My Personal Experience with Reflux

My first experience with reflux was especially difficult. My first-born daughter ate well the first couple of weeks after she was born. After those two weeks, she started wailing during and in between her meals. She ate less and less; after meals she would still remain hungry. I turned to my doctor several times. He said she was crying due to a stomach ache caused by constipation and gave me medication for constipation and told me not to worry. After she would move her bowels there was no significant change and she would continue to squirm and cry non-stop. Only after 5 months, at the nurses station at the kupa where I would frequently visit, a nurse approached me and said: “Maybe your daughter needs a child gastroenterologist specialist” and gave me the number of one she recommended. Sure enough, the doctor diagnosed reflux and explained to me what is and how it can be treated. Unfortunately at this stage my daughter had already developed a considerable eating disorder and refused to eat. As a result, she didn’t gain wait; at the age of two she weighed less than 7 kilo.
 
After 3 years my second child was born. He was capable of nursing for about two months. He too, squirmed and cried a lot. This time it was easier to identify and we started the medication earlier. However, the medication only alleviated his pain partially, and it was not enough. There was a need to adjust much of his daily care, both during his feeding and sleeping. On top of it, he started to have sleep apnea – he would stop breathing while he was sleeping. The most common cause for sleep apnea is reflux. Unfortunately, it took the doctors a half a year to diagnose the problem.
 
Two years later my third child was born. And diagnosed with reflux. And now I am home with my forth who has reflux as well.


I learned how to hold them during and after feeding, how to feed them, how to handle them during the day and night. All this would significantly ease their pain, improve their ability to eat and gain weight.
 
I also became familiar with all of the conventional medication and when each one should be administered.
 
Each one of them developed other illnesses that I researched thoroughly: sleep apnea, milk allergies, tonsillectomy and adenoids, nasal allergies, chronic constipation and more.

Over the years I have learnt the limitations of conventional medication and how alternative medicine can complement it. This is why I learned reflexology, healing and guided imagery.
These tools provided me physical and emotional support since caring for a child with reflux can be very demanding.