Tongue-Tie and Reflux: The Intolerable Injustice to Infants

Society is causing an intolerable injustice to infants with tongue-tie and reflux.

Let me tell you why.

In every village, in every county and state, babies are screaming. They are screaming for help. Screaming for someone to listen.

Their parents listen.

They hear their pain.

They can do nothing about it.

Or can they?

The Current Medical Model for Reflux

Our evidence-based medical world has decided in that a baby with colic or reflux is normal. They have decided that it is normal to projectile vomit after every meal.

That it is normal to have tummy pain so bad that a baby cannot sleep.

That it is normal for a baby to inconsolably scream in pain for hours on end.

"That the only thing we can do for these babies is to take an experimental approach with medications to chemically change how their body functions with a blatant ignorance to the long-term consequences to these vulnerable children."

When the medications don’t work, parents are blamed and told that they need to toughen up, be less anxious and get used to parenting.

Why do we stand by and accept the harrowing prognosis of reflux as being “something that some babies get” and that there isn’t much we can do about it?

It is time to make a stand. 

I am the voice of these babies.

I am the advocate for their parents and caregivers.

I am the Baby Reflux Lady.

Reflux is not a disease, as we have been led to believe. And it does not get resolved by medications of any sort, ever.

In fact, in far too many cases, the long-term medication of infants with extremely high doses of adult medication is causing life-changing illnesses such as Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, histamine sensitivity (or intolerance), ADHD, as well as the proven inks to severe gastroenteritis, weaker bones, and 367% increase in developing a food allergy.

How is this just or fair? How is this the best way of supporting children?

In 2003, the head of Medicaid and Medicare said at a meeting of the American Medical Association,

"You should be embarrassed if you prescribe Nexium [a PPI], because it increases costs with no medical benefit."

Wow.

A blanket approach to reflux does not work

Just as blanket medication does not work.

When reflux can be completely resolved simply by addressing the underlying causes for every baby.

In a recent straw poll, only 18% of parents reported that their baby’s reflux improved dramatically with medication, and 90% of their babies continued to have reflux symptoms.

When we address the causes and deal with them, reflux disappears. Completely.

The greatest challenge we have is the culture that we are living in. The culture that believes if a doctor doesn’t have the answer, then there must not be an answer.

I want to challenge that for a moment.

Do you know that it takes an average of 17 years for proven medical research to make its way into general practice? A considerable number of studies published by the medical community are funded by food and/or pharmaceutical companies.

Perhaps this may sound uncomfortable, too much like a conspiratory theory, like I’m going barking mad that I think doctors don’t have all the answers and our medical system is too heavily influenced by the profit-making pharmaceutical and food giants.

It may well be the time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Are you a parent of a baby with reflux?

Because unless you are the parent of a baby with reflux, then you are unlikely to be able to fully understand just how neglected these babies are by the medical system.

As parents of suffering children, we have learned to shut up and put up.

No one understands us- our doctors tell us we are the ones who are over-anxious and causing our baby’s reflux (we read this as pain). Because our baby is otherwise healthy, gaining weight and meeting their "Red Book" targets, we should be happy that we have such a healthy baby.

This isn’t enough.

Around the world, reflux is breaking people, breaking marriages, breaking families.

Reflux introduces stress to a relationship beyond anything you have ever experienced. Not just because the baby is suffering....

Let me show you an evening...

Baby's parent/carer has been holding a screaming baby all day. They feel like a complete failure because they cannot get the baby to sleep, and they feel completely helpless. Their doctor has told them that they should be grateful, that their baby is so healthy, and that this is a phase that will pass.

But when will it pass?

It's early evening, and their partner comes home from work, exhausted and worried. Worried about their baby and their partner. Worried about keeping their job due to reduced performance from exhaustion. Worried about the near-term ability to keep food on the table.

There are deep feelings because their baby just screams all the time. They are lamenting the loss of the life they thought they would have. Questioning their decision to become parents. They wonder what this is all going to do to their older children, who are getting ignored.

All the while, their baby continues to be in pain. Sleeping now and again for 30-40 minutes and needing to be held.

This exhaustion is causing postnatal depression. It is contributing to other health issues and does nothing beneficial for the health of the individual, the baby or the family.

And what help is there? What support?

Yet, all the time, the parents have to grin and bear it because the medical community do not see reflux as something serious.

The medical community do not see reflux as something that can be cured. The medical community are happily ignoring the long-term impact of medications on these infants, who, as a result of this weak treatment in the early days, are more likely to develop greater health issues later in life that will continue to keep the pharmaceutical companies well in the black.

This needs to stop.

It is time to start paying attention to the facts.

It is time to start treating each baby with reflux as an individual rather than a number and time to solve reflux before it destroys more lives.

Let's eradicate baby reflux!

How can we eradicate baby reflux?

I have written about reflux extensively, and you will find everything you need right now at the 'Reflux Free Baby' Workshop.

I walk you through all the symptoms you need to observe and record for your baby, what they mean, and how to use them as clues.

The course is suitable for both bottle-feeding and breastfed babies who are suffering from baby reflux.

I tell you what the clues mean individually and when they occur with other groups of symptoms. And this leads us to be able to say what is causing each baby's reflux with much more confidence.

Based on this, I tell you what specific action to take for them.

My work is about teaching parents and professionals how to read their baby's symptoms and behaviours to communicate with us, to figure out their unique cause and then what action to take to resolve it.

To supercharge your baby's ability to develop their tongue and facial muscles properly, I have a short mini-course called It's All About The Tongue, in which we explore the importance of the tongue.

It functions in greater depth, helping you assess if your baby has a tongue tie or muscular tension and what targeted and specific exercises you can do with them to develop sucking reflexes, tongue elevation, protrusion, and more really helping you help them.

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