Understanding GERD

If you suspect or know your child has GERD, you may already have worried that something was wrong when your baby vomited shortly after feeding. But many babies spit up a lot. The difference, says Dr. Bruce A. Epstein, MD, a pediatrician in St. Petersburg, Florida, is that babies with acid reflux spit up most of their milk and don't gain weight.

Other symptoms of GERD include:

• sudden and inconsolable crying
• bad breath
• frequent night waking
• noisy and difficult breathing
• failure to thrive
• swallowing problems
• arching as if to get away from the breast or bottle
• gagging or choking
• asthma
• awakening with crying, quickly responding to feeding, then awakening again in one to two hours