Aria's Story: Living With Infant Acid Reflux Disease (G.E.R.D.)

As I stated before, our concerns with our daughter began at age 2 months. She had trouble feeding properly and keeping her formula down from birth, but as time went on, her eating and sleeping habits became worse. Aria would cry constantly night and day, unless she gave in and fell asleep, which did happen, but was a bit of a fight. Her cries were ear piercing and horrifying as if she was in awful pain. There were many sleepless nights we'd just hold her and cry right along with her, not knowing how to help her.

We had taken her to the doctor numerous times, but all the doctor did for the first 2 months was change her formula. We went from Gerber Good Start to Similac Sensitive to finally Similac Alimentum (which let me say is SUPER expensive!). The Similac Alimentum seemed to help a little, but Aria still wouldn't keep much of her feedings down. And when she couldn't keep the formula in her system, she would scream and cry for more because she was hungry. It was a vicious cycle...we'd feed her, she'd vomit (usually all over herself, us, the couch and the floor), she'd scream for more food, we'd wait a few minutes and try a second time, and she'd vomit the feeding up all over again. When we finally did get her to keep a little of the formula in her system and she'd sleep a few hours, she'd wake up crying like she was in pain and usually throw up a small amount of her feeding from a few hours earlier. It was a total nightmare for her and for us.

The doctor decided to test her for reflux disease...Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease to be exact. She had an xray done (called a barium swallow) in which we had to keep her from eating for about 8 hours prior to the test. During the barium swallow, Aria was given a small amount of barium liquid in a bottle that coated her esophagus and stomach so the technicians could see how both parts of the body were functioning during feeding. Immediately, the xray screen showed the liquid flowing back up into her throat, proving she was unable to keep anything down that entered her little digestive system.

At this point, Aria was diagnosed with infant GERD and placed on a medication called Ranitidine (a generic version of Zantac). We were instructed to give her this medication 3 times a day until further notice. Aria also had to have monthly doctors appointments to check the status of her GERD. But I can tell you, diagnosis of the illness made it a lot easier to find helpful techniques for comforting Aria. Nothing we used was ever fool-proof and often the things we did stopped working so we had to change them up a bit. However, just knowing FINALLY what was going on with our daughter made a world of difference in finding ideas that would help her feel better.

Many doctors in the past have been quick to call an extremely fussy baby "colicky". Parents who raise a baby who has colic are just left to try the best they can to get through the colicky days or weeks until the stage ends and they have a happy baby again. However, colic has quickly become a topic for more concerning issues in infants such as that of GERD. Pediatric physicians are now discovering that many babies who were once thought to be colicky are now actually infants with reflux disease.

When my son was born (8 years ago), he was deemed a "colicky" baby. One who screamed uncontrollably from the hours of 9:00pm until 2:00am for nearly 3 weeks straight...EVERY night. There wasn't much we could do as parents except wait for the dreaded clock and prepare ourselves for an exhausting night of no sleep and headaches. Sure we tried all the tricks in the book, but none of them worked but maybe minutes at a time until we switched to the next technique to sooth him. We used all the high end baby accessories including vibrating bouncer seats, swings, and musical toys. Once 2:00am hit, our screaming monster fell instantly asleep and all was right with the world.

Looking back, especially once I found out that our daughter had infant GERD, I wonder if my son developed similar symptoms of the same. Hind sight is 20/20 I suppose, but it would have been nice to know all I do now after raising a daughter with acid reflux. In any case, my point is that times have changed and no longer are the days when babies are diagnosed simply with colic.

So if you become concerned that your infant isn't feeding as well as she should, is not gaining weight appropriately, doesn't sleep good at night, screams, fusses, or becomes inconsolable, and spits up a large amount of her feeding, you may want to consider talking to your doctor about GERD.

For more information, please visit: Baby Crying? Doctors Say It May Be Acid-Reflux Disease

Aria is almost a year and a half now and her reflux has cleared up. The doctor told us that this would probably happen when she was an infant, but we never thought she'd be doing so well. She has been taken off her Ranitidine medication and is eating all types of regular food. In fact, when she was about a year old, we were able to take her off the bottle (formula altogether) and start feeding her all solid foods. She no longer refluxes...though we are still careful not to give her a lot of acidic foods such as spaghetti sauce, pineapples, and anything else with high acidic value.

She sleeps well through the night now, which is amazing! After all the long nights of crying and teary-eyed frustration, we've finally come to a point where our little princess is healthy. I remember the days of cleaning up formula stained vomit from my clothes, the furniture, and the carpets...not to mention all the baths we had to give Aria when she'd cover herself in reflux. My heart always went out to her when she'd reflux her formula back into her face, onto her clothing, and even into her hair. It was an awful experience because we always felt so helpless that we couldn't protect her from the GERD she developed.

But in any case, looking back, I'm so grateful for all the support we found through online websites, other parents who dealt with infant GERD, and our families who would offer advice. While infant GERD is not the worse illness your baby can have, it certainly isn't the easiest either. Just know that you are not alone in your rocky journey to find help for your infant during times when she needs comfort from acid reflux. And...it DOES get better (in most cases) and you will find a happy toddler through all the infant GERD she experienced as a baby. I promise you that!

Photo Credit: Our Daughter Aria Marie 2011