How to Tell if Your Baby Has Reflux

Reflux in Infants

Besides chosen: GER in Infants, GERD in infants, Pediatric Gastroesophageal Reflux

Summary

What are reflux (GER) and GERD?

The esophagus is the tube that carries nutrient from your rima oris to your stomach. If your baby has reflux, his or her tum contents come up back up into the esophagus. Another name for reflux is gastroesophageal reflux (GER).

GERD stands for gastroesophageal reflux illness. It is a more serious and long-lasting type of reflux. Babies may have GERD if their symptoms prevent them from feeding or if the reflux lasts more than 12 to xiv months.

What causes reflux and GERD in infants?

In that location is a muscle (the lower esophageal sphincter) that acts as a valve betwixt the esophagus and stomach. When your babe swallows, this musculus relaxes to permit nutrient pass from the esophagus to the tum. This muscle normally stays closed, so the stomach contents don't flow dorsum into the esophagus.

In babies who have reflux, the lower esophageal sphincter muscle is not fully adult and lets the tum contents back upward the esophagus. This causes your baby to spit up (regurgitate). Once his or her sphincter muscle fully develops, your infant should no longer spit upwards.

In babies who have GERD, the sphincter muscle becomes weak or relaxes when information technology shouldn't.

How common are reflux and GERD in infants?

Reflux is very common in babies. Nearly half all babies spit up many times a day in the first iii months of their lives. They unremarkably finish spitting up between the ages of 12 and 14 months.

GERD is also mutual in younger infants. Many 4-calendar month-olds have it. But by their first birthday, only 10% of babies still have GERD.

What are the symptoms of reflux and GERD in infants?

In babies, the main symptom of reflux and GERD is spitting up. GERD may also cause symptoms such every bit:

• Arching of the back, frequently during or correct subsequently eating
• Colic - crying that lasts for more than iii hours a day with no medical cause
• Coughing
• Gagging or trouble swallowing
• Irritability, peculiarly after eating
• Poor eating or refusing to swallow
• Poor weight gain, or weight loss
• Wheezing or problem breathing
• Forceful or frequent vomiting

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

How do doctors diagnose reflux and GERD in infants?

In most cases, a doctor diagnoses reflux by reviewing your baby'due south symptoms and medical history. If the symptoms do non go amend with feeding changes and anti-reflux medicines, your infant may demand testing.

Several tests can assistance a doctor diagnose GERD. Sometimes doctors gild more than one test to get a diagnosis. Common tests include:

• Upper GI series, which looks at the shape of your baby's upper GI (gastrointestinal) tract. Your baby will drink or swallow a contrast liquid called barium. The barium is mixed in with a bottle or other food. The health care professional will take several x-rays of your babe to track the barium every bit it goes through the esophagus and breadbasket.
• Esophageal pH and impedance monitoring, which measures the corporeality of acrid or liquid in your baby's esophagus. A doc or nurse places a thin flexible tube through your baby'due south olfactory organ into the stomach. The end of the tube in the esophagus measures when and how much acid comes up into the esophagus. The other end of the tube attaches to a monitor that records the measurements. Your babe will wear this for 24 hours, nearly probable in the infirmary.
• Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy and biopsy, which uses an endoscope, a long, flexible tube with a light and camera at the end of it. The doctor runs the endoscope down your baby's esophagus, breadbasket, and starting time function of the small intestine. While looking at the pictures from the endoscope, the doctor may also take tissue samples (biopsy).

What feeding changes can help treat my infant'southward reflux or GERD?

Feeding changes may help your babe's reflux and GERD:

• Add rice cereal to your infant's bottle of formula or breastmilk. Cheque with the doctor about how much to add together. If the mixture is besides thick, yous can modify the nipple size or cut a footling "x" in the nipple to make the opening larger.
• Burp your baby afterwards every 1 to 2 ounces of formula. If you breastfeed, burp your infant after nursing from each breast.
• Avoid overfeeding; requite your infant the amount of formula or breast milk recommended.
• Hold your baby upright for 30 minutes subsequently feedings.
• If you utilise formula and your doc thinks that your baby may be sensitive to milk protein, your doctor may suggest switching to a dissimilar blazon of formula. Do non change formulas without talking to the physician.

What treatments might the medico give for my baby'southward GERD?

If feeding changes practise not help enough, the doctor may recommend medicines to treat GERD. The medicines work by lowering the amount of acrid in your baby's stomach. The doctor will merely propose medicine if your babe notwithstanding has regular GERD symptoms and:

• Y'all already tried some feeding changes
• Your baby has problems sleeping or feeding
• Your babe does not abound properly

The doctor volition often prescribe a medicine on a trial ground and will explain whatever possible complications. You shouldn't give your baby any medicines unless the doc tells you to.

Medicines for GERD in babies include:

• H2 blockers, which decrease acid production
• Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), which lower the corporeality of acid the stomach makes

If these don't help and your babe all the same has severe symptoms, then surgery might exist an option. Pediatric gastroenterologists only apply surgery to treat GERD in babies in rare cases. They may propose surgery when babies have severe breathing problems or have a physical problem that causes GERD symptoms.

• Acid Reflux (GER & GERD) in Infants (National Constitute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)
• Gastroesophageal reflux in infants (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Infant Reflux: Diagnosis and Treatment (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)
• Infant Reflux: Symptoms and Causes (Mayo Foundation for Medical Didactics and Research)
• Parent's Take Home Guide to GERD (Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease) (North American Order for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition) - PDF Too in Spanish
• Reflux and GERD in Infants (Due north American Guild for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition)
• Spitting Up in Babies (American Academy of Family Physicians) Likewise in Spanish
• Spitting upwardly in Babies: What'due south Normal, What's Not (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

• Spitting up - self-care (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish

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Source: https://medlineplus.gov/refluxininfants.html

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