Pat says,
> Spitting up is not a major issue with GER, even though some babies with GER
> do spit up, or attempt to, in their struggle to ease their pain. Actually
> they do a lot of swallowing to prevent the stomach contents from entering
> the esophagus. The symptom that sets GER apart is the severe pain. These
> babies are in agony for a long time after eating, so much so that some of
> them decide that they will no longer eat since that is the "cause" of their
> pain that grows in intensity.
I think that technically, the definition of Gastro-esophageal Reflux is any
spitting up. I wish there was a different term for what Pat is describing
which is the GERD with severe pain -- the so-called "silent" reflux when the baby
swallows the fluid back down again, thus in many cases a double whammy on the
pain because of the acid coming up and then going back down again -- and the
'wet burps' that Rachel described w/ her son and that I experienced with both
my daughters who, in essence, spit until they walked, but thrived, were in no
pain, and it was a laundry problem.
So I had two babies (big N of 2 + my sister had 1 which = an N of 3) between
1974 and 1984 that were the "spitters" but had no pain. I think Pat's
question is why are we seeing the extreme pain and discomfort in so very many babies
-- and seeing more and more of it all the time? Why are babies being
prescribed medications? How many of us had babies prior to (let's pick a date --
1993) that had such severe reflux that it caused self limiting of feeds, pain, and
medication? How many of us had the plain old common garden variety of
spitters?
How can we make some sense of what is going on?
Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, RLC
Wheaton, Illinois
www.lactationeducationconsultants.com
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