Hello folks,
The treatment section only contains information on different kinds of drugs. My son is on Prilosec which did help with his esophagitis but did naught for the problem at the bottom of it all, his reflux.
I'm wondering if anyone ever tried any alternative treatments for their kids, like homeopathy or osteopathy?

Richard, Switzerland
Husband to Saskia
Dad to Nora-Jane/4,5yrs & Jamie/14mo/GERD/DS

We've done a numer of different things with Shae, none of which helped.

The treatment section doesn't contain any information on that stuff b/c I can't get anyone to contribute any and I don't feel comfortable with my level of knowledge on the subject to write a article about it.

I've contacted a number of holistic healers hoping to get some info and no ever responded to me.

It's still on my to-do list though, hopefully sometime I'll get some on there.

You stated that the meds helped with the esohagitis but not the reflux. I was wondering though if the meds are controlling the acid because the child can still reflux but the acid is being controlled.

I was also wondering if they know the cause of your childs reflux. My children refluxed because they had no muscle that closed at the top of their stomach even with meds they continued to reflux. Also two of my children have had severe food allergies that also played a huge part in their reflux. I was wondering what testing your child has had already? I know with the upper endoscopy they can take biopsies and this can show allergy related problems and also anatomy problems. I was also wondering if they know if your child has any problems with gastric emptying because this can also continue to cause reflux if not addressed.

We have tried other things but nothing ever worked for my children. Also there are other meds out there that can be tried. One med may work for one child but not another. I do wish you luck.

Melanie

We did go to my chiro (whom I love!) for awhile to see if he could be of some help to Bethany. The adjustments (which are extremely non-invasive for infants--no back-cracking!) appeared to help for a few hours, but no long-term lasting effects. :-(

I never thought of cranio-saccral therapy for her. I used to have this done to address awful migraines and it worked wonders for me. Huh, something to think about. :-)

Well, we are going to the chiro. It is helping, but he does adjustments. The first time I took Jackson he adjusted his neck and I freaked out. I asked him if he could not do that the next time, just his spine. He did, I can tell now that it is helping, we haven't puked in 3 weeks and last weekend it had been a week since he had gone and he was waking every 2 hours at night screaming. We went on Monday and that night he slept until 430am woke up for paci fix then went back to sleep!

Thank you all for posting.
As for testing, Jamie had a gastroscopy done last January and they took two biopsies and blood to rule out any food allergies and celiacs. He also had to swallow a barium meal in order to check any possible malformations of his digestive tract. Save for a severely inflamed and slack/not yet matured esophagal sphincter (cardia insufficiency) everything seems to be fine.
Anyway, we got in contact with a German medical doctor specialized in Homeopathy. He has a son with DS as well, so he’s perfect for our needs. He replied by mail yesterday and advised us to get a homeopathic remedy at the chemists called “Asafoetida C30”, to give him 3 pellets before he goes to bed and 3 again the next morning, to wait for about 2 weeks and see if it improves. In case it doesn’t we should contact a local homeopath (a friend of his from India) and have a personalised evaluation done. To make it short, he was very positive and definite about homeopathy being able to help with reflux. Not bad for a MD working at a hospital, eh?
Anyway, I’ll keep you guys posted about any developments on the “alternative front”.

All the best,
Richard/Switzerland
& Jamie, 14m0, DS, GERDling

Please let me know if it helps. I saw a naturopath, homeopath and osteopath for maiya- none helped her any. If something works for you, i would love to try it.


johanne

Hi everyone!

This topic peaked my interest, I've been wondering about alternative treatments... my 7 mo. dd is still dealing with reflux. I'm not overly comfortable with pharmaceutical drugs. I've only tried zantac and I saw very minimal if any relief. I mainly control her reflux with breastfeeding and thickened Isomil formula...she's on solids too...we see a ped GI specialist as well.

I'm curious, what did you try for Maiya, Jojo??

I'll be watching for more posts on this. :)

Dear Terri;

It scares me that you are dealing with reflux by breastfeeding. I diagnosed my daughter with reflux, as no physician believed me, and tried conservative management. Long story short, when she was 4 months, a new ped believed me. Two months later , we did tests. At this point, i was not sure she had reflux, as the only problem is her waking 20 times a night. She eats all the time and is gaining weight beautifully. The ph probe revealed that she refluxed 219 times, for as long as 17 min at a time. Thank god she was on meds the entire time, or else she would have SEVERE damage to her esophagus,throat, etc.


I eat mainly organic, refuse most meds, and am very healthy. I detested the thought of giving anything but breastmilk to my daughter, let alone meds. But i have come to realise that the meds are critical to her health- and it is not about what i am comfortable with anymore

I had tried several things: acidopholus, a homeopathic treatment that started with an s...,a and camomille, none work. I have recently reintroduced camomille- it helps her go to sleep but does nothing to keep her asleep. I have tried osteopathy without success also.