Different techniques work for different refluxers so trial and error are needed to identify any that may help you. They may work for refluxers and silent refluxers alike. If you have any concerns, please discuss these with your child’s doctor or Child Health Nurse.
A child with reflux will not necessarily display all of these symptoms, and the number of signs exhibited does not indicate the severity of their reflux. If you suspect your child may have reflux or have any questions or concerns, it is important to discuss them with your child’s doctor or child health nurse.
Have you ever been to the doctor and been confronted with a treatment you knew nothing about and an explanation that left you just as confused? How do you decide which treatment is best for you? What are a treatment’s harms, benefits and objectives? If you have ever struggled with any of these questions, please consider visiting the Cochrane Collaboration Library.
Here’s the standard RISA brochure that will be distributed to Child Health Care centres and alike to help parents identify whether to seek further help for a child displaying symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. Please feel free to download, print and distribute. They are intended for an Australian audience but RISA does accept international membership and often helps international parents via email.
There is often a lot of confusion between Lactose Intolerance and Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance (CMPI); many people often think they are the same thing. To confuse things even more an allergy or intolerance to a food protein can cause a secondary lactose intolerance and they may be present together!
I have spent much of my working life seeing children only in General Practice. For about 10 + years I have been especially interested in the relationship between distress in early infancy and ear problems. For some years I have been talking of the condition I call Eustachian tube Irritation [ETI], which I believe is a common cause of infant distress and is an early manifestation of ear problems in some infants. I have now seen 500 + infants presenting with distress who I believe have this condition.
Did you know:
1. Reflux affects up to 8% of children and a higher % of infants
2. Some estimates put it as high as 1 in 5 babies
3. It is estimated that 65‐85% of premmie babies suffer with GORD
4. In 2005 there were 259,800 births in Australia
5. Over 34,000 babies are likely to suffer with reflux in Australia
each year
While many children seem to improve throughout their first twelve to eighteen months, others continue to suffer from reflux beyond that, and there is increasing recognition that Gastro-oesophageal reflux can be an issue for older children and teenagers.
There seems to be a lot of confusion about the difference between Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux (GOR, reflux) and Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux DISEASE (GORD). Many people don’t realise there is a difference, that reflux can be anything more than a ‘happy spitter’, or that it can present in so many different ways.