GERD - Child

[FreshStart2025]

My 8 year old son has been vomiting almost daily for 9 months now, suspected GERD. He says his mouth just starts filling up and then he is sick. Seems worse after food. Waiting for the results from a PH bravo tests and endoscopy.

Even if he is diagnosed with GERD, what can be done? The meds don’t seem to be helping. A lot of the advice is to change lifestyle but obviously he doesn’t drink alcohol / coffee / isn’t overweight / eats quite a bland diet.

Is it a lifetime of misery? ☹️

You need to be a bit careful here.

I've been reporting regurgitation to my GP for > 2 years. They assumed it was reflux acid although I told them there was no acid. What would happen is that what I'd just swallowed would rush back up my throat and into my mouth in what felt like gallons of saliva that I’d have to spit down the loo. A few months ago it progressed to episodes of projectile vomiting.

As it turns out, I actually have an oesophageal motility disorder. I'm having diagnostic tests ATM, but it's been noticed at an endoscopy (after a recent, sudden and agonising episode of pain on eating) that I've got what's called corkscrew oesophagus.

I'm mentioning this because you've said your son tells you his mouth just fills up. Children can have motility disorders too. If he gets it when he's eating then it might be worth getting your GP to look into this. Do some reading on Achalasia. It's very often misdiagnosed and once that's happened it can take years for a medic to stumble upon the correct path.

Good luck to your little boy

It’s normally not when he is actually eating as such, more afterwards in the next hour or so. Not always. But mostly daily.

That sounds rough PP, I hope you find something to help

I know you've said he has a bland diet, but what does that actually look like on a day to day basis? There could be foods making it worse. As an adult with GERD I have learned to manage it through finding my triggers and occasionally I take a single low dose omeprazole when it flares up because I've not been paying attention to what I'm eating. I was very poorly with it as first, could only eat tiny amounts of food without being sick constantly and severe stomach pain.

He normally has porridge / weetabix for breakfast, sandwich, fruit, salad, biscuit for lunch and normal kid friendly dinners, Mac cheese, spag Bol, pizza etc

These are not all GERD friendly foods, depending on what fruit he's eating some are highly acidic, the spaghetti bol and pizza have tomato sauce/puree on them - this is a known acid reflux trigger. Also carbonated drinks are triggers. You can Google individual food items and find out what their PH levels are, anything acidic should be avoided.