Hello everyone. My name is Cara and my daughter Carley is 9 weeks old. She was diagnosed with infant GERD at about 4 weeks and currently takes Zantac and Reglan. She seems to be improving some....finally. I was interested in this thread because my job is a speech/language pathologist. I am currently on maternity leave, but I work in the schools with pre-school and school aged kids. Ihave worked with many other populations as well. I don't have alot of experience with birth-3, but I do know a bit about speech and language development. If I can answer any questions, or give any suggestions, please let me know. I hope we can help each other deal the the effects of GERD!

Welcome to the boards, we look forward to your professional input and we look forward to helping you navigate the early days of GERD.

Welcome here, and Thanks for joining! I am definitely looking forward to your professional opinion. We have a 3 1/2 year old refluxer.

Great to meet you and welcome. I do have a ? My daughter Josie is 12 months old. She was born 10 weeks premature and spent 8 weeks in the NICU. At three months she was put on Zantac for reflux. This worked until she was 9 months and quit eating her baby food and would only take 3-4 oz of formula at a time. We are now seeing a Ped GI doc and are having some tests done. Her upper gi was normal as well as her swallow study. The speech pathologist did a feeding eval and said she was classic reflux and recommended to the GI Dr. that she have and EGD and MII. She is having that on March 8th. She also stated that she has a real high palate.,Could this affect her eating. Since her med got changed to prilosec she is eating a little better but only stage II food and can not thicken too much or she gags. If I try ti give her something like the Gerber puffs or Gerber graduates carrots she gags, choke and will even thow up.
What exactly do speech pathologists do as far as feeding therapy?
Your input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks'
Jacqui

Glad you're here, Cara! I may need a professional "consultation" soon, lol. My 13mo has yet to utter a word. She's got two months to get it in gear!

Welcome Cara! My nearly 4 yo. son has been through feeding therapy, and is seeing an SLP, an OT, and a PT. I look forward to getting to know you and to having your professional opinion as part of this forum.

HI, and welcome! :)

Welcome to IRD! :)

We have so many people here with a wealth of experience to draw upon and support in spades for those rough reflux roller coaster rides. Feel free to post any questions you may have. You will notice we have many forums to look around at.

It will be nice to have someone to help with SL here. I have two kiddos with SL issues (one is in a language based school and the youngest goes in for formal eval this Monday) and my middle son is off the charts gifted. Go figure! lol

Looking forward to seeing you around the boards.

Hi and welcome. Your advice would be much appreciated arounf here. My son has spent a lot months partially deaf due to ear infections and we had him tested the other day and hes hearing is pretty bad. We have to re-do the test and go see a speech therapist to get him tested. Language delay seems a bit of a problem with reflux babies.
Thanks and looking forward to seeing you around.

Ok Ladies, thank you for the welcome. Here it goes, as I will attempt to answer your questions!
Scarlet: Unfortunately, speech and language delays are extrememly common with kids that have chronic ear infections. I would expect that your son has some type of delay. The good news is that he will be receiving help for it based on the results of the evaluation.
I find the connection between s/l issues and GERD very interesting. It's not something I usually ask about during a pediatric evaluation. I have worked with adults with voice disorders, and nearly every one of them had GERD, which can cause damage to the vocal cords and a subsequent hoarse voice.
Thanks for the welcome, everyone!
As SLP's we are responsible for the "swallowing" part of the "feeding" evaluation. We are knowledgeable in this area since the same muscles that are used for speech are involved in swallowing. The OT is usually the expert in positioning, and the physical part of getting the food in the mouth. The SLP deals with the oral and pharyngeal stages of the swallow. Then, the GI doc is in charge of the esophagus.
Hi sixdogs: It may be perfectly normal that your 13 month old has not said anything yet. All kids are different, and it is very difficult to identify a s/l delay before age 2, unless of course it is a serious problem such as autism. Don't worry yet! Keep talking, reading to, and stimulating your child!
Hi Jaqui: I hope I explained our role. We are the experts in "swallowing", including the anatomy and function of the muscles involved here. The high palate could be a factor in the swallowing issue. Sometimes, the slp might work on decreasing the sensitivity of the gag reflex. Not a pleasant type of therapy, but it can be effective. Hard to say what the next step may be at this point.
I'd be happy to answer any more questions. Sorry for the long post, but i wasn't sure how to answer each one individually.