Understanding Acid Reflux Baby and Infant Colic

In this hub you will find information and videos to help you understand if your baby's crying is due to acid reflux or infant colic. There are videos showing various symptoms. This hub does not include medical advice and it is advised that you use these only as a guideline and consult your pediatrician for a proper diagnosis. Please leave comments sharing your own experiences as this will help others who may be experiencing the very difficulties you have already gone through.

1. What is Acid Reflux and What is Infant Colic
2. Acid Reflux Due to Allergie (Video)
3. Acid Reflux in a Baby
4. Baby has seizures, but misdiagnosed as Colic or Reflux (video)
5. Siezures, Colic and Reflux
6. Acid Reflux: Latest News and Information (Health Central Feed)
7. Acid Reflux and your Baby (poll)
8. This is how we survived Acid Reflux (comments)
9. Infant Colic and your Baby (poll)
10. Colic Information Resource (Healthy Living Answers Feed)
11. This is how we helped our baby through Infant Colic (comments)

You know your wee baby is going to cry, sometimes she is hungry, tired, needs a change in diaper or simply over-stimulated. It is heart breaking to have an infant who cries inconsolably and if you find your baby is often this distraught, she may have what is known as infant colic.

What is Infant Colic?

Fussing and crying are normal "activities" for newborns and are not the indication that your baby has infant colic. There is a guideline, however, to help you determine if your otherwise healthy child is colicky:

• a loud, constant and continuous cry for hours for no obvious reason. Babies who have colic tend to cry even after being fed and changed.
• out-of-the-ordinary things that your baby does while crying: face turning red and staying that way, tightening her hands into a fist and legs constantly kicking. If your baby typically doesn’t act this way when she is hungry or needs to be changed, your baby could have colic.
• when your baby to be unable to sleep or eat because he cannot stop crying
• Picking the baby up, and other normal comforting techniques do not seem to help as much with colicky babies, and this causes parents to worry and visit their doctor.

According to the Mayo Clinic in an article on Colic Symptoms,

Colic affects as many as 25 percent of babies. Colic usually starts a few weeks after birth and often improves by age 3 months. Although a few babies struggle with colic for months longer, colic ends by age 9 months in 90 percent of cases.

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Often times you may hear people interchanging the term Acid Reflux with Infant Colic. These are terms used to describe two very different situations with infants.

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What is Acid Reflux?

Infant acid reflux is also a common condition which may affect your newborn. As with infant colic, your baby will naturally grow out of this condition, resolving on it's own by 12 to 18 months of age.

Infant Acid Reflux, more accurately known as gastroesophageal reflux, is the term we apply to infants who spit up. A lot. This is also so common the Mayo Clinic states that "more than half of all babies experience infant acid reflux during the first three months after birth" in their articles on Acid Reflux.

As a rule, your baby will not show any signs of discomfort due to acid reflux. It is a bit of a hassle to have to deal with a baby who tends to spit up, so if you find yourself with a spitter, then it is wise to stock up on spitting cloths. We used cloth diapers to sop up the spit. You will find that you do not need anything "special", just something absorbent.

Here is a check list from the Mayo Clinic to keep your eyes on. If you notice any of the following, you are advised to seek professional medical attention for your baby:

• Isn't gaining weight
• Spits up forcefully, causing stomach contents to shoot out of his or her mouth
• Spits up more than a tablespoon or two at a time
• Spits up green or brown fluid
• Resists feedings
• Is irritable after feedings but improves when held upright
• Has fewer wet diapers than normal or appears lethargic
• Has other signs of illness, such as fever, diarrhea or difficulty breathing

Essentially these symptoms can indicate that your child has more serious problems with reflux and your physician will be able to determine if and what medical attention and action is required to help your infant.

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This is the most clear example of how "Acid Reflux" and "Infant Colic" have become interchanged with many parents of inconsolably crying babies today.

The baby in the above video was filmed to help the doctors determine why she cried. It was determined that she has a dairy and soy allergy and was alergic to her formula and it was causing sever acid reflux.

Remeber our definition of acid reflux? It meant spitting up (usually after meals, but not always or exclusively, but it did mean spitting up. Lots.) That is how the Mayo Clinic defines acid reflux.

This is a unique situation as this little girl would not have naturally outgrown her disposition as one can expect with acid reflux or with infant colic. She required a change in her diet, avoiding the food she was allergic to.

As you can clearly see, it is strongly advisable to seek out professional help if your infant is showing any of the above symptoms. You pediatrician will be able to help you determine if your child is experiencing infant colic, acid reflux (in the "Mayo" sense of the word) or severe allergic reactions (which then has side effects of acid reflux and or colic symptoms).

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The above video shows how it can be very difficult to determine if a baby has colic or other medical conditions which require immediate attention. This baby was never having an episode while at the "Colic Clinic" so the doctors were not able to give a proper diagnosis.

In despiration the parents made this film and published it to YouTube. They realized that this information would help them to help thier child.

The parents write:

It was determined that he was having multiple different types of seizures all at once (no signs of "classic seizures"). After an MRI, we received the diagnosis that he has hemimegalencaphaly. It's a rare malformation of the brain that causes seizures.

Although he didn't display this intense episode all along, it finally got to this point after 6 or 7 weeks. If your baby "jack-knifes" or rolls his eyes back, please take him/her to a neurologist or the ER. Our doctors asked all along if he turned blue, but he never did. Just because your baby doesn't turn blue, doesn't mean he's not having seizures (if he's showing these other signs).

It all boils down to this: if you are in doubt, seek out medical help. Use all your resources to ensure that the doctors understand what you observe with your child.

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