My just turned 6 year old boy complaining of sore throat x 2 months. Strept negative. took him to see gastroenterologist and ENT. Both think its reflux. Was on Pepcid for 10 days now on Protonix . Felt better for 5 days , now complaining again. Woke up today saying, "my throat hurts I need something to eat now." He says it feels better when he eats. GI wants to do upper GI series xray. Both ENT and GI thinks it's reflux and not concerned. Anyone else have a similar experience with this?
I have reflux, and I have to say that it often feels better when I eat something.
If his doctor thinks the x-ray will help, that's something to consider. You could also ask the doctor about which foods are more helpful, taking the medicine at different times of day, is the dosage correct for your son, etc.
Just so you know, reflux is painful, so it will really help your son if you can find ways to give him some relief.
Start him eating every 3 hours. Small meals. Don't let him eat or drink after 7 or 8pm, an hour or two before bedtime. I eat chili, pizza, heavy foods, things that take a LONG time to digest or that might give me tummy issues early in the day. Like before mid afternoon. Then for the evening meals I eat easily digested low carb higher protein meals that are out of the stomach and don't cause gas or acid stuff.
The smaller meals will digest quickly and then he won't have stuff in his stomach. Fluids on top of stomach acid make a volatile eruption. It can be crazy when you get horizontal.
You can put a 4"X4" block under each top corner of his bed too. If you can't raise just the head of his bed then find a way to raise his mattress on that end. They make foam wedges that go under the mattress or under the bottom sheet to achieve this too.
Laying flat is bad for reflux. It basically makes a pathway for the stomach acid to travel up and down from throat to stomach.
I would think that Pepcid isn't the right med either. If it's not working anyway. If his acid pumps made excess acid he needs an acid reducing medication, every day, forever probably. If he just gets acid indigestion when he eats certain things then he needs an antacid on demand sort of thing.
Have you ruled out allergies? Postnasal drip can cause a sore throat. So can mouth breathing at night due to a stuffy nose. Eating and drinking can help because it washes away the postnasal drip mucus from the throat and/or rehydrates the throat after mouth breathing.
Although, if both ENT and GI say reflux, it's a good chance that it's reflux and the tests make sense especially since he's not responding to standard treatment..
Did you know that reflux can also be caused by low stomach acid? Just something to consider.
You might take him to a dentist, who can look in the back of his mouth. Perhaps there's something stuck in a tooth that is causing some kind of discomfort. Ask the dentist to specifically look for anything that could cause throat pain (tooth decay, stuck piece of food, signs of a dry mouth, etc). A dentist might have some symptom relief ideas as well.
