Sensitive Gag Reflux

My son has also thrown up since birth. He was on every and I mean every formula ever made. Nothing seemed to help. We thickened his formula and he still threw up. When he began baby food he still threw up. Once he started eating solids he would keep all of the food down and only threw up things thinner than the consistency of mashed potatoes. He is now two and can keep down almost everything except for juice and water. He has had an Upper GI to see if he had a Pyloric stenosis. He did not. He had ann endoscopy done that showed nothing and he has been tested for everything from milk to shellfish. Everything has come back normal. We were told that he would outgrow it. We see a Pediatric Gastrologist at the Cleveland Clinic. Her name is Dr. Vera Hupertz. She is an amazing doc and is convinced that he will outgrow this. She has offices at the Clinic downtown as well as Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield. I would definitely recommend her if you haven't seen a specialist. Also, my son was a preemie as well and he was tube fed for 2 1/2 weeks. I hope that this helps. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.
L.

I'm sorry I don't have answers but I would highly recommend a website :

momswearingpuke.com

It's a support website for moms of kids who have reflux and other issues related. I think they could definitely help you and provide great support.

Here's a blurb from their website:

"Moms Wearing Puke is a light-hearted free support group dedicated to mothers of babies and children with infant or pediatric (paediatric) reflux disease. We welcome all mothers, moms, and mums. We offer support and information to those who have a baby or a child suffering from the symptoms of reflux (GER, GERD, infant reflux, pediatric (paediatric) reflux, acid reflux, silent reflux). We offer information about the symptoms and the treatment of infant reflux. If you have questions about infant reflux, we are here to help you!

We also offer advice and support for the different complications of reflux. If you are considering a fundo (fundoplication) for your child, or if your child is having complications from a nissen fundoplication (commonly misspelled as nissan fundoplication), we have advice and support to offer you! If your child suffers from Delayed Gastric Emptying (DGE), we have a forum of mothers whose children are dealing with motility disorders as well. Do you have multiples with infant reflux disease? Again, this is the place for you! Meet a mom of twins with infant reflux/pediatric (paediatric) GERD!

In addition, we offer support to mothers of an infant or child dealing with diabetes, autism, sensory issues, asthma, developmental delays, undiagnosed things, and allergies or intolerances."

This sounds very much like a possible dairy allergy to me. If your son is consuming dairy at all, try withholding it for two weeks to see if he improves. It might also be a good idea to withhold wheat and sugar. None of those foods are natural to the human body anyway. Instead of dairy, you can try soy, coconut, or almond milk; instead of wheat, stay with oats only; and instead of sugar, use honey or maple syrup (pure, real maple syrup).

I wasn't diagnosed with sensitivities to dairy and wheat until last February. I wish I had known about this 30 years ago! It would have saved me tremendous suffering over my lifetime.

Hi Krista. My son was born 5 weeks early and had a few other complications. He was tube fed for about 2 months. The only thing that help my son was a drug called Reglan. ask your dr. about it. The reglan combined with prevacid combined with special feeding positions was the only thing that helped us. We had to feed our son in a left side-line position, and then not move him for 15-30 minutes after he ate. It wasn't easy, but it was the only thing that helped. Once we started solids, it all went away. If you have any questions, please feel free to write back. Or if you need to vent your frustrations, feel free. Hope this helps.

S.

this is really overdue, hopefully he has improved. there are procedures that can be done.
re: vera hupertz recommendation. I have to completely disagree. she is a horrible doctor and i wouldn't send my worst enemy to her. She kept us waiting for 3 days (2 days in PICU, 1 on regular floor) before she consulted w/ us (her fellow had been by several times). She told us our son had cystic fibrosis and that we needed to accept and deail with it. This was on a friday, the lab was closed over the weekent and when the sweat test came back that would confirm this dx, it was negative. He does not have cystic fibrosis and today is completely healthy and active. We banned her from our room and requested a different GI doctor (lisa feinberg) who finally dx'd him accurately.

I don't have any idea, what an ordeal to go through. I'm sorry, it must be very hard.

My son had acid reflux at birth and was projectile vomiting after his feedings. I ended up changing to soy formula because I thought maybe he was allergic to the milk based ones and that helped. I put him on "soupy" cereal at 2 weeks and made sure that he was elevated while feeding and up to 2 hrs afterwards. I put a "wedge" in his crib. They are made to help elevate them while they sleep and you can buy them at Wal-Mart. They aren't very expensive. I also put a pillow in his bed (just a regular bed pillow) and made sure that it was a pretty flat one, but would help elevate him even more. His Ped DID NOT like that I was doing these things, but it worked and so I stuck with it. He eventually "grew out of it", and doesn't have problems anymore.....luckily. I'm not sure that the doc is ALWAYS right or KNOWS what's BEST for our children. You are the mommy and you HAVE to speak for you and your children. If you think that's it something else, then walk in their and DEMAND that they do something to test the poor little guy. If you end up being wrong, then atleast you know that it was a decision that you made to have it checked and can put your mind at ease that atleast you know it's not that. Keep it up until they get to the bottom of it. It's not fair to our kids to have these doc's think that JUST because they have a PHD that they "know" our kids better than we do. It's time for us Mommy's to fight for our kids' rights and tell the DOCTORS what's best for them!

I don't have info on sensitive gag reflux but watched a medical show not too long ago where a little boy kept throwing up from birth. Long story short, when he was three years old, his pediatrician finally ordered an x-ray. They found out that his stomach was flipped upside down and sideways. He had surgery and is doing great now. No more vomitting.

Hi Krista,

My son didn't throw up nor was he as severe but I thought I'd share my experience.

My son gagged a lot with milk and food. He wasn't gaining weight and for a while he was loosing his first year.

We had to leave the country for a wedding and he stayed with my MIL.
She really could barely handle both kids since they are so young and she didn't even "try" to feed him food - just milk.

I am sure he was hungry as he was used to eating quite a bit by now - I was very upset but she until very recently just didn't feed him - only my daughter who is slightly older. Kinda weird. In fact the last time she babysat for them she laid him down at 11am for a nap and he had only eaten a small breakfast at 8am!! So he went without food until about 1pm!! Poor baby. I try to avoid leaving them with her now since she can't care for both, he always has irritation from not being changed often enough while she changes my dd too much, weird.

ANYWAY - way off the subject.

When I came back from my trip, I think he really went hungry! He started eating much better and not gagging as much.
Now at 14 months he only ocassionally gags.
I don't know if it was going hungry OR not being fed that semi-broke the habbit. I also wondered if a great part of it was habbit - he got a lot of attention and did it for a long time. I decided to wean him off prevacid and he has been just fine.
He loves regular food, he was never a fan of baby food.

Have you tried letting someone else feed him, like a friend?
Changing the "environment"?
Don't know if this will help any but I'd try...

Krista, it seems from your posting that the puking is now only coming with the colds...? My 17 mo. old just got a HORRIBLE snotty cold (from the waiting room at Children's Hospital, thank you!). She was so mucusy (sp?) it was too gross. My doc finally prescribed a 1/4 tsp of Kids' Claritin, and it helped to dry her sinuses up! I know that a ton of meds were pulled from the shelf for kids' colds, but this helped. Ask your doc, and good luck!