies
often resorting to OTC medications is a perilous
procedure, giving rise to more complications than
acid reflux and, therefore, should never be
encouraged.
Conventional
medications cannot give the best results. They
also come with harmful side effects. Holistic
remedies on the other hand treat the body as a
whole and prove to be much more effective in
treating acid reflux. The disease is complicated
and the causes of acid reflux are also many, and
this is why the body needs to be treated as a
whole. Holistic remedies investigated all the
probable causes of the illness and then try to
treat the body as a whole – this is why these
remedies are so much more effective in treating
acid reflux.
While
this article will help you know more about the
disease and what you can do when acid reflux
affects infants, but you should always consult
your physician prior to administrating any
medication.
