A ring of muscles forming a valve-like
structure at the bottom of the food pipe
(oesophagus) 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 oesophagus 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
progresses in performance and by the time the
infant reaches the age of 12 to 18 months, its
feat is fully accomplished.
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. You can, however, try
the following to keep your baby’s undesirable acid
reflux at bay:
- Minimize distractions while feeding.
You could use a quiet, dark place and play
relaxing music.
- Nurse your baby in warm bath. Touch
and cuddle your baby often.
- Practise different feeding positions
to see which one works best for your baby. Make
your baby sit upright for at least 30 minutes
after a feeding session.
- Handle the baby gently and burp him
often.
- Try to identify foods or vitamins in
mother’s feeding or baby’s diet that’s
stimulating a negative physiological
reaction.
- Try reducing the quantity of milk you
are feeding at a time to avoid gagging or
choking of the baby. Split the food doses into
several times a day.
- Try offering a pacifier.
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.
Oesophageal pH monitoring is often needed to
measure the intensity of acidity in the baby's
oesophagus while Upper Endoscope is rarely done to
evaluate strictures, if any, that might have
developed in the infant's food tube or the
oesophagus.
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 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 investigate all the
probable causes of the illness and then try to
treat the body as a whole - this is why these
remedies are 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, you should always
consult your physician prior to administrating any
medication.
