Dealing With Acid Reflux in Infants: The First Step

There are few conditions more difficult to deal with than acid reflux in infants. Especially for adults who have dealt with acid reflux in the past, it is incredibly hard to see your little one have to go through such intense pain, feeling as though there is nothing you can do to help them. If you want to be able to help your baby, it is important to learn more about acid reflux in infants and the treatments that are available.

Acid reflux in infants typically occurs during the first three months of life, and although it can get to be quite serious most babies do not need treatment because the reflux tends to go away on its own. However for a small number of babies, the symptoms of acid reflux continue and appropriate treatment will be needed.

Symptoms

There are some symptoms that are commonly experienced by infants with acid reflux, including frequent spitting up, irritability especially when feeding, hiccups, coughing, poor sleep habits, and bad breath, to name a few. You may also notice that they have difficulty swallowing, frequent ear infections, hoarse voice, or unexplained weight loss or weight gain.

Dealing With Acid Reflux in Infants

If you determine that your infant does in fact have acid reflux, it is important that you get them treated as soon as possible. The treatment will depend on the severity of the problem more than anything, as well as on any allergies that your baby may have, and so on.

Antacids are usually the first step, and these are the mildest treatment available. They help by neutralizing the acid in the stomach, thereby helping to prevent it from making its way back up into the esophagus.

Acid blockers are another option, and these work by completely blocking acid production in the stomach. Because acid production is a necessary function of the human body however, it is important that these drugs not be used as a long term solution because they can end up causing serious damage and possibly even making the condition worse than it was to begin with.

Make sure that you discuss treatment methods for acid reflux in infants with your doctor, because you will have to deal with acid reflux differently with your infant than you would with an adult. They will be able to properly assess and diagnose the infant’s condition and determine which specific treatment would be most suitable.