I appreciate sharing of such a detailed info. I fully agree with James. Trust your instincts but its so unfortunate that Doctor’s still do not believe parents when they complain of their kids food problems !
I had even worse experience . My son is 4 yrs now and we detected only now that he has Grade II GERD! Poor boy , he is already underweight and suffered so much!
When he was young till a yr we never doubted that he vomits because of any problems , but we thought that the nanny is overfeeding him and so we adviced her instead.
The next yr too he showed no interest in eating by himself and was throwing up immediately after food but again not every day/time . My ped said, I am still making him eat baby like, and force feeding and expecting more than he can eat. Well I kept wondering , then when it still continued , she changed his diet plan , it did help to a good extent and we thought he is on track now.
Oh but poor thing, he still was a slow and picky eater leaving me frustrated as to why nothing seems to interest him except things like ice cream or sweet corns or chocolates . Also he fell ill every 3 weeks last yr , and even had a episode of Asthma. We were wondering what was the matter, but our doctor maintained, it happens since this is his first yr to school and day care and we need to work on his immunity.
Well finally it became worse , he learned now that he has to vomit in wash basin and which he did silently without even letting us know! He learnt it in his daycare..
One day, his grandfather suggested us to refer a ped. gastro., I searched internet about the issue and discovered he was showing perfect symptoms of GERD !
I had never heard of this disease before.
When we finally met the gastro specialist it was confirmed and the dietician ended in blaming us for ignoring the problem for so long!!
I’m wondering … should’nt the doctors do a more comprehensive check up of the child than just symptomatic treatments of the fever / cough? I got to know that he was falling ill frequently because the food gets aspirated in lungs causing infections, and this was the same reason why he had wheezing / ashtma.

Hope that this article helps others in detecting issuses with their kids earlier than we could !

Hi Jodi, thanks for sharing. Actually, the doctor that truly listened to us and got Lex’s severe GERD diagnosed recommended we try probiotics immediately, even before the GERD test and diagnosis. His colleague had been doing various tests with Probiotics, specifically Culturelle’s strains, to treat cholic in babies. We started with some Probiotics from Whole Foods, but we got our hands on Culturelle soon and have never stopped taking them.

Thank you so much for this information. My daughter started arching in pain when she was first born. We formula fed my daughter as I was unable to breastfeed. The milk based formula irritated her so much that she was arching (almost doing back bends). I took her to the pediatrician and they told me it was colic. I took her to a specialist and she was diagnosed with GERD. We tried Zantac too and it really did not work. We were then switched to Prevacid Solutabs and have been on them for quite a while. My daughter still burps a lot, has gas, and gags. I was wondering if you just started giving Lex Culturelle or did your doctor tell you the dosage. I would like to try probiotics. Our gastroenterologist has my daughter on a dairy free soy free diet and honestly I do not believe allergy is the problem. She is still burping and passing lots of gas. Thank you for all of your info. It is nice to know that we are no the only ones that have been going through this.

Jodi

I am so glad you found this article useful. It really does make my family’s struggles feel a little lighter to know our experience has helped someone else.

Until we had the results of the GI Probe, no doctor really paid our concerns much attention. Lex was 20 pounds at 4 months of age, because he sucked down formula to feel better. Once we had the results and flashed them to any doctor, that doctor really paid close attention. If possible go for the test and then they will believe your instincts and observations.

Lex is now 2.7 years old and he is on Zegerid, only because our insurance dropped Previcid coverage. We all really miss those wonderful Prevacid Solutabs. The Zegerid does the job, but requires much more effort, includes baking soda, and tastes terrible! In the way of an update, Lex still takes Culterelle probiotic daily. I really shoudl find a way to buy it in bulk. Come on Costco, help us out.

Thanks, James

BTW, I should add for those who don’t know… Prevacid’s manufacturer TAP has a program that provides rebates on prescription refills of Prevacid (up to $25 per refill). The program is called the “Instant Savings Program” and it either works with a discount card or a mail-in rebate for each refill. For more info I think you can call 1-800-458-2300.