Infant Acid Reflux Remedies

Acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease in infants is a common problem. It arises when stomach acids and food contents moves out of the stomach and enters the esophagus or the food pipe. To prevent flow back of stomach contents, there is a valve called lower esophageal sphincter (LES) in that area where the esophagus meet the stomach. In infants and small babies, this muscle is not strong enough to control excessive pressure exerted by the stomach contents. Usually, it occurs soon after drinking milk too fast. It may also happen due to overeating and while coughing or crying. If your baby spits up once in a while, then it is normal. However, when it is happening regularly then it has to be resolved with suitable remedies.

Symptoms

The first sign is of course, spitting out or vomiting. Along with it, various other symptoms of acid reflux in infants are observed. They are:

• Not eating sufficiently
• Gagging when you try to feed
• Snappiness particularly while feeding
• Frequent hiccups
• Crying too much
• Excessive coughing
• Too much drooling
• Choking food quite often due to difficulty in swallowing.
• Waking up several times at night.
• Breathing difficulty after spitting out.

Treatment

To diagnose acid reflux in babies, blood and urine samples are first tested. Sometimes, Doctors also conduct endoscopy of esophagus to check inflammation. Infant acid reflux medications are more or less the same that are being used for treating heartburn in adults. They are selected as per the health condition and weight of the baby. Among them, antacids are the most popularly used as they help a lot in neutralization of the stomach acids. Other medicines include H-2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors which are used for controlling acid production inside the stomach. When it get difficult to feed the baby orally, then tube feeding options is availed for a brief period of time. In some rare cases where the baby is showing serious GERD symptoms, then medicinal treatment for acid reflux in babies do not show good results. Then doctors tighten the relaxed sphincter muscle by surgical means. This is done only when no other treatment works and the child is facing severe breathing problem or his or her growth is getting affected.

Home Remedies

When the baby is healthy, then doctors avoid treating acid reflux with medicines. This is because some of the medicines may have adverse effect on the growth and development of the baby in future. Therefore, they suggest some simple remedies to prevent acid reflux. The following infant acid reflux remedies can be tried even if your baby is under medicinal treatment.

• Change the baby feeding schedule. Offer them smaller feeding instead of large ones. That does not mean that you have to cut back on their amount of food. Rather, increase the frequency of the feedings to meet the regular requirement.
• Even while feeding, take some time off to make the baby burp in between. Thus you can prevent any air build up inside the stomach.
• During feeding, make sure that your baby's spine is in an upright position. Thus the pull of gravity will keep the stomach contents where they should be.
• When you are trying to make the baby burp, hold him or her straight with your hand to support the head adequately.
• Never place your baby on his back soon after feeding. This makes them uncomfortable and they start crying and will spit up in no time.
• If your baby is bottle feeding on baby formula then you may have to change both these things. Sometimes, changing the brand of baby formula helps as a particular formula may not suit them for some reason. Opt for such feeding bottles that are made in a specific way so that they can decrease the air bubbles.
• Adding a small amount of rice cereal into the baby formula or breast milk is one such acid reflux home remedy which has been found to be helpful for some babies. This is done in order to thicken the milk. However, ask your doctor before doing so.

Thus you can see with medicines, proper care and change in lifestyle the problem can be treated quite easily. However, do not try any of these remedies on your own without consulting you pediatrician. Let them decide which form of treatment is most suitable for your child.