I had never heard of gastric reflux until some years ago, when I had
a woman with an extremely fussy baby who was also failing to put on weight.
Her baby just cried all the time. She finally found a paediatrician who did
some test which showed the baby had reflux. She didn't actually spit up, but
apparently the milk came up and burnt her oesophagus, which was why she
cried. The doctor told the mother to give some bottles of formula thickened
with rice. I wasn't happy about this (naturally!), but the mother said it
did actually help. She used this solution as little as possible, since she
was breastfeeding, but apparently she noticed the difference when she did.
She was really having a difficult time with this baby, and I hardly felt in
a position to argue, since I didn't have any better solution to offer, and
this one did seem to work. Gastric reflux, if I remember correctly, wasn't
even mentioned in the old edition of Breastfeeding Answer Book.
        The issue of NMAA's magazine which has pages of letters on gastric
reflux is Nov/Dec. 92. I came across it by chance while I was dealing with
this mother, and she was extremely grateful to finally find some information
on the subject. (Don't forget this was about six years ago.) Having read the
letters, I think there must be some genetic component since several of the
women who wrote had had more than one baby with the same problem. It's
obvious that having a baby with reflux can really make your life a misery
(and the baby's too). After meeting this mother, and reading those letters,
I don't feel inclined to underestimate the problem.
        However, looking back, it is possible that some of the people who
assumed their babies had reflux simply had an over-active let-down.
                                Anna Lowenstein
                                        Zagarolo, Italy