Genetics??

[M&K]

My wife and I were graced with a beautiful baby boy 3 weeks ago, but now it appears he has colic or reflux. We are now trying our third formula and he steadily gets worse daily. My wife and I have to take turns on who is staying up all night with him.

My question: I have long had Gastric problems and am on Nexium for the rest of my life. Has anyone ever heard if Reflux and stomach problems can be genetic? We have not had him checked for Reflux yet but with my history I wonder if he does not have Reflux versus Colic.

Thanks
M&K

[Blessed]

I don't really know. I suppose it's possible, but reflux is so very <b>very</b> common in babies, and most eventually outgrow it. What are your baby's symptoms? My son was never tested for reflux. The diagnosis was made based on symptoms alone. The pediatric GI we see would only have ordered tests if he didn't respond to medication (along with all the other reflux remedies).

[M&K]

We have gone from Enfamil regular to Soy and now Alimentum.

During the day he is okay and does not seem to be in any discomfort (other than normal baby stuff). At night at EXACTLY 6PM he begins to have very bad gas. He will continuously "poot" from 6PM throughtout the nite but not have a BM. He DOES not like to sleep on his back as it causes a lot of congestion and that seems to bother him because it chokes him. We have experimented with him on his stomach and he sleeps like a champ. NO CONGESTION, NO GAS.

[Blessed]

The only things that sound like they <i>may</i> be reflux related are the congestion and choking. Have you read through the "sticky" post at the top of this forum? Many of the symptoms Thomas had I didn't think of as possible symptoms until I was going through the list and found that I could check off nearly all of them.

Also, since your baby is just 3 weeks old, you may not see a lot of the symptoms yet, <i>if</i> your baby even <i>has</i> reflux. Reflux is sometimes apparent from the very beginning, but sometimes doesn't become apparent until later as it tends to worsen through 3-4 months of age.

It's so hard to tell sometimes. Colic and reflux symptoms can be very similar, and it can be hard to tell if your baby's actions are a response to gas pains or a response to the heartburn type pain associated with reflux. All you know is they hurt. :(

[Jan]

Hi M&K

My grandaughter Jade was diagnosed with reflux at 3 weeks old. In her case we found out as we were having problems with her being jaundiced. The hospital decided that her feeding issues were a lot more important and put her on Infant Gaviscon. If you are in the USA, then you'd probably best ask your doctor about Gaviscon as there is some difference but parents of refluxers in the USA are often given this drug.

If I travel back to three weeks of age (now she is 13 mths), Jade would also scream the house down at about that time of night for approx 90 minutes.

She would lay in her cot and we could hear her making heavy gulping sounds, like she was drinking but she wasn't.

She also used to just open her mouth and all of her milk would litterally just fall out of her mouth and pump out of her nose. This even happened when you were preparing to feed her again lol

From day one Jade used to choke and gag and it used to scare us more as the days went on.

If your son sleeps better on his stomach then let him as long as you take proper precautions. There are many things that you can do for your baby for example, raising his cot at least 30degrees takes so much pressure off the LES, the spincter at the top of the stomach and many babies are completely reflux free just from doing this.

Always keep your baby in as much of an upright position for at least 30 minutes after a feed. In our case, Jade had to sleep a lot in her car seat to help her.


If you aren't happy with your baby sleeping on his front, try making a swoop for him. As sometimes when you elevate the cot, they just fall all the way to the bottom again.

Get a blanket, roll it up into a long sausage shape. Tuck one end in the right hand corner under the mattress. Pull the sausage down inbetween his legs and then take the other corner of the sausage and tuck it under the mattress on the left hand corner. This is used in a lot of hospitals here in the UK and much much cheaper than buying a tucker sling.

Good luck with your son

Jan

[Jan]

Sorry M&K I forgot to answer your quesiton about genetics.

At the moment I am conducting a large survey all around the world on reflux, for a book I am writing. In my survey I am asking things about families health histories and so far the response has been fantastic.

So far I can see a few things that seem to run in families, reflux being one of them, but not all of them. Asthma is also very closely linked to reflux, but I knew that before starting my research.

It is really hard to diagnose a baby with asthma and in the past, many babies have been wrongly diagnosed. Many refluxers are both refluxers and asthmatics.

Sorry I can't help you more than that.

I did here somewhere but I cannot confirm this as true at the moment, that they have located a gene that makes you a refluxer. If I find the information out I'll post a link for you to read it.

Jan

[M&K]

Thanks for the info Jan,

FYI--In regards to your study, please keep me updated in your findings, I am very curious as to the results. My e-mail is wolfcub.1@netzero.net. Also, my wife is a life/death Asthmatic so that is another reason I am interested.

Mark

[Jan]

Hi M&K,

Before I started my survey, I already knew that there were very close links between Asthma and reflux. There is a lot of information on the Internet to point to the fact that often asthmatics are wrongly diagnosed with reflux and vice versa.

My survey has really highlighted just how close the two run together. A lot of families are reporting to me that they have strong links with asthma. The problem with babies is, not many doctors like to diagnose them as asthmatics.

My own daughter was 2 1/2 yrs old before she was diagnosed, after years of suffering.

As your child is very young at the moment, there is every possibility that they will outgrow their reflux. The majority of refluxers outgrow reflux before their 1st birthday, but many outgrow it a long time before that. So I really do wish you luck.

I will email you details of the survey

Jan