Fruits & Acid Reflux

First, let me introduce myself. I am a conventionally trained MD who has studied alternative medicine since 1999. Most of the people who responded to your question do not understand acidity/alkalinity. Neither does your conventionally trained pediatrition. Most health problems start because of what we give our babies, both through stress in utero, through medicines in breastmilk and then the foods that are recommended at an early age. What I am about to tell you will contradict some of the information you have already received. You will have to assimilate all the information, and then I recommend for you to pray about it. Then go with what God tells you in your spirit. If health is the direction your baby is supposed to go, then you will pick the right path. If it is some other direction, you will pick that path. Don't blame yourself for the consequences. Each of us has a purpose for the path we take--a purpose to serve God and get close to Him, even if our path isn't so great.

Our American diet is way too acidic. If your baby was born with severe acid reflux, this tells me that your diet is way too acidic to start with, and you had a tremendous amount of stress in your life while you were pregnant. Your baby is a parasite at first, inside you, and lives in the environment you give it. If we are acidic, the body tries to get rid of the acid. The stomach is an appropriate way, through increasing the pH there. But this happens when the kidneys are overwhelmed and can't get rid of the acids correctly.

Your baby needs a more alkaline diet (as opposed to comments you have already received from others). I do agree with the addition of a probiotic, but I will explain that later. Bananas and apples are both alkalizing in the body. They need to be ripe, however, and the apples should be golden delicious for the most benefit. The ones in the baby food jars might not be as alkalizing as fresh. You can mash your own bananas and apples. Greens (turnip, collards, kale, and spinach) are highly alkalizing, but make sure they are organic to avoid pesticides. Potatoes (sweet more than white) are alkaizing. Most all vegetables are alkalizing except for peas and carrots which are slightly acidifying. The absolute worst foods are the ones you are told to feed first--the grains (cereals), which are highly acidifying. Also sugar. PLEASE do not introduce your baby to soft drinks. Even if you look at books on acid/base balance, you will get conflicting information. This is because it is hard to tell what a food does inside the body. Their acidity/alkalinity outside the body is not what matters. How they turn the body after they've been eaten is what matters, and that depends on the state of the body. For example, limes are acid as a fruit, but alkalinize the body inside. It is confusing. But there are some foods everyone agrees with.

Here is a way to check your baby's acidity/alkalinity. Check her urine and saliva with pH paper. You can get it at a store or order it from me. Urine should be around a pH of 8 in adults. Since babies don't usually eat alkalizing foods early in life, I don't know how much lower their urine should be, but I would like to at least see a pH of 7. The urine should be fresh. Sitting in the diaper could change it to more basic, since urine is broke down to ammonia by bacteria. So try to check the strip placed in the diaper frequently. Do this several times a day. Watch the effect of certain foods. With the urine following a meal by a few hours, you should be able to determine if what she ate was acidifying or alkalizing. Saliva should be 8.5.

Probiotics, as mentioned by one of your other suggestions, are extremely important. But, the only human form is HMF. This is not sold retail, but only through providers such as myself, who use the company that makes it. The other probiotics that you buy in the store are cow form--great for calves, but do not colonize our GI tracts. If you ever took an antibiotic, then you do not have the good bacteria in you, and therefore your baby doesn't have it either, as it passes to her as she passes through the birth canal. C-section babies are definitely deficient.

I would recommend you seek the advise of a naturopathic physician in your area. Do check his/her training, though, as naturopathic physicians are not licensed in many states. Tell your state congressmen that you want naturopathic medicine and you want it legalized. If you can't find one, you can consult me eventually by webcam. I am checking into doing this, and when available, it will be on my web site, www.sevenpillarstotalhealth.com.

L. Cheek, MD
28 Town Center Drive
Dublin, VA 24084

Apples are actually pretty acidic. Bananas can induce some gas, too, but the apples will mainly cause her acid to increase. Maybe you could mix them with something else to lower their potency....maybe with cereal.

Congratulations on your baby, by the way! :)

L.,

I see that you have already gotten several replies. I guess I just wanted to let you know that I feel for you. My daughter actually started throwing up from her reflux when we were still in the hospital after her being born. At 10 days old, she did it in her bassinet and aspirated and we had to call the squad because we couldn't get her breathing. From then on, I would get soo nervous when she nursed because I knew choking and throwing up were coming. After she was put on Zantac AND she was sleeping in her swing OR car seat, everything got better. She had to basically sleep sitting up until she was almost 2. She finally grew out of it. She just turned 5 and eats everything in sight! She loves apples AND just about all fruits and veggies. I guess I just wanted to say hang in there-it DOES get better.

Apples tend to have a higher acidity level than other fruits, so maybe try mixing applesauce with another fruit or rice cereal so it is easier on her system.

My son has acid relfux and is slowly growing out of it thank goodness. He is nine months old now. The doctor told me that apples are very acidic so not to over due applesauce or any other fruit that is citrus or acidic.... hope this helps...best wishes!

My daughter had really bad acid reflux and I had to add about 1 tablespoon of baby cereal to each bottle so it was thicker and she could hold it down. It seemed to help her a lot.

I know I'm really late with this response, but I have a really old remedy for it. It's fennel seed water. It really helps to calm the stomach. My son is now 9 but when he was a baby, he wouldn't hold anything down, yet he wasn't allergic to anything either. I used to give him a bottle of fennel water before he ate and it used to work perfect. You just need to buy a bottle of whole fennel seed (in the supermarket's spice isle) Cover the top of a pot of water with the seeds, bring to a boil, let it cool and serve it warm. It's very relaxing for the stomach.

Speaking from personal experience w/ severe reflux and a child with severe reflux, apples are very acidic. I would not take them completely out of your daughters diet, but I would limit the amount she is given. Pay attention to the time of day. Make sure she will be up moving around for atleast 1 hour after eating the apples, this will help reduce the reflux problems whsn she lays down. Mixing it with cereal or following it up w/ milk will help. Enfamil AR was the only formula that all 3 of my children could handle. I wish you the best with your precious little girl.

Okay, I'm very late on this, but definitely add a probiotic to your daughter's diet. My daughter had awful reflux and was put on meds. They helped some, but she wasn't outgrowing it like she should have. I took her to a naturopath and she put her on a probiotic (Ultra-Bifidous) and L-Glutemine.

My son also had awful reflux and we started him on probiotics within a few weeks of birth and he's done well since. The probiotics was enough to balance out his tummy acids and he was able to keep things down.

It is much easier to give probiotics to a child that is eating solids, just mix some in the cereal once a day. It was tough trying to give it to a child that wouldn't take a bottle and was way too little to give solids.

Good luck to you.
D.

My son has reflux as well ( 7 months old now) When he was a month old my nurse practitioner put him on zantac. It helped but it wasn't a cure all. Then at 2 months a friend recomended her chiropractor. She had amazing results with her baby. He specialized in babies with reflux. Within 2 weeks of treatment my little one was spitting up like a normal baby and I took him of the zantac. It did not completely heal him either but I was very pleased with the results. He had to go weekly for a month and then every two week and then monthly for a total of 8 times. We still carry around burp rags(multiple)all the time. We moved when he was 6 months old out of state and I haven't found a new chiropractor yet.
Just another option to think about. I never would have thought that would help.
I would only go to someone who is recomended by a friend. I would be hesitant to just walk in off the street and let them do adjustments on my child.

Try homeopathic drops for colic at the Wellness center. Ask Kim Wahl she is very good with this. The Zantac stops your own good hydrochloric acid that naturally digests your food as well as the harmful uric acid. I used the natural and it worked great! M. R.

Hi L.
I had acid reflux asthma and allergies and was on meds for each. My acid reflux was so intense it mimicked a heart attack one time. I now take reliv food supplement and have weaned off all meds and it"s safe for kids.
J. H

I was just reading your request, responses, and result - and thought you might appreciatre a tid-bit of info about what I've learned lately. I have learned lots of new things about allergies b/c of my infant (although he's 4 1/2 months by now). I've always had allergies my entire life, but now his are so much more severe and he seems to have so many (and this is all thru what he has reacted to thru my breastmilk b/c at his age of course we havn't intro'ed food directl to him yet) we've been thru the ringer - from mucus, to blood, to white cells and back (it's been a rough few months) but we are doing SO-O much better and we've got a great course of action thanks to my WONDERFUL pedetrician and the GI specialist down at Vandy childrens. But anyway (what I wanted to tell you about) was to be leary of 2 things that might exaerbate symptoms in the future - 1.) vegtables with a high alkoloid content (makes sense from what we learned back in high school chemistry) not that these are foods that they will always have problems with, they are just more intense in their breakdown on these sensitive developing systems - the alkoloid ones are tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, etc. You can google it to know more. and 2.)almost all rice cereals contain a trace amount of soy protien in them (even though it is not listed) this was shocking to me when the GI was telling me about it. It also made sense why my little one had such a horrible reaction when I drank rice milk b/c of the soy protien that presents itself when they over process rice. So just so you know this is present if you are having to watch that aspect. He told me that the earth's best organic one didn't have it though, so it was safe. Anyway hope some of this helps.