After all these doctor visits, we started limiting (but not eliminating) the typical heartburn foods. These foods you can find all over the internet as no-no's but in case you don't know them they are: dairy, chocolate, tomatoes, mint, citrus, soda/caffeine. There are additional lists that we have found and incorporated as well which have included fried foods and spicy foods. So for an 8-year old kid that means no spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, ice cream, french fries, cheeseburgers, or chocolate milk. Going to a restaurant is not really possible right now. An adult might moan and groan about giving up these foods, but for a kid, these are some pretty basic things. I think it is great, and give parents kuddos, who raise children on salads and vegetables, but we aren't those parents, we are normal, and these are pretty normal foods. With limiting these foods, which basically meant that we only gave him milk in his cereal, and let him have yogurt, we saw a HUGE difference in Jayden. He looked better and healthy and was running around, which was a very welcome site. We realized that we really needed to eliminate all these foods because we realized that we needed a clean slate and wanted to give Jayden's stomach the best opportunity to heal, and maybe by eliminating them he would improve further. So we started our time all over and took Jayden off all of the heartburn foods completely.
We have looked up and down the internet about heartburn and acid reflex (also known as GERD). Essentially there are a zillion websites out there and there are some basics about heartburn and acid reflux that most of the sites talk about. In case you come to this blog - here they are: 1) Limit the heartburn foods: dairy, chocolate, tomatoes, mint, citrus, soda/caffeine, fried foods, spicy foods. 2) Make meals smaller. 5-6 meals verses 3 main meals. 3) Usually heartburn/acid reflux symptoms occur at night time and they can be very painful. and 4) Acid Reflux (aka GERD) and heartburn are NOT the same thing as I had previously thought.
Peace to all of you, Susan
I am so sorry that you have to worry about these things! Raising children is hard enough without that.
ReplyDeleteI sympathize because there are also a lot of things that Jennifer cannot eat. Fortunately, I'm flexible. I don't fantasize about treats and am very happy to eat fruits and veggies all day. I've even stopped drinking Diet Coke and coffee. The only thing I would find really hard to give up is wine and beer.