Causes & Symptoms Of Baby GERD

Spitting up throughout the day is a common condition in infants but when frequent vomiting is associated with symptoms like discomfort and difficulty in feeding your baby or weight loss, then it is a sign of baby GERD.

Gastroesophageal Reflux – Acid Reflux (GER) is a common condition in healthy babies. Interestingly enough, it is known that more than half of all infants experience GER however it is important that these infants stop spitting up between the ages of 12 and 24 months.

While most babies experience some common symptoms of GER, there is a small fraction of babies that may experience some severe symptoms that may give a hint of Gastroesophageal Reflux ‘Disease’ (GERD) which requires medical treatment.

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While GER is simply an experience of acid reflux, GERD is a disorder which includes GER as a symptom.

What Causes Baby GERD?
What causes baby GERD is a problem in the functioning of what is medically known as Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES).

LES is a muscle that opens up and closes when food enters the stomach. However, if this muscle relaxes for a bit too long for too often, the food contents and acid in the stomach may flow back into the esophagus and ultimately come out from the mouth (vomiting), thus causing GER.

But if your baby shows some severe symptoms while experiencing GER frequently, there are high chances that your baby has fallen victim to baby GERD.

It is known that obesity, overeating, certain kinds of food items, medication and constipation are probable factors that cause the faulty LES which as explained above,can lead to baby GERD.

Also, in infants LES is not fully developed and therefore GER is common but if the severity of the symptoms is too high then it can cause baby GERD.

Let’s look into some symptoms of baby GERD.
Vomiting, coughing, irritability, blood in the stools are common symptoms of GER which your baby can outgrow mostly by the age of 24 months however, if your baby starts to show some of the following severe symptoms, then there are chances that your baby has fallen victim to GERD and thus, needs medical attention.

Some of the severe symptoms of baby GERD that require medical attention are:

1)Poor growth in babies or weight loss because of not being able to hold down food and disturbed digestion are major symptoms of baby GERD.

2)When your baby starts becoming too irritable and refuses to be fed and starts crying and arching its back then it is probably because your baby might be suffering with pain while swallowing food. This is another important symptom to look for baby GERD.

3)Another significant symptom of baby GERD is blood loss in your baby which probably happens due to acid burning the esophagus lining.

4)If your baby constantly vomits for up to 2 hours after feeding, it might have baby GERD.

5)If you find your baby facing difficulty in breathing, take immediate doctor’s guidance as this too can be a symptom of baby GERD.

We hope this article gave you a fair understanding of what GERD really is, how is GERD caused in babies and what can be possible symptoms to identify GERD.

If you have some more information on GERD, we would love to hear about it from you!