Is your child complaining of a burning sensation in their chest? Do you find that they cough a lot or vomit regularly and you don't know the source of it? Well, your child may have GERD.
But rest assured, acid reflux in children is very common, actually it is more common for children to have a degree of GERD than not.
Perhaps it is the highly active lifestyle or the diet (kids tend to drink a lot of acidic juices), but it is common for kids to suffer from some sort of gastrointestinal back up.
How do you know if your child has GERD? Well, if they are vomiting a lot or their vomit is a yellow-ish or green-ish color, then they may be suffering from it.
If they have difficulty breathing after coughing or vomiting could also be a sign.
Generally, the acidic liquid will cause hoarseness in the throat and persistent coughing.
Also, if your child is refusing food, or if they have obvious difficulty in chewing or swallowing, these might also be signs that you may want to investigate.
Remember though, that most children grow out of any sort of acute GERD and that surgery or any other serious remedy to the problem is only necessary in the most severe cases.
Generally doctors blame the child's underdeveloped digestive system for these issues.
One of the ways to inhibit this issue in your infant is to keep your baby upright for 30 minutes after they have been fed.
This advice is similar for adults, in which case they recommend that you not eat before going to bed and to arch your pillow up thirty degrees while sleeping in order to make any sort of rise in secretion difficult.
The main issue here is to block the rise in stomach acid from getting to the top of your esophagus, and the back of your throat.
Generally you need to be aware of this immediately after you eat, as that is when your stomach is producing the acids to help digest your food.
In most cases, however, the acid build up will return back to the stomach and will not cause any sort of damage to the voice or result in any coughing fits.
Your child will most likely simply outgrow acid reflux and will resume a healthy digestive order as they grow older.
With that said, if you find that these symptoms persist, you should most certainly consult a physician to be on the safe side as well as follow a few simple rules including: - Not feeding your child 2-3 hours before bedtime, - Remove any sort of acidic or caffeinated drinks/food from their diet, - Encourage regular exercise, - Serve several small meals throughout the day, rather than three large ones.
As with adults, the causes with children's acid reflux, is attributed to an overabundance of acidic or digestive secretions.
So, anything that you can do to reduce these in your child, the more likely it will be that the symptoms will ease.