Acid reflux in children

It is well known by all of us that babies do spit up. For that, in the last years pediatricians have prescribed acid-suppressing drugs such as Prilosec and Zantac for babies with acid reflux. The most disappointing news is that no one can prove that these drugs are efficient.

Many studies were done in order to prove the efficiency of the mentioned drugs. A doctor called Ajay Kaul, which is a pediatric gastroenterologist in Cincinnati, tested 30 babies that were under 1 year old. 10 out of the 30 infants tested were dosed with a proton-pump inhibitor such as Prilosec, other 10 were treated with a H2 blocker like Zantac and the rest of the babies were untreated. Using a small wireless sensor that was introduced into the esophagus through the nose our specialist found out that the drugs did not reduce significantly the number of the spit-up incidents. His conclusion was that for the doses that he prescribed there was no noticeable difference between the treated and the untreated babies.

His research proved what many pediatric gastroenterologists have suspected.

Other specialists agreed with the fact that a very small percentage of babies with acid reflux will later develop problems such as respiratory ailments including asthma. More than that, specialists still argue about whether the acid reflux is the cause for later respiratory ailments or not.

It is also good to know the specialists opinion that says that acid reflux is normal for the vast majority of children and it does not require medication.

A common advice for parents is not to treat their children with medications. They should also know that babies reflux and they are going to outgrow it. A doctor from the SUNNY medical school in Buffalo called Robert Baker observed that nowadays parents often treat their children with medication. He says that parents should know that more that 50 percent of the children that have not passed the age of three months do spit at least once a day and 5 percent of the children between 10 and 12 months do the same thing. The question that rises know is whether the treatment will make children less irritable or the action will be seen only in parents eyes.

After the research that proved no effect of the medication in young babies with acid reflux, the same doctor began another study. This time he chooses a number of 100 subjects but the results were similar.