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Gastro-esophageal reflux disease in infants develop following reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus.

A survey of children attending hospital for further investigations found in a group of 69 children with GERD with a mean age of 16 months, 72% had recurrent bouts of vomiting, 36% had abdominal pain, 29% had feeding difficulties, 28% had failure to thrive and 19% were irritable.

In true GERD, 90% of children developed vomiting before they were six weeks old. Other problems related to GERD are haematemesis (vomiting of blood) and anaemia, cough, apnoea and wheeze.

A study comparing children with respiratory dysfunction and a control group found that 42% of children with respiratory problems had GERD compared to 8% in the control group.

If GERD is caused by hiatus hernia, 30% will persist to the age of 4 years.

Most cases of reflux in infants resolve within a year to a year and a half.

Dr. Phil Hariram,