When my first was born, like every mother, I was worried he was not latching correctly as I was very sore and it just didn’t seem right. However, he did not have any reflux or major crying episodes. The nurses advised me that I should top up with formula “just in case my baby wasn’t getting enough”even though he seemed to be getting enough colostrum and was sleeping fine. Going home they advised me to continue giving “top ups” just in case which I naively followed. ( face palm)
At two weeks old, it all kicked off with screaming roaring for hours on end, the only time he slept was from pure exhaustion only to start all over again 2 hours later. When he was awake he was feeding up to 1 full hour out of pure comfort, sometimes to the point he would puke it all up and we would start all over again. It absolutely horrifies me now how much milk I thought a tiny baby needed. This is now what knowledgeable post natal practitioners such as Phillippa Murphy @babycues refers too as #digestiveoverload. I wasn’t pumping yet so I could not determine how much breast milk he was getting from me, followed by little top ups of formula.
Days went into weeks and things started to become a blur of severe sleep deprivation. A public health nurse did a standard house call and when I asked why my nipples were bleeding and why it was so sore, I was told “ your doing great your sons is thriving and gaining significant weight”. I now know that incorrect latch and tongue-tie alone are also two very common reasons for the root CAUSE of reflux.
After reading some articles on yet another sleepless night I came to the conclusion that his symptoms were typical of silent reflux. From what I read it was almost normalized for babies to have silent reflux, which included hours of inconsolable crying, chewing hands, always seemingly hungry and hiccups all the time. He was also arching backwards and writhing and wriggling. I went to the GP and told her all of these symptoms and asked if there was anyway that he can be tested to find the cause. I was told “ there is no cause and its something babies will grow out of in time” Here is Losec 7mg to help reduce the reflux.
The reflux medicine did seem to help initially and with that I moved to Asia with my prescription in hand to order more as and when needed. Things seemed to improve slightly for a short few weeks, although looking back now I know that during that time, my diet also changed to predominantly non-dairy and more Asian based meals. Over the next few weeks, he got progressively worse and with that his medication was increased. I was again advised to switch to formula so my husband could help. I was also advised to give solids early at 4 months, which now absolutely horrifies me. To make things worse, for weaning onto solids, I decided to follow a very well known chef, which is predominately dairy based. The ages of 9- 13 months were the absolute worst. He was so uncomfortable from morning until night, always drooling, woke up every single hour on the hour. He was so uncomfortable he would not go to anybody and was glued to me at all times day and night.
At 13 months I knew I had to do something and that the little sleep he was getting must be having a negative impact on his development. I decided it was time to start researching on silent reflux and the effects on sleep. I miraculously came across a silent reflux specialist based in the UK and after a 1.5 hour consultation, she told me she was 99% certain my son had dairy intolerance and to remove all from his diet. I was completely dumbfounded and overwhelmed with mom guilt. I had so many questions, and struggled to come to terms with how I did not see this for myself and so perplexed of how many medical practitioners also missed this.
Within two weeks I saw a dramatic difference he actually started sleeping around 3-4 hours at a time. Over time we realized he was reacting to more than just dairy as at this point he likely already had gut permeability, we also needed to remove eggs, nuts etc
We attempted to remove the losec but were again faced with the acid battle and decided to leave it for another 6 months as we thought he needed it. Unfortunately the doctors who had prescribed this medicine did not give any guidance on how to actually get off this medication and how to deal with this acid battle..
After 2 years, I realized that my son was not getting any better and in fact he seemed to be getting much worse. The list of intolerances increased and he could not tolerate dairy, gluten, eggs, nuts, seeds, any high salicylates foods such as coconuts, tomatoes, raisins, dates etc. He was not growing in height or weight and was a terrible sleeper. He was extremely cranky and had clear delays in gross motor skills as he hated tummy time with reflux as well as fine motor skills. To top it off he was still having severe episodes of stomach pain/reflux, which could last up to a full hour at night. Now I know that this was ALL due to significantly poor gut health!
We finally decided enough was enough and we were going to take him off all medication. We worked through the acid battle by decreasing by 1mg every few days, and gave him gripe water on occasions. I decided to take my son’s health into my own hands and also deep dived into tones of research and started working with a naturopath. This is where I found my passion and calling for for gut health and nutrition.
It was a functional doctor, who told me losec and other PPI’s are not FDA approved for infants and toddlers and was horrified of the dosage my child had been prescribed. She knew immediately that he was likely suffering from leaky gut and the other side effects of this medication which included yeast infections ( a stool analysis confirmed he had significant yeast overgrowth and malabsorption of key nutrients. He had extremely low levels of zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium despite having diet rich in all of these.
During my studies in functional nutrition, I finally understood the significance of healthy stomach acid. These medicines weaken the very thing our stomachs were designed to do, that is its ability to digest and absorb food including key nutrients, which I have outlined above. PPIs inhibit gastric acid secretion, resulting in reduced acid in the stomach (hypochlorhydria). It also plays an important role in reducing harmful bacteria that we might ingest from our food or other environment contaminants. It has been outlined in a number of key research, that low stomach acid actually increases risk of infections from toxic bacteria including E-coli, Salmonella and others. My son was extremely ill from Gastro on several occasions and was almost hospitalized from salmonella.
Aside from all of the above side affects, our most horrifying discovery was that my son had extreme high levels of aluminium in his system. After the blood test confirming he was deficient in so many minerals we decided to investigate further to see what was going on in relation to toxic heavy metals. We did a hair elements test, which showed that his aluminium levels were off the charts and test analysis states this high level could be caused by long-term use of PPI’s.
Unfortunately for children of this age it is not possible to do an aggressive detox. We took a slow approach of TRS as well as additional herbal supplements such a NDF calm. After 10 months we had brought his levels down dramatically but it takes significant amount to time to bring down to normal range. Unfortunately this high level of aluminium had an effect on his speech development and articulation. He saw a speech and language therapist to correct some speech errors. We also worked closely with a practitioner to do his blood tests to ensure that his body was not using up his zinc to detox the aluminium. Low levels of zinc also present further issues, which drive up copper levels.
The reason for this long winded story, is that there are so many mothers like me that are still on these dangerous medications. In fact they are given out like candy without any real testing or cause. I strongly believe that all of this hardship for my little boy could of been entirely prevented, by finding out his root cause without medication, and removing dairy, as well as continuing to breastfeed and working on gut health when introducing solids. It breaks my heart when I come across very similar stories of babies 1.5 and even 2 years old and still on these medications which are preventing their children from healing naturally.
For baby number 2 I was a whole lot wiser and starting preparing my body for my new baby long before i was even pregnant by working on my gut health which is a big big part of the whole process. For moms out there terrified to have another reflux baby, there is so much you can do long before you give birth which i will share in another post. Yes my second baby is happy healthy and thriving and their stories are worlds apart.
If you have a toddler who is still suffering from Silent reflux over 1 year old, then please reach out to find the root cause. Book a free 15 minute consultation to see how i can help you and your growing family. It’s never too early or late to start working on you and your child’s gut health to set them up for a long healthy life.
#silentreflux #infantcolic #digestiveoverload #acidreflux #heavymetals #guthealthforkids #infantgerd
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