Medications For GERD To Treat GERD Symptoms
For those who suffer and want quick relief prescription medications for GERD may be what is best for you. Promotility agents are a class of prescription medications for GERD that has helped many suffering from issues related to GERD. When the stomach does not empty itself as it should or as fast as it should, these promotility medicines can help. They will increase the digestion rate and keep acids from accumulating in the stomach longer than they should. This will help in keeping acid reflux at bay. Preventing these things from occurring in your body is really the best way to treat GERD.
Raglan can be very helpful medications for GERD. It is one of the better promotility agnets out there for helping digestion. For those who may have already tried proton pump inhibitors, known as PPI’s, or H2 blockers and have found no or limited relief, turning to Raglan to help cure GERD may be the one thing that works for you. Raglan can keep digestion going at the rate it supposed to.
Taking proton pump inhibitors, which are also prescriptions medications for GERD will help control the release of intestinal and stomach acids. If a doctor feels a patient is suffering form Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome, which is an abundance of stomach acid, or stomach ulcers, they may prescribe PPI’s to treat GERD.
Drugs such as Nexium and Aciphe are a few of the best working and better known proton pump inhibitor medicines out there for use today. These two medications can give you great relief from the symptoms of GERD and help keep the stomach acid from reaching levels which are too high.
Another kind of medication that can successfully treat GERD symptoms are H2 blockers. Just like PPI’s, they will block histamines and inhibit the overproduction of gastric acid. Before the common use of proton pump inhibitor drugs, these histamine blocking medications were the most widely turned to in order to treat GERD. However, their uses as medications for GERD have lessened over the years.
With the use of any of these medications, the GERD symptoms can be controlled and made bearable. They all help the digestive system run more smoothly and effectively when taken properly. The stomach acids are better controlled and acid reflux will subside, keeping your esophagus from being damaged by the acids. Medications for GERD are the best way to attack the disorder and get it under control.
There is the relatively unknown condition of infant GERD which can be very uncomfortable for a new born child to suffer through. Some new parents will mistakenly accept the signs of infant GERD as normal new born behavior. They see their child spit up and are not alarmed by it. Terrible consequences can occur if it is left untreated. New parents need to be aware that behavior such as spitting up, refusing to eat, or coughing when eating, can all be the signs of infant GERD. GERD medication may be necessary to treat it.
What Is Infant GERD?
In the case of infant GERD, the sphincter opens up and allows the contents of the stomach to get into the esophagus and then into the infant’s mouth which results in spitting and even vomiting. GERD or gastroesophageal reflux disorder occurs when the contents of a person’s stomach get into their esophagus – either while eating a meal, or after it. There is in fact a muscle ring (called lower esophageal sphincter or LES) that lies at the lower end of the esophagus that opens as well as shuts to allow or prevent food from entering into the stomach. When the LES opens it allows gas to escape from the stomach and this is seen in the form of burping that generally occurs after consumption of a meal.
GERD symptoms in infants include spitting and vomiting as well as coughing and being irritable. In addition, it is seen as poor feeding and in some cases it may show up in the form of a bloody stool. In a few rare cases these symptoms can become severe though in a majority of cases the infants will have stopped spitting by the time they have reached the age of between twelve and eighteen months.
If you notice your baby spitting or vomiting you should suspect infant GERD and take your infant to a doctor who will diagnose the condition. In some cases when the infant seems unhappy and unhealthy certain tests may be performed in order to establish clearly and unambiguously that it is indeed a case of infant GERD. In other instances, treatment can even begin without needing to conduct tests.
Treatment of infant GERD generally varies according to the symptoms and so sometimes no treatment is required, especially when the symptoms are very mild while in other cases the treatment takes the form of thickening the feeding through addition of cereals and in addition you will also need to ensure that the baby remains upright as much as is possible. Overfeeding the infant is not recommended as this will aggravate the infant GERD symptoms and so you will do well to feed your child small quantities of food accompanied with greater frequency of feeding.
In some cases, infants may feel uncomfortable and will not be able to eat or sleep normally and in such cases the treatment of infant GERD requires giving them certain medications including H2-blockers such as Tagamet and Zantac. It is indeed very rare to see infant GERD causing a slowdown in the normal growth of the baby. Any questions you have regarding your baby’s symptoms will easily be diagnosed by your doctor, so a visit will clear any problems or concerns you may have regarding your infant’s GERD.
