Babies and Acid Reflux
Acid Reflux has been a diagnosis that has been increasing in the US, and after a lifetime in the alternative health care field this usually makes me think that there must be a drug to prescribe if there is an increase. And one evening in front of the television will convince anyone that is true! There are many drugs that are supposed to handle what is now called “acid reflux disease”.
Unfortunately these drugs, which make millions for the companies which make them, work against the body. Simply if the stomach doesn’t have ENOUGH acid then the food doesn’t digest but rots instead, forming the acid that causes the symptom that has now been called a disease. The treatment of choice makes this worse and the person then uses more of the drug. Good making money strategy for sure.
A couple of stories about how this happens in the first place:
When I first went into practice I had a patient who was a mechanic, and he had lifted a tire out of someone’s trunk. Hurt his back. When I adjust someone (that is chiropractic talk for putting the bones back in the correct position) I check all the bones in the back and put whatever is out back in, not just what the patient was complaining about – this is preventative care. After a few treatments he asked, “Hey Doc, does this stuff you are doing (i.e., adjusting his back) have anything to do with my stomach-because I used to eat a roll of Tums a
day and now I don’t need to.” I checked his record and there is was – the nerve supply to his stomach had been normalized.
Another patient who had had this “diagnosis” went through a nutritional work up which made it quit clear that she didn’t have enough acid to digest her protein. Her body normalized when she got enzymes in her system to help her digest her food. She no longer had those symptoms.
I mention all of this because recently I have had several moms bring their infants in to see me who had been diagnosed as having acid reflux and put on adult medications.
Now if a baby isn’t digesting their protein how are they going to build a body? This isn’t just perpetuating symptoms, this will interfere with growth.
Symptoms are the body’s way of communicating something that is non-optimum. When homeopathy started, it looked to symptoms to direct treatment. In Chiropractic, we respect the wisdom of the body and, in Naturopathy, we look to work with the body. None of these try to suppress what the body is trying to indicate is the real problem.
And with babies this is so important to pay attention to because of the amount of growth needed. Follow up,
check out what is the underlying cause and then handling that cause – then the symptom will just resolve.
—Doc McCullen
For more information, check out Doc McCullen's article "Acid Reflux and Kids".
Unfortunately these drugs, which make millions for the companies which make them, work against the body. Simply if the stomach doesn’t have ENOUGH acid then the food doesn’t digest but rots instead, forming the acid that causes the symptom that has now been called a disease. The treatment of choice makes this worse and the person then uses more of the drug. Good making money strategy for sure.
A couple of stories about how this happens in the first place:
When I first went into practice I had a patient who was a mechanic, and he had lifted a tire out of someone’s trunk. Hurt his back. When I adjust someone (that is chiropractic talk for putting the bones back in the correct position) I check all the bones in the back and put whatever is out back in, not just what the patient was complaining about – this is preventative care. After a few treatments he asked, “Hey Doc, does this stuff you are doing (i.e., adjusting his back) have anything to do with my stomach-because I used to eat a roll of Tums a
day and now I don’t need to.” I checked his record and there is was – the nerve supply to his stomach had been normalized.
Another patient who had had this “diagnosis” went through a nutritional work up which made it quit clear that she didn’t have enough acid to digest her protein. Her body normalized when she got enzymes in her system to help her digest her food. She no longer had those symptoms.
I mention all of this because recently I have had several moms bring their infants in to see me who had been diagnosed as having acid reflux and put on adult medications.
Now if a baby isn’t digesting their protein how are they going to build a body? This isn’t just perpetuating symptoms, this will interfere with growth.
Symptoms are the body’s way of communicating something that is non-optimum. When homeopathy started, it looked to symptoms to direct treatment. In Chiropractic, we respect the wisdom of the body and, in Naturopathy, we look to work with the body. None of these try to suppress what the body is trying to indicate is the real problem.
And with babies this is so important to pay attention to because of the amount of growth needed. Follow up,
check out what is the underlying cause and then handling that cause – then the symptom will just resolve.
—Doc McCullen
For more information, check out Doc McCullen's article "Acid Reflux and Kids".