How does a Dr diagnose baby acid reflux?

Question

I think my daughter had acid reflux. Everytime she eats she spits up a little and then crys hysterically. I'm taking her to the Dr on monday but I was wondering from parents who have children with the same problem how the Dr diagnoses this.

We tried the AR but that constipated her. The reg Enfamil she would throw up, almost prjectile vomit, 1 1/2 out of 2 oz she ate. She now takes Similac which stays down the best, but she gets so upset. And she does spit up long after she eats. She's good at night though, but during the day she just screams. You can tell the poor thing is in pain.

I don't know who to pick for BA, honestly. All good answers. My Dr switched her formula to a soy based and she was a completly different baby from the first bottle. I'm glad she doesn't need meds and even more glad to hear my baby happy most of the time, except when she is complaining because she doesn't want to wear a sweater or go in the car sea, ya know...normal stuff.

So, vote away!

Answer 1

They can run tests to be sure, but sometimes they do not need to. My daughter had all the classic symptoms. Extremely fussy after eating, sour burps and screaming after burping (you could tell she was burping up acid), clawing at my face and arching her back while crying. Her doc looked at her thoat and could see the damage done by the acid. she put us on Enfamil AR and a hefty dose of Prevacid. that was at 5 weeks old. I noticed the AR was very constipating as well, so we put a few drops of Karo in each bottle and she had no problem going at all. as she got older and started eating more food and less formula, she needed the Karo less and less.

She is now 20 months and doing very well. she still has reflux and we still treat her for it, but she seems to be in the middle of a very good spell. She gets 15mg of Prevacid every morning on an empty stomach, then eats an hour later. no jeans or tight pants, head above butt when sleeping, watered down juice, very limited tomato products. We use My lanta Supreme for any heartburn issues. She does well. She has mild ashtma from the reflux as well, so she is on Singulair for that.

You can HOPE your baby will outgrow it, but don't assume she will. Everyone said she would be fine by the time she was a year. well at 11 months we were back in the hospital with severely active reflux, symptomatic croup (not the virus, but damage from the burns), wheezing and coughing, and feeling like we were starting over. she outgrew her dose of Prevacid and the reflux showed's is ugle self in full force.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

My daughter had acid reflux really bad, she would do the whole screaming while she ate and spiting up like crazy, and the Dr. had me take her to radiology and they had her drink this stuff and they took xrays during to confirm the liquid was coming back up so they put her on liquid Zantac which honestly did not seem to help and it tasted so bad it just ended up all over, so I did some research and swicthed formula and bottles and I swear within a day I never had a problem again. I used Enfamil Gentlease and Dr Browns bottles but by 3-4 months the muscle in the throat has better control too. Anyways good luck to you and know your baby will outgrow it

Answer 4

My daughter had it real bad to. She was on Zantac. It seemed to help. She was also on Similac Alimentum which is a hypoallergenic formula but that was needed because she had a hard time digesting food. Not sure if that would help with reflux or not. Also, try keeping him in an upright position 25-30 minutes after eating. There really isn't much you can do. Good Luck. Edit- My Dr told me to also thicken the formula with rice cereal to help keep it down. I was also told to give her less formula but feed her more often. This all helped a lot. But remember, your son will always have a day every once in a while where he will be worse then other days. My daughter had many horrible days.

Answer 5

It was a long haul for my son before he was diagnosed with Acid Reflux. At 8 days old he would scream and cry and projectile vomit everywhere after eating. I took him to the hospital and they told me he was lactose intolerant and to stop breast feeding him. They put him on lactose free Enfamil, but that was worse. I went back to nursing him and cut all dairy out of my diet as well as anything that might upset his stomach.Then they did ultrasounds of his stomach,and then finally a barium swallow. He lost a LOT of weight before they finally got him diagnosed and treated at 2 months old. They put him on Reglan and Zantac.(he weighed 8lbs 2oz at birth and dropped down to 6lbs. and at one point the doctors told me that my baby was screaming and crying all the time because basically he was starving to death and that they could not really do anything for him until they knew what was wrong with him) He is 4 years old now, and still is taking medication twice a day for the reflux. He cannot have pizza, hotdogs, greasy foods, spaghetti sauces, ect. due to his reflux.
I wish you the best of luck with your little one. Sometimes they can out-grow it!!!

Answer 6

my baby had reflux since 2 weeks. the doctor knew because he spit up after feeding and long after feeding as well.

my baby also woke up after 15 min of sleep screaming. the dr. said it was because of pain from the reflux.

after using enfamil a.r. lipil and prevacid he was much better.

EDIT: enfamil a.r. lipil did constipate him at first, we used the karo syrup with a couple bottles a day, it lessened to once a week, then finally he didnt need it at all.

your baby probably needs meds and then needs to adjust to the formula she does best with.

i switched my baby's doctor when he was 3 weeks because his first doctor was stupid. she had the upper g.i. test done which his new dr. said was unnessary because it is inaccurate, she put him on an apnea monitor which he said wouldnt do anything but scare us, and she made us give him rice cereal at 2 weeks which the other dr. said would constipate him and give him too many calories.

Answer 7

Usually an E.N.T. Dr. looks down the throat for signs of acid burn (inflammation).