How to Treat Heartburn among Infants and Children

There are so many things you can do to ease your child’s heartburn symptoms. While it is true that a child’s heartburn symptoms will usually improve as he grows old, there are cases when it does not actually improve.

Treatment for heartburn will vary on three things. One is the age of your child, two, the cause of his heartburn symptoms, and, three, your child’s condition (that is, whether it has worsen overtime).

Heartburn among children is difficult to diagnose and treat. For one, children have difficulty expressing their symptoms. Two, traditional heartburn relief methods fail when it comes to treating heartburn among children. In fact, a recent study shows that thickening child’s formula, putting him in an upright position when sleeping, or even giving the infant a pacifier do not work.

However, there are two proven methods when it comes to giving relief to infants. One is to keep him upright for at least 30 minutes after meal and, two, help him burp immediately after feeding.

In treating heartburn that would not improve on its own, doctors prescribe certain heartburn medications. These medications are grouped into two: H2 blockers and proton-pump inhibitors. Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac are popular H2 blockers while Prilosec, Nexium, and Prevacid are known proton-pump inhibitors.

These heartburn medications are known to work by reducing the amount of gastric acid in the stomach. Lesser gastric acid means smaller chance of having acid to seep out of the stomach and back up into the esophagus.

While heartburn medications are prescribed to reduce the stomach acids, these medications will not stop heartburn alone. Lifestyle modifications and medications go hand in hand when it comes to truly preventing heartburn symptoms. Some changes you may introduce include:

Serving smaller, but more frequent meals throughout the day. Giving your child five smaller instead of three, large meals is better. This prevents unnecessary pressure on the stomach, which is one of the reasons why stomach acid refluxes.
Have dinner at least three hours before bedtime. Going to bed with full stomach puts your child at risk of having heartburn symptoms at night.
Cook dinner with fewer spices like onion, garlic, and pepper. These are known to trigger heartburn symptoms.
Avoid serving your child acidic (tomato-based), fried, greasy, and spicy food. Avoid giving your child chocolate, peppermint, soda, tomatoes and tomato-based products, and citrus fruits if your child frequently experiences heartburn symptoms.

There are certain cases when a child may need to undergo surgery. This is true when his condition does not improve or if his symptoms continue even if he is taking medications. In such cases, a surgery known as fundoplication is called for.

Fundoplication is a procedure where the upper portion of the stomach is tied and wrapped around the lower esophageal sphincter or LES (the muscular valve that prevents stomach acid from seeping out). The purpose of the procedure is to create a band that prevents the unnecessary reflux of gastric acid back up into the esophagus.