Reflux diet suggestions

[rockchikcassie]

I found out today that my almost 4 year old is have reflux problems again. He had it extremely severely as a baby but we haven't had any problems in a couple of years. Dr. isn't putting him on meds right now we're supposed to change his diet. He's been complaining that his "tummy is gonna pop" for the last couple of months and it was always when he was in the middle of eating lol so I figured it was part of his protest to eating food he didn't want. We have fights and dinner time almost every night lately lol.

Anyway, I'm supposed to cut out citrus - his favorite drinks are OJ and lemonade. Cut out tomato - he eats ketchup on everything! Cut out caffeine - ie Chocolate and the cappucino I give him to help calm him down (pretty sure he has ADD and the cappucino is a god send!) Not supposed to eat anything heavy and he's supposed to eat small portions more often...

I need suggestions!!! He's pretty darn picky and he's crying that he can't have OJ and lemonade anymore and that I wouldn't let him eat ketchup with his chicken nuggets. Then he told me he wanted a new mommy

[pcjs]

If you google there are lists of reflux diets for young kids. Milk (we can do 1% but that's it) and tomatoes are a problem. Good luck.

[littleleaf]

Originally Posted by rockchikcassie Then he told me he wanted a new mommy

mama

Can you make up new sauces that are cool and exciting, and maybe use food coloring to make them different colors?

ETA: for that matter, since he can't have his usual foods, maybe try making his foods more exciting in general... arranging them like a happy face, or new cool plates and stuff.

[rockchikcassie]

Originally Posted by littleleaf mama Can you make up new sauces that are cool and exciting, and maybe use food coloring to make them different colors? ETA: for that matter, since he can't have his usual foods, maybe try making his foods more exciting in general... arranging them like a happy face, or new cool plates and stuff.

That's a neat idea. Maybe I can figure something like that out! It's hard b/c I am already on a really low calorie diet to come up with new stuff that he is going to be interested in that doesn't just end up in cooking a meal for us and something else for him. He doesn't usually want any part in our healthy dinners and that's where the fights come in. I'll have to try this to peak his interest and get is mind off of his OJ Thanks mama!

[pcjs]

How about starting with a low acid oj?

http://www.tropicana.com/#/trop_prod...PurePremium/51

[rockchikcassie]

I had no idea that they even had such a thing! We will have to see if we can find some and try it out! Thanks!

[pcjs]

Also, for milk, someone here told me to try 1%, which I never thought about as they recommend whole or 2% for fat but my son seems to tolerate it better so it was a great suggestion (now only to get him to drink it). Since my son is little, he hasn't been exposed or developed the tastes so he's not missing anything (yet) but I'm sure we'll be where you are soon enough.

Tell your son he's lucky to have a mom who cares enough to worry about these things!

You could also try a nutritionist for alternatives. We got sent to one when we didn't want to pull off formula to milk but she ended up encouraging us to stay on formula and had a few other suggestions we already did as she had a reflux child too so she "got it." I find googling reflux and some of the advice on here just as helpful (no one ever suggested the 1% beyond here from someone whose been there/done that).

[rockchikcassie]

We already do fat free milk, he's lactose intolerant so we use the fat-free lactose free stuff. Since it's the lactaid it's sweeter and doesn't taste as watered down as traditional milk does. I'm going to try to let him keep drinking some milk and just maybe limit how much he can have a day...and no chocolate in it lol.

I'm sure we'll figure it out, I almost feel like putting him back on the prevacid would be worth it so he could still eat at least some of the things he likes. He hasn't been on any meds since he was close to 2 years old, but we also haven't had any problems until now

[mama2ma_ks_km]

Ugh mama, I'm so sorry! My 6 year old has had on again off again issues with reflux since she was born, and my 2 1/2 year old has been on meds for well.... 2 1/2 years. :-( So we always do low-fat, low-sugar low-acid kinda cooking around here. Our GI "specialist" (I think I am at this point more than he is! UGH!) is of the opinion that as long as we cut out tomato/citrus/chocolate our girls should be fine and not need meds. (Hence he is always trying to wean my YDD off her meds...trust me, we have tried plenty of med weans and they are always a big failure.)
You will find what works for him, but it takes time...a lot of time unfortunately. If you google "reflux diet about.com" you will have a great list to start with. For my kiddos I make the low-fat alfredo sauce off the above website and use it in every pasta dish imaginable...also I just add a pinch of italian seasoning and it makes a pretty decent pizza sauce too. My kids LOVE it. As far as dairy goes, my kids do ok with just about anything, tho I found that cheddar cheese was a definite trigger. Yogurt can be ok...you just have to see how your kiddo does on it. Corn snacks/popcorn/corn cereals were also very bad. We do a lot of snacks like pretzels/rice snacks/goldfish/low fat mozz string cheese/apples/bananas/peaches/grapes. Also I highly recommend if you are red meat eaters to buy the 90% ground beef as we see a big difference between that and any lower percentage. I hope this makes sense I kinda rambled here...tired tonight. Hope that helps. PM me if you want any more info that I might be able to help you with. OH...and one last thing...while Prevacid was a LIFE-SAVER at 3...at 5 it gave my ODD horrid stomach aches...I kept asking the dr to take her off it and switch her to something else as I was sure it was a side effect and he refused...finally did an endoscopy and since her results were good he took her off of it...and low and behold the stomach aches went away! (Bang head...yes, we are searching for a new GI dr!)
ETA: if he likes the alfredo...my kids use it or Ranch salad dressing as a dipping sauce for just about everything lol...maybe that would help with needing to nix the ketchup!