Infant Acid Reflux

Infant acid reflux can be quite common in newborn babies and, while it may be disconcerting for the parents, it usually isn’t anything you have to worry too much over. Infant acid reflux is also referred to as a Gastroesophageal reflux, baby acid reflux or even baby GERD. Infant acid reflux usually happens when the infant’s digestive system hasn’t had time to fully develop and the lower esophageal sphincter, which sits between the stomach and the esophagus hasn’t developed enough to do the job right. Infant acid reflux can be quite common with premature babies but can also happen in those that were carried full term.

Typically symptoms of infant acid reflux are noticed during the baby’s feeding time, but it can happen at other times too. If your baby has bad breath, regurgitates frequently after meals, has recurrent coughing, spits up more than a typical baby would and is generally really fussy it might be because of infant acid reflux.

Infant acid reflux can cause the same discomfort in infants that it does in adults and, as you can imagine, can make your baby very uncomfortable. Luckily it is usually not very serious and tends to go away on its own usually by the time the baby is 1 to 1 /2 years old. However, one serious problem that can come up as a result of infant acid reflux is that your baby might start to associate the unpleasant sensations of infant acid reflux with eating and may start not wanting to eat.

If you think your baby has infant acid reflux you will want to take him to the pediatrician who can diagnose this based on a physical exam as well as evaluation of the symptoms. Although infant acid reflux is usually not serious, it is important that you get your baby to the doctor to be diagnosed because some serious respiratory problems could develop from food being inadvertently taken into the lungs. In addition, serious acid reflux may cause damage to the esophagus just as in adults.

If your baby does have infant acid reflux, there are a few things you can do to minimize the symptoms. Try feeding the baby more frequently through out the day, but with smaller doses in each feeding. Also, you’ll want to frequently interrupt the feeding and hold he baby upright or burp him. Try keeping the baby upright for a while after the feeding as well. In some cases your doctor may recommend medication but usually infant acid reflux problems can be treated simply by changing the way you position your baby while you feed him/her.

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