Reflux remains a common baby symptom and maybe you’ve been told, “it’s normal.” But it’s also a sign of food allergies. Food allergies cause numerous reactions in the body and vary for every baby.
Whether breastfeeding or eating solids, your baby’s immune system can react to food allergens. They’re known to cause GI issues, one of which is reflux.
Reflux involves the movement of gastric contents into the esophagus, the tube from the mouth to the stomach.
Free to Feed understands your concerns as a parent. We give guidance and support on moving forward if your child suffers with food allergies.
Today, we’re talking more about reflux. The symptoms, specific GI issues that can cause reflux, and ways to help you find answers.
Baby Reflux Symptoms That Go With Food Allergies & More Information on GERD
No doubt about it — babies spit up. It’s true, most of the time frequent reflux isn’t a cause for concern if your baby’s growing well, gaining weight, and doesn’t have other issues. There’s always a threshold with everything though, right?
When To Get Help With Reflux [1]:
Your baby isn’t gaining weight
Projectile vomiting
Refuses to eat
Green or yellow spit up
Fussy after eating
Chronic cough
We’ll tell you over and over again — you know your baby best. Trust your instincts, talk to your child’s medical provider, and advocate for your baby. If it’s food allergies, have no fear, we’ve got you covered with guidance and support.
How does gastroesophageal reflux (GER) fit in with baby food allergies?
Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) remains a top reflux condition your baby could be suffering from.
When stomach acid or contents repeatedly rise back up, this leads to irritation in your baby’s esophagus. Persistent reflux that interferes with your baby’s daily life is considered a disease, called GERD. You’ve likely heard the term and probably have experienced reflux yourself. We get it, it’s hard to turn down spicy salsa.
Fortunately, the medical field has numerous ways to treat GERD for your baby! Each treatment avenue will depend on the severity of symptoms and health of your baby. Figuring out why reflux continues can be a challenge.
Don’t be surprised if the pediatrician recommends switching to an amino acid-based or protein hydrolysate formula, this is a treatment option for GERD. Since cow’s milk protein allergy remains a top culprit for infant food allergies, these specialty formulas don’t contain any type of dairy in them. But…
If you’re breastfeeding and wish to continue, this is the time to speak up to your child’s provider. If formula isn’t for your family (we get it), elimination diets are an alternative. (One of the biggest ways we can support you.)
When your little one suffers from reflux because of food allergies, the best way to manage it requires strict avoidance of their allergen trigger(s).
This always creates a hurdle for our parents. Between hidden allergens, crazy names, and everything in between — finding the culprit’s a challenge. Our team of food allergy experts can lead your family on the road to healing.
How to Manage Your Food Allergy Baby’s Reflux
You know your baby best, which means you know how sensitive their food triggers might be — or you’re learning fast! Some kids can have a serious reaction from even the smallest food proteins, like those found in hidden allergies. And some kids don’t react to something like that and need to eat a lot of the food to cause a reaction.
The bottom line? It truly all depends on how your child reacts and how much they consume of their food trigger.
We don’t want your concerns dismissed. If your child’s gaining weight and hitting those important milestones, this is a good sign!
But if your gut’s telling you something’s wrong, and your provider isn’t giving you tangible solutions, we believe you! The immune system’s complicated and complex, so hang in there.
Try these 3 tips to help with your child’s reflux:
Document, document, document! It’s the easiest way to nail down trigger foods. After 5 years of helping food allergy families, we heard loud and clear what you need. Our FREE food allergy tracking app allows you to store everything in one place for yourself, our team, and your child’s providers.
Work closely with your child’s medical team. When it comes to food allergies, your child might need to see a pediatric allergist and/or a gastroenterologist depending on their symptoms and severity of reactions.
Follow your gut — pun intended. If you notice reflux constantly after applesauce, you might be on to something. We’re here to support your family every step of the way.
Get Practical Guidance From Free to Feed On Your Baby’s Reflux
Reflux remains a confusing symptom, especially if your food allergy baby continues to have reactions to certain foods. If you (or baby) run out of clothes because of the amount of reflux, you probably want to consult the experts.
After serving families for over 5 years navigating infant food allergies, we’re confident we can help yours. We’ve added international board-certified lactation consultants (IBCLC) to our team to not only address food allergies but breastfeeding issues too. We know our team will broaden the support needed during this time.
When you get accurate education, support, and resources, your life will change for the better as a food allergy parent. It won’t seem like the end of the world anymore. Let us guide you every step of the way. We’ve been there ourselves, and we know this road all too well.
We’ve got lots of ways to help your family!
Choose from our Food Allergy Support Package or a one-on-one consult with one of our experts!
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