Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode

I'm going to be talking to you about gastroosophageal reflux in children and infants.

If you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, you can follow along at

0.0.5.com slash reflux or in the gastroenterology section of the zero to finals

pediatrics book. So let's get straight into it. Gastroesophageal reflux is where the contents of the

stomach reflux through the lower esophageal sphincter into the esophagus and up into the throat and mouth.

In babies there is immaturity of that lower esophagus and up into the throat and mouth. In babies there is immaturity of that lower esophageal sphincter and this allows stomach contents to easily reflux into the esophagus. It's normal for a

baby to reflux after feeds and provided there's normal growth and the baby is otherwise well, this is not a

problem. However, it can be upsetting for parents, particularly if the baby is distressed by the reflux.

It usually improves as they grow and around 90% of infants stop having reflux by one year of age.

So how does it present?

It's normal for babies to have some reflux after larger feeds.

It becomes more troublesome when this causes them to become distressed.

And the signs of problematic reflux are a chronic cough,

a horse cry,

distress, crying or being very unsettled after feeding,

reluctance to feed, chest infections or pneumonia,

and poor weight gain.

Children over one year may experience similar symptoms to adults reporting heartburn, acid regurgitation,

retraternal or epigastric pain, bloating, and nocturnal cough or cough at night time.

Let's talk about the causes of vomiting.

Vomiting is a very non-specific complaint and often does not indicate an underlying pathology.

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