Yes, crying and poor latch due to reflux causes them to swallow more air – more gas contributes to more reflux – more reflux to more esophageal irritation – more esophageal irritation to more poor latch and crying.
(You can see the vicious circle here)
Most of us first try to deal with the stomach acid and esophageal burning issue first in the hopes that the meds will allow enough of a break from stomach acid to allow the esophagus to heal and help to break that vicious cycle.
The primary cause of reflux is an immature LES but when you combine that with any of the following reflux can become much worse and progress to GERD.
Allergies (Cows milk is a big offender)
In tolerances
Digestive Flora imbalance (Yeast)
Medications
NG tubes
Immature LES.
In our case our aggravating factors could well have been Medications, Yeast, NG tube and an immature LES. The jury is still out on whether we also have allergies or intolerance issues but because of our hospital stay and institutional bottle feeding we never got the chance to sucessfully breastfeed and I’ve had to pump and supplement with formula so cow’s milk could very well be a factor.
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