For the Love of G.E.R.D.

For months now our little A. has had all of the symptoms of GERD.  Crying after eating, excessive burping, and screaming when placed on her back have all contributed to our constant worry.  When A. was finally diagnosed and given medication we thought we had made it out of the tunnel.  She seemed to be feeling better and we assumed she just needed the extra boost to help her digestion without any reflux.  But once again she surprised us and after a few days was back to her regular routine.  It seemed as if the medicine was only helping for a couple of hours and her formula was still causing problems.

To understand GERD, one has to understand what causes it in infants and children.  GERD is relatively simple to define: "reflux is due to a poorly coordinated gastrointestinal tract," (http://www.medicinenet.com/gerd_in_infants_and_children/article.htm).  Well thanks for that inspiring definition of what is going on when my daughter eats!  It's so clean cut and simple now! Ha...  What experts tend to ignore, forget, or not acknowledge, however, is how this 'simple and non-threatening disease' affects babies with the condition, and the parents of these babies.  Anyone who has spent any time at all with a baby with reflux knows what I'm talking about.  The spitting up, belching, stomach sounds... Sounds like fun, eh?

It was not until much later that we realized what else GERD could contribute to.  When we brought the little one home I was the first to notice a phlegmy sound when she would breathe.  I chalked it up to two things, the first of which being that she was born a month early and her lungs were not fully developed.  The C-section didn't help that either, as it is common for the baby to get amniotic fluid in their lungs during the procedure.  The second? MY BABY HAD A PROBLEM.  Naturally a first time mommy would come to this conclusion.  I brought it to W's attention and he calmly reassured me that the sound would soon go away and we could move on with life as our new usual.  The sounds of phlegm stuck in her chest didn't go away, though.  I started to worry.  At a recent doctor's appointment I was told that reflux has many other complications not usually mentioned at the time of diagnosis.  He proceeded to tell us that other common problems were recurrent wheezing, breathing problems, slow growth, and in a worst case scenario, pneumonia could occur.  So we were sent home with our new found information, and told to come back if we heard any wheezing.  That night I heard wheezing.  Long story short (or shortened, rather) we ended up with a nebulizer and vials of albuteral to help the asthma-like symptoms.

My point to this long and tedious story is to find everything there is to know about your (or your baby's) recent diagnosis.  Don't go home rationalizing to yourself that you're overreacting and believing that the doctor told you everything.  Chances are, he didn't.  Not because he's a neglectful doc that needs his license taken away, but because the symptoms may be rare for that disorder, or he had a busy practice and was distracted by the screaming child in the room next door who was receiving shots.  Don't believe everything you read on the internet either.  You can find a reason for anything on the 'net.  If I believed everything I read webmd would have told me today my headache was caused by a life threatening tumor.  The fact is, you are a parent, and there are instincts engrained in you that tell you when little red flags should come up.  Go with your gut and pursue it until you know your mystery is solved.  And if you have a little one with GERD, well, you know how fun it is.  Keep it up, as I am sure the symptoms of GERD do not deter you from loving your little one. Good luck in keeping your baby happy and God bless.