My son is nearly 10 months old now and still suffers from an occasional bout of reflux. Just when I think he’s overcome it, today it reared it’s ugly head again.
From birth I knew something was not quite right. He hated being laid down flat on his back. He would cry like he was uncomfortable and had what I called the “guppy” mouth going. It was like he was constantly trying to swallow something down. I was very apprehensive in being sent home when I told the doctors something was not quite right. Well, within the first 24 hours of being home, I put him down to sleep after nursing him and stepped away to go to the bathroom and heard thrashing in the bassinet. I went running in to find that his mouth was full of refluxed milk and he was having difficulty breathing. S-C-A-R-Y! I immediately turned him to his side and cleared out his mouth but his breathing seemed labored and he looked a little blue so I called 911. The fire department came and checked him out and said he sounded like he had a cold and that we should probably take him to ER. So we did. It was finally one of the ER nurses who actually saw what I was talking about with the “guppy” mouth that said he probably had Infant GER or Infant Acid Reflux. (God bless nurses!)
After the visit to the ER at 3 a.m. we got a call from our pediatrician later that morning for us to bring him in tot he office. Since he had lost 10% of his weight, he was admitted into the hospital for observation to try to figure out what exactly was going on. The nurses saw right away what I was talking about and luckily when the doctor was making his evening rounds, he witnessed a reflux episode. Finally, we had an official diagnosis. The doctor prescribed a sleeping wedge and medication to help reduce the acidity in his stomach. I was a little reluctant to put him on medication at 4 days old but it was extremely helpful for him. The wedge on the other hand was not. He HATED the wedge. He would not, I repeat, would not sleep in the wedge. So for the first 4 months of his life, he slept on me, while I slept sitting up. You read it right, while I slept sitting up. I started sleeping sitting up in the bed but after 3 weeks my butt hurt sooo badly I had to move to the couch. It’s not an easy feat and after 4 months, I decided as a birthday gift to myself, it was time to train him to sleep in his crib. For him it took some getting used to and he never slept on his back, only on his sides but after 2 weeks, he was sleeping in his crib. After he turned 6 months old, I weaned him off the medication and he has been able to handle his episodes quite well. I really hope that once he turns 1 and then starts walking that, that will be the end of his reflux days.
I have had acid reflux since I was a teenager. I’m at the moment in my 30s and what has seemed to work best for me is apple cider vinegar in a. I take it in it as a hot tea.
Acid reflux is actually a process which a lot of individuals will feel pretty regularly. The difference betwixt every day acid reflux, and that of GERD patients is the acidity of the reflux as well as the length for which it remains in the gullet.