7 Month Old - GERD Question

K.,
Our 19 month old son has GERD and asthma. We were told by his pulmonologist that the two go hand in hand. You should totally mention it to his pediatrician, however, it wasn't until I independently took him to a pulmonologist that it was diagnosed.
I, also, have not heard of a speech delay for GERD patients. In fact, our son has been evaluated by a speech therapist (for another issue) and we were told he is speaking way above his age. Not to worry if she is making sounds b/c it sounds like that is right on track!
Hope this helps!

I have never heard of children w/ GERD having a speech delay.My daughter is 3 and has had GERD since birth and has had corrective surgery and takes medications but it hasn't cured her GERD. But it hasn't caused a speech delay.It is a possibility that due to however long your daughter was suffering from those symptoms is the reason for the speech delay. But she still has plenty of time to catch up on the repetitious sounds. Secondly, wheezing should always be mentioned to your peditrician. I'm sure you would want to be more alert w/ this situo. I see a speech therapist on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I can also ask and get back to you.

My (adopted) now two-y-o had gerd when he was an infant, as well as some wheezing which everyone discounted as maybe a little asthma. The wheezing turned out to be early stages of pheumonia. When I got him at 7 months I thickened his formula with rice cereal and he seemed ok but he never could get drinking from an open cup without it going down wrong and making him cough and choke. I also noticed a speech delay very early on (same as you described). Finally, at 15 months people believed me about the speech and I got a speech therapist. Still they discounted the inability to drink from an open cup. Six months later, the speech therapy hadn't really healped. Then the pediatrician noticed his gag reflex wasn't quite normal, sent him to get a Barium Swallow study and that's when it all came together: His swallowing mechanism was not working quite right. When that happens, fluids or food can go down into the lungs (apiration) and cause pnuemonia & other very serious lung complications. Also can be the reason for speech delays because speaking is related to all the same muscles and coordination as swallowing. Also can be the reason for the gerd and wheezing. I changed speech therapists to one who was qualifiied to work on the mechanical problem - rather than articulation/mental encouragment which was NOT what his problem was. There were a few more things to do to solve this problem (I won't go into now) ...but for you, maybe you could ask your pediatrician to look at his gag reflex. Infants often apirate SILENTLY which is very dangerous (google 'silent aspiration'). The gerd may have been your first clue something's not right. The speech thing (alot of parents will say "oh give it time; when every kid starts talking is different" but you ARE doing right to listen to YOUR intuition. Wheezing and speech delays can be other clues. For me every one of those things finally pointed to the real problem which is now getting solved. I just wished we had known a little sooner. He wouldn't have been so frustrated quite as long about not being able to speak like the rest of us. Happy baby but how could he have not been frustrated?

Good Luck,
A.

The wheezy sound is probably her discovering what her vocal chord can do!
As far as talking -- Kids are only expected to say 1 or 2 words besides "ma ma" or "da da" at their one-year checkup. And I think they only expect 3 to 6 at 15 months.
If she's not responding to your voice or to loud noises, you might ask to have her hearing checked, but I wouldn't worry about speech delays at this point. I think they don't even consider that until kids are 3 yrs old and not talking.