Other Remedies for GERD Other than Medication?

I gave my son zantac and reglan when he was an infant because of gerd. I felt there was little to no relief. However, I do know people who did not address it with medication and their children ended up with holes in their esophogus due to the acid eating it away. On the other hand, though, I learned that my daughter was sensitive to the cow proteins in dairy. I switched off all dairy (consumed soy and goat products instead) and the problem went away...like magic. It was amazing the difference. I wished I had known about the dairy sensitivity before because I now think that was my son's problem and I could have avoid the medication.

For you I would suggest avoiding dairy first. It's worth a try and you should see a difference within a couple of days if that's what the cause is. Both my children outgrew their issues...my son no longer had gerd at about 6-9 months and my daughter's sensitivity to dairy was gone at about 12-18 months. Good luck!

My daughter has been on reflux meds since she was 5 weeks old. Diet changes never made any difference and neither did zantac (we needed a different type of medication). Hers was more the silent reflux. I would say give the diet changes a try, but if doesn't work, then go for the meds.

T.-I felt the same way as you not wanting to medicate my baby at such a young age. With my DD, she suffered severe reflux from birth. If it hadn't been bothering her so much, I would not have resorted to the meds. I will say after finally giving in and trying Prevacid at 6 months, she is now a new baby. She is so much more comfortable...no more screaming fits after eating and she is now even much more cuddly. I guess the reflux was causing her to arch her back constantly and she seemed very rigid. We are very happy with the results and I wish I had tried it sooner so she didn't have to suffer needlessly. I would say if he is bothered by the reflux, then try the meds (zantac did nothing for her by the way) and if he doesn't seem bothered, then he is a happy spitter and will outgrow the condition. Best of luck to you!

We are going through the same thing with my 2 month old grandson. I would recheck the symptoms of GERD. His doctor told us that the main symptom is when they do more than just spit up but that they actually propulsion vomit. My 2 mo. old can propulse a good 2 feet.

There's a great website that I found tons of information on that has helped us alot, even though we were forced to put him on Zantac due to the propulsion and the fact that the little guy screams in stomach agony 16 hours a day.

Please check out this website though, it helped us learn ALOT!

Your Guide To Coping With Infant Acid Reflux at Health Central.com

http://www.healthcentral.com/acid-reflux/coping-infant-GE...

My 20 month old son had GERD until he was about 1. We ended up giving him the zantac because he seemed to be in so much discomfort and pain. I would ask does your son seem to be bothered by it or not. Some kids are what they call "happy spitters" but have no discomfort by it. If he is screaming and crying a lot - particularly after feeding - and spits up long after feedings also (up to an hour or two) then he probably needs a little relief. We did see a change but it took a good week to take some effect.

We had to hold him upright for 30 minutes after every feeding and elevate his sleeping area. I watched what I ate ( no dairy, acidic foods or spicy foods) and the combination of holding him upright after every feeding for 30 minutes, zantac, gripe water, elevated sleeping area and also something called "Happy Tummy" a homeopathic pouch filled with herbs you warm in the microwave. It all helped but there were many days that I had to stop the car and take him out of the seat and burp him or just get him more upright for a bit and then try again. It is challenging to say the least but know that it is temporary. My son's name is Henry too and now he is a very happy healthy boy. Good luck and hang in there!

T.,

My now 21 month old had silent reflux (reflux minus all the spitting up but including all the misery). I looked at this list http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/t083301.asp and eliminated the things in my diet that I thought were most likely to cause problems. I started out eliminating dairy, soy, eggs (obvious and hidden in other foods), and nuts, peanuts, chocolate, caffeine, citrus and tomatoes. My son improved dramatically within a week. If he wouldn't have, I would have added gluten and corn to my list and gone from there. Once he was healthy, I started adding stuff back to my diet one at a time. I was able to add back everything but dairy, soy and eggs. At 21 months, he's still sensitive to dairy and soy but he can eat eggs now. We were able to cut his his meds by half about a month into my elimination diet and within a few months, we eliminated them entirely.

I've found that most doctors (even my son's pediatric GI doctor) are completely clueless about food allergies and intolerances in breastfed babies but many cases of GERD can be solved using a thorough elimination diet.

Oh, and it isn't as hard as it sounds. I basically switched to a "whole" food diet and ate mainly meats, beans, potatoes, rice, veggies and fruit. The closer your food is to nature, the less likely it has a bunch of stuff added to it that you can't eat. As a bonus, I lost 20 pounds and my cholestrol went from 294 to 204.

Good luck,

T.

Hi T.,
My son had the same problem and boy was it messy and frustrating at times. He too was putting on weight but we are lucky enough to have a Dr. that is not a big fan of medicating. She had him go through a couple of tests just to make sure there was nothing else wrong, like pyloric stenosis. After it was determined that he just had a really bad case of acid reflux and GERD we just decided to deal with the mess. We put him on Gripe Water as well and that helped calm his stomach a little bit. There were times we would still deal with projectile vomitting. Our son has continued to put on weight and thrive. He has out grown most of it (he is now 12 1/2 months). The only thing I can say is sometimes it was scary the amount that would come out of him and how long after a feeding it would be, but, I'm glad we opted not to put him on medication.

Try "Gripe Water" found at Walgreens or most pharmacies over the counter. It is an herbal remedy, mostly for colic, but it can help GERD too. Also prop him up during feedings, tilt his bed on incline, and burp him more often during feedings that you would a normal child. It also helped our son to be held in an upright position for about 30 minutes after the feeding. Also avoid any cigarette smoke. Avoid any overstimulation as well.

The Zantac will only help with the burning from the acid getting refluxed into his throat- it will not keep him from spitting up. So if he is not acting like it causes him pain, I would avoid the medication. Our son arched his back and screamed about ten minutes into every feed and the crying often didn't stop for hours- often until he was hungry again and we started all over. To help with the spitting up, we found that aside from doing the elimination diet for me, keeping him upright as much as possible, was very helpful. I even nursed him almost upright, then we would hold him for at least 30 minutes very upright after a feed. We also used one of those bouncy chairs a lot, because of its upright position. In fact, for a long time we had him sleep in it at night. The good thing, is they almost always outgrow the GERD. My son took 9-10 months, but most infants outgrow it in three or so.
I copied this into my notes from a medical paper when we were trying to decide what to do about Zantac, and to be honest, it did bother me a great deal to be giving it to him, but in our case, he was just in too much pain.
"Antacids in Pediatric GERD is generally not recommended for long term treatment. Significant aluminum absorption from antacid use can occur in infants approaching levels reported to cause osteopenia and neurotoxicity."
Best of luck to you in coping with this until he outgrows it!
S.

Congratulations on your new baby! Check out www.guardiansleeper.com. There is a great page about reflux and links to other reflux sites. I hope this helps.
C. :-)

I would listen to your doctor. They deal with GERD all of the time, and they know what they're talking about. Congrats on your baby boy! :)

My first son (now almost 5 years old) had GERD when he was an infant. My pediatrician didn't believe in medicating it, and with some more intensive behaviors by me, we got through it without Zantac or anything else. Basically, everytime I fed him, I sat him up or held him upright for 45 minutes before laying him down to sleep. In the middle of the night, this meant I was basically never sleeping because he would wake up every 2 hours, I'd feed for 15 or 20 minutes, hold him upright while he slept on my shoulder for 45 minutes, then lay him down, and he'd wake 15 minutes later to do it all over again.

In the day, it meant I was holding him a lot, or he'd be in the swing or the infant rocker that kept him fairly upright. He finally got over it at around 4 months old, when he was able to be propped up a lot during the day (he was sleeping through the night at that point).

I hope this helps. It can be done without medication! :)

Hi T., Firt let me say congrats on your new baby! I have a two year old son who had acid reflux and was on medication from the time he was about the same age as your son. After doing different test they finally figured out why he was having the issue and now he is off of his medication. He was on prevacid which worked really well for him. we tried Zantec for him and it didn't do a thing. I know that you don't want to put your child on medication but it sounds like your child has it pretty bad and I didn't want my son to go on meds. either but I didn't want him to hurt either. It is very painful for them depending on how bad it is. Also, if your child is not on meds. and it's bad it can cause damage to his esophagus, because our son was on prevacid he didn't not have any damage. Most children do out grow this by the time they reach one and by the time they start baby food it does get better for them. I know that by sitting him up for at least a 30 mintues after each meal will help, that's what we did for my son and it helped him a lot. We would also put our son in his bouncy seat to sleep because his was so bad. He didn't mind sleeping in his bouncy seat and was happy that he wasn't laying down cause everytime he would he would scream. I hope this helps and I hope your child feels better. My child delt with this until he was 2 years old. God Bless!

How about a beer? Hey, this is Mom. Just kidding! Read this and knew it was you. I usually don't read these, but did today. Hope Henry is doing better and you, too. Hope someone can give you some good ideas what to do. I asked for help one time about hair loss and hormones and it seemed to be really sound advice. Take care and God bless. Love, Mom

Dear T.
I went thru the same thing with my one year old now.
If your Doc is recomending meds like Zantac trust him. My baby took the meds since she was one month old, and thank god she is well now. I never noticed any side effects, but all children are not the same. I just wanted you to know that it worked for us, and my child wasn't in pain anymore.

Hi T.:

I would refer you to my doctor, Dr. David Karaba, with East West Medical Group in Fullerton. He is certified in allergy elimination techniques that may cure the problem for you son. He will give you a free consultation so you can learn more about this non invasive process and decide if its a good match for your situation.

I second the recommendation for the Santa Monica Homeopathic pharmacy. We've used it and finally got our own homeopath for my son and I.

Take care,
M.

go to Santa Monica Homeopathic store and they will help you it is truly amazing

My son was doing the same thing. He would randomly gag on his own saliva way after a feeding. He also would spit up a huge amount of breast milk. He didn't do it at every feeding though. I started him on GRIPE WATER when he was 2 weeks old. It is a ginger based water that is all natural with no additives. It helps soothe their tummies. It worked for us. My son is now a hefty 13 pound 2 month old. I found the gRIPE water at a health food store. It was inexpensive.
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR NEW LITTLE GUY.

My daughter is now 3 months old but has had this same issue since she was 2 weeks old. Dr would not put her on meds because she is gaining weight pretty well (i guess in severe cases they dont gain as much because they dont want to eat at all). Basicly I learned to live with it and just waiting for it to pass.. It has gotten a bit better, but spit ups are still there. She spits up after every feeding, and also an hour or more after. Some spit ups are little and some are pretty massive. I keep her upright for a while after a feeding, before it would be at least 20 mins now its less. Also what i did is I would burp her as often as possible, every 3 minutes as she ate, also helped. And it was hard to get a burp out sometimes, but i would sit and wait for it. I also stopped eating dairy but honestly i didnt see major improvement. Also we gave her Mylicon drops, cant say i saw major improvement with those either. It will get better as he gets older, she is better now than she was at 3 weeks, and hopefully will keep getting better! Meanwhile stock up on burping cloths!!!! :)

Hi there, my now 2.5 year old son had really bac GERD when he was a baby. We tried changing my diet and tried all kinds of meds. He was putting on weight but spitting up constantly, was very irritable, and had difficulty sleeping through the night. Nothing worked for us until he finally outgrew his reflux at around 12-13 months. We saw two ped GI specialists and one had us medicating way too much and then we saw another pd GI at UCLA Med Ctr that said the other doc was overmedicating and that we should just let him outgrow it cus he wasn't responding well to any of the meds. Well he did finally outgrow it. Having a baby with GERD is very hard, but you will very very likely see improvements once your son is walking around the age of 12 mo as that is what will help his immature system to mature. Best of luck to you both! -T.

Hey T.,
My baby spit up 10 -15 times a day until she was about 7 months old, often coughing and sputtering afterwards. Then she reduced it to about 8-10 times a day. I breastfed her until she was a year old. I swore she wasn't keeping much down. But, her pediatricians said as long as she is gaining weight appropriately then they would not want to start meds before she was a year old. They also told me that spit up often looks like it is a lot more volume than it actually is. My daughter even continued spitting up until she was 15 months old. I did try Zantac with her from about 13-15 months old with good results and then took her off it at 15 months to find that she had finally grew out of spitting up. She is fine, wonderful, and healthy and always has been. She has hit every milestone on time and has definitely gained weight appropriately along the way. According to medical literature, frequent spitting up is common in children up to 2 years old and should not be a worry unless the child does not gain weight or becomes malnourished. Good luck, and try not to worry so much if he is gaining weight fine.

hi T.-
i too dealt with this with my son who was a premie. it usually is more of an issue with the parents than the child. i just waited it out. i spent most of my day cleaning up the mess. your baby will outgrow it. i feel like everyone rushes to put their babies on meds! i personally wouldn't want to put any meds in my baby unless it was totally necessary. some of the other moms suggested keeping baby in an upright position- this definately helped. try visiting a health food store or homeopathic doc.
good luck!
T.

GERD(s) is a small term for a lot of symptoms. My granddaughter, who is now almost 7, was born with the symptoms and seemd to be in pain always. If the MD is prescribing Zantac as relief for your child's pain, trust that he is giving the right medication at the right time. GERD(s) is so complex; every child has his/her own version of it. Ask to be referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist so you are sure you are doing everything you can for your son. He may "grow out of it" (some children do) or he may need further help like my grandchild did. You can also get help on the internet from different organizations for parents whose children have GERD(s).

I had 4 babies with GERD. The first one I had on Zantac, but it didn't seem to help much, so I didn't use it with the others. Basically I just did a lot of laundry and by 4 months old they were past the worst of it. By 6 months it had mostly disppeared.

Gripe Water worked wonders for me. I buy it for every new mom I know. You can get it at virtually any baby boutique and I think that Walgreen's recently started stocking it. It is also sold at naturopathic and health food stores.

Dear T.,

Please do not give him Zantac!! Give him probiotics calls Right Start by Natren. It's design for infant up to 2 years old. It's a powder, you can mix it with breat milk or water. Also, you can take in addition and he will get some throught breastfeeding. My child had a bad case of reflux (projectile) and it worked!

Life Start works throughout your baby’s digestive system: Daily supplementation helps develop healthy bodies, produces natural lactic, acetic and formic acids, to help promote a healthy digestive environment, Increases nutritional value by producing essential B vitamins, Stimulates optimal immune function in newborns,Assists absorption of calcium, vitamins and other nutrients.

You can call local health food stores or order it at www.natren.com

God bless,
O.

While my first son was not quite that young when he started Zantac, he was indeed taking it from his infancy and during the entire first year of his life. He had such severe GERD that he would stop breathing sometimes. He'd turn blue and everything. Now, I should say that he was born with a birth defect where his trachea and esophagus were connected and the repairative surgery probably had something to do with his latter issues. The Zantac really made a positive difference for him. He outgrew needing his meds by 1 year of age or so. He was also on Reglan which is a motility med. Good luck!

Hi T.,

I know you are looking for a solution OTHER than medication. Though I do not have that I wanted to put my two cents in anyway because my son was on Znatac for a while. He hated it. It tastes NASTY!
May I suggest, if you do have to go on medication to try prevacid. It is actually the only one tested for infants on up and it tastes good. My son is on that and boy does it make a difference!!! When he is not on it he does the burp, swallow, make a face, or sometimes even burp, swallow, and squeal... all day long. On it, he burps like a normal kid... just after he eats.

Just my thoughts,
Good luck,
G.

My son had GERD, but not as severe as yours, he would spit up a lot and had an upset stomach all the time. I bought him the incline pillow for his crib, that helped, but we finally put him on Zantac at 3 months. I resisted putting him on any meds, but I do have to say the Zantac helped a lot, especially at night to help him sleep soundly.