Newborn baby reflux: Symptoms and how to recognise it
The reflux of the newborn child is a common problem for many children in the first months of life, whose symptoms are various and often of difficult to understand for the parent.
In this article I explain in detail what are the symptoms of reflux, how to recognise it easily and above all how to improve it (or solve it completely).
Furthermore, I leave you the testimony of the mother of little Camilla, my patient who suffered from reflux.
Gastroesophageal reflux of the newborn what it is
From medical terminology, the gastro-oesophageal reflux consists in the ascent towards the oesophagus of the food in the stomach.
In the case of the newborn, being an infant, the reflux is the upflow of milk from the stomach into the oesophagus and the mouth, with (or without) vomiting/regurgitation.
Like the colic are representative of a picture inflammatory bowel disease, the gastroesophageal reflux is a symptom of a irritative picture at level gastric and oesophageal.
Reflux, especially in cases where the child cries and is sick, it is not caused by simple immaturity of the cardia, but by gastrointestinal tension and irritation. To discover the causes continue reading.
Very often is not given due importance to this issue. In fact, it is often considered that its presence is temporary and generally free of negative consequences.
However, many infants suffer significantly so much so that they resort to numerous paediatric and/or gastroenterological visits. In fact, the child manifests this discomfort constantly crying why strongly bothered by the issue.
Why then underestimate this problem and abandon the child and parents to their fate when we can improve it with specific precautions and any osteopathic treatments?
Gastro-oesophageal reflux: symptoms and how to recognise it
As reflux is caused by milk rising from the stomach into the oesophagus, the most significant objective sign of the child suffering from gastro-oesophageal reflux is regurgitation/vomiting.
This sign objective manifest clearly the rising of stomach contents (milk) through the oesophagus into the mouth.
The episodes of regurgitation may occur both near and far from meals, and may be more or less marked.
When regurgitation episodes are abundant and violent, one tends to speak of infant jet vomiting.
In either case, to fully understand the severity of the reflux symptoms, it is always very important to assess whether regurgitation episodes are associated with irritability or the child vomits without hardly noticing it.
Another symptom to understand whether the newborn suffers from ''reflux'' are the difficulty and slowness at drinking and digesting milkeither during the feeding itself or just afterwards.
Because of this digestive difficulty (caused by airritation of the gastrointestinal system) the infant may present other symptoms of reflux. In fact, it can manifest:
- Gastric discomfort which manifests itself in weeping;
- Problems with gastric emptying;
- Air in the stomach;
- Difficulties in making ''the burp'' and milk upflow into the oesophagus with or without regurgitation.
Another symptom that the child suffering from reflux may present is the cough.
In addition, in the presence of gastric emptying and reflux difficulties, the child is more likely to have the hiccups; it can occur either immediately after the meal or at a distance.
Before moving on to the section on the real causes of reflux and how to improve/resolve it, let us summarise the numerous symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux of the newborn child and how to recognise it:
- regurgitation/vomiting close to feeding or at a distance
- crying and irritability during feeding, immediately afterwards and afterwards
- association of reflux with gas colic (gastric and intestinal disorders)
- digestive and gastric emptying difficulties
- the parent may feel or notice from the sound that the milk they have just eaten seems to rise
- the baby continues to digest hours after feeding (continuous, unpleasant burping)
- the child often has hiccups
- the child frequently has a cough
Infant gastro-oesophageal reflux: causes and remedies
Although a slight immaturity of the cardia (valve that closes the stomach at the top) is indeed present in some cases, reflux is usually caused by an irritative state of the gastric system (but also intestinal).
That is why the newborn not only regurgitates but cries from annoyance both during feeding and at a distance from it.
Just as colic is caused by a inflammatory bowel picture, the same applies to reflux (see scientific studies).
Le causes (and consequently the remedies) of reflux are very similar to those of colic (also because milk transits first in the stomach and then in the intestine).
Only by knowing the true causesaction can be taken to solve the reflux.
Otherwise, we only continue to give drug therapies to try to buffering symptoms without solving the problem to the root.
The causes and remedies for the regurgitation and the reflux gastro-oesophageal infant are:
- if the child is breastfed, it is essential to investigate and improve thematernal nutrition (unavoidable);
- if the child is artificially breastfed You have to consider how the milk is delivered (position), the type of bottle, the teat and much more;
- one must always assess the mobility of the thoracic diaphragm (located just above the stomach) and the pelvic area, which play an important role in the gastric emptying and intestinal peristalsis. . Very often there are severe limitations in children suffering from reflux caused by intrauterine malpositions or difficult births;
- the presence of objective gastric and intestinal smooth muscle tension that create pain for the child and slow down the transit. This can be noticed by palpating the child's abdomen at the stomach and assessing the visceral and ligamentous tensions.
I myself always teach parents in the studio theBelly Osteo-Massage.
- the presence of neck and back contractures that might annoy the child and make him irritable.
Many children with reflux and regurgitation tend to arch your back, but it is not reflux that forces the infant to arch posteriorly. In fact, it is the contractures in the back that, in concomitance with gastric pain, manifest themselves overtly.
The proof of what I am saying is that very often these children also tend to arch during the day or during sleep at night, by lying on your side or turning your head sideways to 90 degrees. - many other parameters that you will find in the video course ''Treatment and prevention of gaseous colic and gastro-oesophageal reflux''.
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