News: Is it Acid Reflux When Your Baby Is Crying?
For the past few years, more and more news about parents discovering their infants are crying not becuase of hungry or the need to change their diapers or even colic. Their cries are meant to inform the parents like us that they are suffering from acid reflux.
Recently, in Wall Street Journal, there is article -Baby Crying? Doctors Say It May Be Acid-Reflux Disease shares about a parent’s experience on discovering that her 1 month old baby was actually suffering from mild GERD – gastroesophageal reflux disease when a pediatric gastroenterologist diagnosed it.
Most babies have reflux — spitting up some liquid, since the valve separating the stomach from the esophagus isn’t fully closed. It usually doesn’t hurt. Experts like to say these “happy spitters” are a laundry problem, not a medical problem, and no treatment is needed. Most babies outgrow this simple gastroesophageal reflux (or GER) by the time they’re about 7 months old.
GER becomes more-serious GERD if the infant won’t eat and stops gaining weight, vomits blood and is extremely irritable. He may be highly sensitive to stomach acid — “just like some adults get heartburn and call 911,” says Beth Anderson, founder of the Pediatric/Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association (Pager), an information group for parents.
GERD babies may also choke or aspirate liquid. Acid-reducing drugs — which run the gamut from over-the-counter antacids to H2 acid suppressors to PPIs — won’t stop the reflux but can cut the acidity, and thus the irritability, if acid is causing the problem.
Most experts think colic is a separate issue, though it’s still vaguely defined as at least three hours of crying at least three days a week for at least three weeks. Doctors theorize that it may be because of a milk allergy, gas or food not moving smoothly through immature intestines. Some 20% of babies get colic, and it’s generally gone in three months — but those can be miserable.
The problem comes in when colic and reflux can occur together. “Those babies are sometimes put on acid-reducing medications, but they don’t get better,” says Jeffrey S. Hyams, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, and Olivia Manganello’s doctor. “There’s no medicine for colic except time and Mother Nature.”
Doctors can check for abnormal acid by putting a thin tube down a baby’s nose, and rule out anatomical problems with a barium X-ray. But many simply put babies on acid-reducing drugs first to see if they improve. Some critics say that leads to overtreatment.
Are we putting the babies to harm by giving drugs for GERD if it is just colic? None are specifically approved for infants. For older children, the side effects are generally mild, like nausea and diarrhea; PPIs have been linked with a risk of bone fractures in adults. But few long-term studies have been done.
Even you leave it untreated, some babies outgrow GERD, but doctors worry if it prevents an infant from eating. “Babies need to gain weight,” says Dr. Hyams. “If they don’t, there’s something wrong.”
Thus, this often leaves the parents in the dilemna. If you are in the situation, please consult your child’s doctor. At the same time, please read up more information about babies with acid reflux. You may want to get this book:
The Reflux Book: A Parent’s Guide to Gastroesophageal Reflux
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