Acid reflux is known by a few names including Gastroesophageal Reflux (GER) and Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). In every day terms, adults refer to it as heartburn. However, acid reflux doesn’t only affect adults. Infants, particularly those born preterm, can also be diagnosed with GERD. In babies it may cause excessive spit up, vomiting, and extreme discomfort.
How the Healthy Esophagus Prevents Reflux
To understand what acid reflux is, it may be best to first understand how a healthy esophagus functions. When you swallow food, you can feel a ripple effect in your throat as the muscles contract to squeeze the food down to your stomach. Once the food reaches the base of esophagus, the food plops into your stomach. Your stomach juices begin to mix with the food. In response, the ring of muscles at the base of the esophagus tightens back up to keep food in the stomach.
GER Babies and Digestion
The problem babies with acid reflux experience is that ring of muscles sometimes forgets to contract and relaxes instead. When that happens, acid in the stomach starts to come back up the esophagus, sometimes reaching the back of the throat. The exposure of these sensitive tissues to stomach acid is irritating to the baby.
Acid Reflux Treatment
The degree of GER can range from mild to severe. Milder forms should be treated by preventative methods rather than by medications. Should those prevention methods fail, your doctor might suggest trying medication. These prescriptions should only be given at the advice of a physician. Some pediatricians will use special thickened formulas rather than medicines. There is some evidence that thickened feeds are effective to some degree. For particularly severe cases where problems continue even after medications have been given, there is a surgery that can be performed to tighten up those lower esophagus muscles.
