Reflux 'management'?

My son and I have been to gastroenterologists to help with reflux symptoms. One has prescribed medication and another is taking a wait and see approach. I have been successfully monitoring our food choices and reintroducing things as we go. My question is, has anyone had any success is working with a nutritionist or dietician who can assist further? How? I'm not sure. Just looking for other options to increase our food selections. Thanks.

Me and my husband have been struggling with this for a few years, and now we are acid-free. I can tell you the few things I have learned but I am no expert.

As I am sure you know, there are certain foods that trigger reflux or make it worse, however reflux's primary underlying cause is usually stress. If you google it or get a book, they usually list these foods: acidic foods like tomato sauce, oranges, spicy foods, fatty, greasy foods, mint, coffee, caffeine, bubbly drinks, alcohol, tobacco products. I think chocolate is on the list too. Plus over eating or eating too close to bedtime.

Our reflux was 100% caused by stress, and to fix stress-caused reflux, things that help are exercise and "mindfulness" practices. When we were stressed, the foods above messed us up worse. If we avoided them we were better. Now for us, we found that our main problem was coffee. It turned out we had been making our coffee way too strong, and I felt like someone was sticking a knife in my gut whenever I drank it. Stopped drinking it for a while and gut is back to normal. We now make our coffee at normal strength instead of super strong, and my stomach tolerates it fine. Coffee is notorious for stripping the gut of natural intestinal flora. Whether you drink coffee or not, I would heavily recommend eating yogurt with probiotics in - you know, that acidophilus stuff. Or you can take tablets or get soy or almond yogurt with the stuff in if you don't like milk. I know a lot of people avoid dairy but if you can eat it, there is nothing that feels better on an acid stomach than a bowl of probiotic yogurt, or some milk. Best thing to do is take a probiotic tablet right before you go to bed each night, and it has all night to work before you put more stuff in your tummy.

I had to use things like nexium and omeprazole when things were bad to give my esophagus time to heal, and that really helped. Those are necessary some times but people shouldn't habitually take them - they aren't antacids, they are for extreme cases, however are awesome when and if you need them. Sometimes, if your esophagus is really ripped up with the acid, diet won't help until you do the nexium or omeprazole for a month or two, to give the esophagus time to heal first.

Try this - I read about a guy whose dad was having awful reflux, it was going into his lungs and he was having awful problems. But then he started eating an apple or two before bed, and it went away. So I tried it, and honestly, now, if I feel a bit burning before I go to bed, I eat an apple and it just about fixes it. I have read some things about how eating a larger percentage of veggies/non acidic fruits help the situation.

A small tip ... Try to eat 3 hours before bed . Sleep with an inclination when possible .

Thank you for all the tips! In the past I struggled a bit with this, but it has gotten a lot better now. Not sure if it is because I don't over eat as much any more or because my stomach fat has gone down some. Occasionally I still wake up in the night with acidy stomach but I usually drink some milk and it goes away.

Hi Harlylena, Hope the omeprazole helps. I've had some very good results with this medication. Suffered with reflux since having children some 16 yrs. now. The doc prescribed ranitidine but it worked minimally. Last year I changed doctors and was prescribed omeprazole. It sure made a difference for me. I'm trying to manage stress better and I still moderate foods that set me off but it is nice to eat them occasional and not feel like a fire breathing dragon. Good luck.