# Anyone suffer from GERD post partum? What worked for you?



## Athora80 (Apr 1, 2011)

*I have had GERD for over 6 months, my son will be 14 months soon. I had it mildly in my first trimester but it came back about 7 months postpartum. It got to the point where I almost choked on food twice. Endoscopy showed reflux esophagitis and gastritis. I refused to take the Prilosec (still nursing) and tried almost every natural cure out there. I am to the point now where I NEED something bad. I changed my diet so drastically it affected my milk, I am underweight and my blood pressure is low but I still have reflux. I am also to the point of desperation and want to take Prilosec or something like it to heal my esophagus.*

*Has anyone had experience with this and/or taking PPI's for it? I know there is increasing evidence of how bad they can be and I don't want to lower my stomach acid too much where it interferes with my digestion, I also worry about it affecting my nursling. But I am becoming depressed from being sick all the time! I'm up at 5am due to this, help!*


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## haggertyc (Feb 1, 2012)

I am experiencing the exact same problem as you, with the exact same timing. Problems started a little later, around 8 months postpartum and continue now z(my son is 14 months old). I too am breastfeeding and wonder if that has something o do with it, by affecting hormone levels? My symptoms are also the same - upper abdominal pain, burning, lump in throat sensation, etc. I also get short of breath. I've had a battery of tests and so far diagnosed with reduced esophageal motility and reflux. Has anything helped you or changed since your post?

I tried prilosec, but it didn't help much and had bad side effects ir m including extreme constipation, abdominal pain, and back pain. And now that I stopped it, the reflux is worse.


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## Athora80 (Apr 1, 2011)

*Well, I am glad I am not alone in this but I am not glad you are suffering too...it sucks. Things have changed since my original post but not really gotten better. I stopped having panic attacks and no more lump in my throat feeling, thank god. I was obsessed with finding out what was wrong with me, I researched and researched. I took just about every natural thing to try and help and nothing helped. I took Prilosec for 4 days and felt it was affected my nursling so I stopped. Now my stomach is tender all the time, doesn't help with a wild 17 month old jumping on it all the time, lol. My esophagus will become irritated by certain foods, sometimes I can pin it down, sometimes not. And within the last few months I have had almost non stop gas..why...I have no idea, since nothing has changed. I tried giving up dairy for a month, giving up soy, giving up processed foods...none of that made a difference.*

*Soooo, my last resort is to go on the GAPS diet. I am not sure if you are familiar with it but there are tons of testimonials for it doing amazing things. My whole family is preparing to start it within the next month and I have a really good feeling about it. I think my body is just so out of whack, from years of eating crappy, antibiotics, stress and eating foods I'm allergic too. My guess is that my body is saying it has had enough. All I know is I can't keep going like this, things need to change. How long did you take the prilosec? How did they diagnose your motility dysfunction?*


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## Billie1221 (Jan 31, 2012)

I have GERD as well, and I am on Prilosec twice a day right now. I've taken Zantac and Nexium previously. They seem to work for a while then I need to change to something different. Papaya enzyme seems to help for a little bit as well when I have a flare-up. I'm trying to gather up enough courage to go dairy-free to see if that helps, but that will mean a huge life-style change and it feels like such a big step. I love cheese and yogurt and eat them every day, so that will be a huge sacrifice if I do that.

I've eliminated spicy foods, acidic foods, greasy foods, eating within 2 hours of bedtime, and raised up the head of my bed, and everything else I can find to try. No tight waisbands on my clothes. Ugh, it's a pain.

I took the meds while nursing with no problems, in fact my toddler still nurses once or twice a day.


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## haggertyc (Feb 1, 2012)

Athora80 - did you try the GAPS diet yet? I'm not too familiar with it. I am on a gluten free diet for the most part, but I do cheat here and there. I recently tested myself via enterolab and am producing antibodies to gluten and soy. Planning to see a gastroenterologist at some point soon...but who has the time with a little one running around?! Right now, I'm trying out this orange extract I bought from Whole Foods that is suppose to quiet things down for 6 months. we shall see.

My esophageal dysmotility was diagnosed via a barium swallowing test -

Billie1221 - when did your GERD start? after you had your baby/while nursing, or did you have it before? I never had problems like this until postpartum, specifically when my period returned! I'm still nursing, so I'm sure my hormones are still wacky - that is one of my theories.


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## haggertyc (Feb 1, 2012)

Oh - and I have this really odd lump in my throat sensation too. Not sure if that is part of the GERD, or from stress thinking about all of this. Do either of you have that?


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## Athora80 (Apr 1, 2011)

*I have not tried the GAPS yet, although I have been making Ghee and bone broth for a while and just made my first batch of Sauerkraut. And wow....you know...all this started last April for me, right when I got my cycle back and my baby was 8 months old! I have always thought it was hormonal too because I never had these issues before...hmmm....*

*I just recently gave up dairy and my reflux is so bad...it's frustrating. I have/had the lump in my throat feeling, I think it's stress and/or the esophagitis. What does the orange extract do? Have you tried supplementing with Betaine HCL?*


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## Billie1221 (Jan 31, 2012)

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *haggertyc*
> 
> Oh - and I have this really odd lump in my throat sensation too. Not sure if that is part of the GERD, or from stress thinking about all of this. Do either of you have that?


I have that as a symptom as well. Mine started about 4 years ago during a very stressful life situation. I had hyperemesis with my pregnancy, and one of the meds I took to control that was Reglan, which also helped my GERD symptoms, but it came back about 4 months postpartum.


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## haggertyc (Feb 1, 2012)

I don't think the exact mechanism of orange peel is know, but it seems like it works wonders for some people. So far, I have definitely seen some improvements. here is one link:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Acid-Reflux-Heartburn-and-Orange-Peel-Extract-Therapy&id=487827

I do think the lump in my throat is due partly to stress. also seems to flare premenstrually -

seems like we are all in a similar boat. although it stinks, at least this offers a little comfort.


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## mamatrix (Mar 15, 2013)

Hi all. I was just wondering if any of you have seen an improvement in your GERD symptoms over the past year? I too started experiencing "silent" GERD after my second baby was born and it's been non-stop through 2 additional pregnancies and 9 years later. Like I said, it's been pretty silent meaning the burn is extremely mild and doesn't stop me from eating spicy acidy foods, but it causes symptoms of hoarseness, broken voice, red and swollen vocal cords (chronic laryngitis), occasional lump in the throat, and constant post nasal drip. I had an upper endoscopy 8.1.12 and everything appeared to be normal with exception to a mildly red and irritated stomach lining, but the H. Pylori test was negative, so that's all good. I've just put this off for all this time because the symptoms were so mild, but at my check up with my ENT on Monday, he said I've got to make changes because my voice has gotten worse and my vocal cords and box is SIGNIFICANTLY red and swollen. I am a very healthy eater (pescetarian and whole food eater), so I thought I would be ok, but no. I have started taking Nexium 40mg/day on Monday along with a nasal spray for the post nasal drip. I HATE medicine and plan to come off of it once my throat is healed. I've also started a diet based on the book "Dropping Acid The Reflux Diet Cookbook and Cure", which is written by two ENTs and a chef. I've been doing a combo of the medicines and diet for 5 days now and it seems to be helping a little at a time. I know this is going to take some time to reverse 9 years of damage, but I have hope. I've also been taking Slippery Elm in the morning since I take the Nexium at night. Anyway, just wanted to see what you all have been doing and if it's helped.


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## Athora80 (Apr 1, 2011)

*This is my old post from last year...how are you ladies and your GERD? Haggertyc...how did the orange peel extract work for you? I have not tried it yet...I am still nursing a 3 year old and wonder how safe it is. I know there are synthetic versions out there that should be avoided also, what brand did you use? I have tried everything natural, even cutting out dairy. Nothing worked and it got so bad that I ended up trying Prilosec OTC for a month and a half. I never felt so good but I came off it 2 days ago just to see how things would go and I had heartburn that very morning! I want to TTC in the next 6 months to a year and need to get healthy...I do NOT want to go back on a PPI. I think D-Limonene or Orange Peel is my last resort other than cutting out wheat.

I would love to hear success stories of Orange Peel! *


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## Athora80 (Apr 1, 2011)

Also, Mamatrix-Slippery elm has never really helped me at all. I even got some Mastic Gum to see if that helped...made my heartburn worse. ACV, Baking Soda, Betaine HCL, Marshmallow, probiotics...none of those seemed to help. DGL chewables do help a lot with my esophagitis though but not with actual heartburn. The only things that have helped is antacids or PPI's sadly and I do not want to be on them forever.

Mamatrix-how is your GERD recently?


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## tillymonster (May 12, 2011)

So glad I found this thread. I think I may have this GERD. I've never had heartburn-- not till I was about 6 months pregnant with my second child. It was REALLY bad in the end. Food would feel like it was coming back up. It was horrible.

The lump in the throat right now is ruining my evenings. I don't enjoy food anymore (esp. at night) and don't think I'm getting enough. I'm 6 months postpartum and yes, just started having periods again. Sadly, due to thyroid issues (under medicated Hashimoto's IMHO) I've experienced unexplained weight gain and am having a ton of hypothyroid symptoms. Anyone else have this going on too? I'm convinced my weight (I've never weighed this much!!!) is to blame. I won't do meds if I don't have too but will be upping my dose of NDT medication (Naturethyroid) in the hopes things get better on the thyroid front. I eat kimchi daily and homemade yogurt on occasion and this helped with the strange bouts of gas as well as being almost gluten free. I'm worried things are getting worse so perhaps it's time to see a doc. This sucks! Hope you are feeling better as this thread is older.


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## botty (Aug 18, 2014)

Wondering what my problem is. 6 months postpartum with first (and still breastfeeding) and I may be just hormonal but not sure. Lump in throat/burning in deep throat for almost an entire week straight. It started I think right after I ate sardines. I noticed it back in March (when I ALSO ate sardines...i very rarely eat them but they are tasty and healthy, so i didn't think anything of it at first, but that's the only correlation I have. My father mentioned maybe it's an allergic reaction)...and it's happened a few other times here and there between February and now (mid August) but I've only eaten sardines those 2 times so these other times it's happened it's something else that's causing it. I'm not sure if this is what I had immediately following giving birth either, but I do remember hoarse voice and it being to much for me to tell the dogs to stop yapping when guests came over to see the new baby. I was just slugging it off as being stressed out/making birthing noises! lol! That was a lot to go through with no pain medications! ;-) 

I do eat VERY healthy--paleo and WAPF diet, so this is so odd for me! After reading other comments here I think I'm going to start thinking that it has to do a lot with hormonal changes. We'll see what happens.


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## sarabb (Oct 14, 2015)

*updates...?*

Hello ladies,
thank you all for sharing this info- it made me feel a little better. I too started having some symptoms (mainly lump in the throat and constant burping) about 7 months post partum, and now my little one is nearly 15 months. I've been tested for H Pylori, I had a thyroid scan and an allergy test, all negative. I also see a chiro regularly, but that's not helping. I've seen a gastroenterologist, who mainly gave me some dietary changes (no chocolate or anything that could make the valve at the top of the stomach 'relax', cut down saturated fats) but some of them are hard for me, as I'm diabetic and on a low carb diet to control my blood sugars, so cutting down nuts and coconut is so hard. I want to avoid anti-acids, particularly as they contain aluminium. I've been taking slippery elm bark, and L-theanine to relax the stomach before each meal. the only thing that seems to help is acupuncture and cupping- I've noticed I'll have a day of respite after a session. But it's costly! I'm still nursing and would like to continue long term... Please let me know if any of your symptoms improved and how.... I will try the liquorice remedy too. :crying:


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