Treating Babies And Children For Heartburn Or Acid Reflux | Parenting Deconstructed

Treating Babies And Children For Heartburn Or Acid Reflux

June 13, 2010 by  

Acid reflux in babies is one of the  most typical health conditions amongst newborns and young kids.  It is some thing that is really challenging for parents to accept, that their new baby has medical problems when so young .  You instantly wonder what you’ve done wrong and what you’ll be able to do to end the discomfort your child is having. According to input from pediatricians, acid reflux in toddlers and babies can easily be treated, and is often a condition which ought to improve with time and at some point it could subside totally .

Acid reflux in infants is often a condition where the contents from the stomach, including both acid and food, move back again up into the esophagus sometimes leading to extreme pain and distress. To put it differently it has the exact same signs as acid reflux disorder in older people, but when it affects a tiny infant or even a toddler, it’s so significantly harder to deal with. In newborns this ailment is caused partially because the muscle which shuts off the stomach from the esophagus is in many cases not fully formed, and so it quite readily allows food and acid to back up along the esophagus and back into the mouth area, which causes the baby to spit up. Now newborns often spit up, so it is difficult to determine if the spitting up is normal or a sign of acid reflux. Having said that, when the baby is crying and arching their back, then any spitting up is likely to be caused by acid reflux. It may well stop the child from getting to sleep too, which is another huge concern. Babies that spit up with no howling and distress are just spitting up.

Adults who have heartburn or acid reflux are treated with acid reducing medications for example Prevacidor Zantac, and the same is quite possibly true , for infants. In this case the drugs are made soluble and can be combined with baby formula or breast milk to make it easier to treatthe infant.

One item available on the market is called Mylanta, and it works to calm the lining of the stomach and esophagus so that the acid cannot eat into these areas as readily. This will relieve your baby’s pain and discomfort, and may permit a little more sleep for everyone!

For many, taking prescription drugs does not appeal, and when it is a baby’s health that is at risk, the concern becomes even greater. However, there are a few non-drug tricks that could help you and your baby. Lying a baby down to sleep as soon as they have eaten is not a good idea. It makes it too easy for the stomach acid and food to travel the wrong way up the esophagus from the stomach, and this acid causes the burning sensation and discomfort we are trying to avoid. Try to give the stomach time to digest the food properly first, by keeping them upright for at least thirthy minutes after a feeding. Give your baby smaller feeds more often, so that the stomach is never over full. The stomach will be less likely to discharge food and acid up the esophagus if there is less content there. Consider buying an infant acid reflux pillow to help your baby sleep on an angle, so that the stomach is never raised above the mouth. Now do not try building this yourself. There is an art and science to these pillows, and there are some acid reflux pillows designed especially for new borns, to hold them in a more upright position. The good news is that as your infant gets older, the weak muscle at the top of the stomach and the esophagus will grow and become more robust, and then acid reflux should be less of a problem.


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