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What is reflux? Newborn reflux explained

While symptoms and types of reflux in newborns vary, all cases have the same sort of cause or physiological events that occur.

Basically, reflux is when a muscle at the stomach opening opens at the wrong time. When this opening opens at incorrect times, then milk can back up into a baby’s esophagus. The problem is that mixed with the milk now (after your baby drinks) are gastric juices that are really acidic. When something acidic comes back up, it can irritate, burn, and cause pain to the throat and esophagus. 

Symptoms of reflux

• Belching
• Wheezing
• Gagging
• Frequent cough
• Projectile vomiting
• Frequent upper respiratory infections (colds)
• Prolonged crying as if in pain
• Back arching
• Refusal to eat, accompanied by significant weight loss
• Hiccups
• Choking
• Rattling in the chest

Milk supply 

The longer it takes to diagnose reflux, the more danger to the milk supply. A reflux baby isn’t eating a lot because she is in pain. Reflux babies frequently lose weight, and in the meantime, the mother’s milk supply can go way down. If your baby is diagnosed with reflux, you need to evaluate your milk supply to determine whether an aggressive strategy of pumping and formula supplements are necessary to get you and your baby back up to speed.

Diet

Acidic foods worsen reflux. The mother nursing a reflux baby must eat as though she herself has reflux. This means no wine, tomatoes, onions, vinegars, citrus, whole milk, chocolate, fried foods, fatty meats or mint products or flavoring. Experiment with your diet to see what your baby can tolerate. If I ate a teaspoon of onion, no amount of Zantac would undo its effect on Mary. But chocolate and coffee had minimal to no impact on her. So just experiment with very low amounts of foods you like and would like to keep consuming. Read up on GERD in adults to see what you should and should not be eating.
I often wonder how many cases of "colic" were really undiagnosed cases of GERD. As more doctors are becoming aware of GERD in babies, diagnosis time and treatment improves. In this day and age there is no reason for a baby to suffer from this painful condition, nor for parents to sit helplessly while their children scream. If you have reason to think your child is suffering from GERD, take him or her to a pediatrician for evaluation.

Welcome to The-Reflux-Blog

At this blog we will take a look at the newborn reflux, symptoms of gerd, what is acid reflux, acid reflux cure and much much more. We hope you will enjoy the information on this site as well as learn something while you are here.