Gerd

[Bethe']

Hello all,
This is my first post so I will briefly introduce myself. I have been vegetarian for a year now and I only cook vegetarian at home (if they want meat they cook it themself). My husband has talked about being vegetarian but has not happned yet. My son is four so he will eat almost anything exctep lentil loaf. lol
Now to my daughter which is were my question is. She is seven and has severe acid reflux. She has seen a specialist since she was two. She has been on all the meds and everything else the the doctor can think of, NOTHING had helped. We have exausted all of the options left so all the recomend is a serious surgery that you can not undo (fundoplication). They seem a little too happy to just cut her open and I know that there is a chance that it will not even fix it. SO I have decided to have her go vegetarian about three weeks ago...and it is better!! YEAH! But I want to go vegan and see if there is even more improvement. But she does not like vegan cheese (and she like most kids loves cheese), and only likes about a third of the recipies I make. I am have a really hard time convincing her to go vegan. My mom is vegan and I tell her that she would eat like her grandma, which she does like her recipies. So I guess my health question is has anyone else used a vegan diet to help with acid reflux. Thank you for you responce.

[Mia21]

Hey Bethe,
I have had severe acid reflux for a about 10 years now. I feel your daughter's pain I know how bad it can get. When I became vegetarian I noticed that my acid reflux improved. I have just recently made the tranistion to vegan and have really seen an improvement! I am not big on taking pills for anything so this is a huge plus for me! A few other things that have helped was positioning my pillows so I am more upright when sleeping. This way the acid will be less likely to come up. You will need to get her a few pillows to do this. I have heard of others actually putting blocks under the bed so it is on an angle. I know this sounds weird but sometimes I find that when I am having an attack if I eat something acidic such as a pickle it gets better. I only know 1 person that has had the surgery for this and they regret it. I don't want to influence your decision on the issue so you may want to find others that have had the surgery. Maybe your doctor can get you in touch with others. I think too many times doctors rely on their textbooks and science and completely ignore nature. Do you have any natural wellness centres around you? I have some in my area and they work with your diet to help reduce the chances of certain surgeries.
I think it is great you and your daughter are going vegan! It is all about changing your tastebuds. She is not going to like everything right away. What you can do is mix it with actual cheese. I had a hard time liking soy cheese as well and soy milk, but I really liked the soy chocolate milk. What I did was mix more regular soy with the chocolate kind. I also started putting small amounts of soy yogurt in my smoothies. I now love soy milk. My non-vegan friends actually like the soy choclate milk better than the actual chocolate milk. Good luck I hope her acid reflux improves! Hope this info helps.

[DianeL]

I also suffer from gerd. I try to avoid the obvious acidic foods like pineapple or lemons, although I eat some occasionally. I refuse to give up tomato sauce though! While it is cooking I add a big pinch of baking soda and mix thoroughly. If I eat it this way I do not have reflux. (I also add to ketchup) Also, eating smaller meals really helps too. I sometimes have trouble with high protein foods like faux meats, so I eat small amounts at a time. I can only imagine if I ate real meat how much worse it would be!
I was treated with all the usual drugs years ago, all those so-called acid reducers. Those drugs actually make the problems worse, causing more acid once they are discontinued. They also caused me a great deal of lower abdominal pain.
The greatest discovery I made was Aloe Vera juice. This has been an absolute miracle for me. I simply drink 2 ounces after meals and within minutes it stops the reflux. Of course I had to get used to the taste, I find it to be pretty bad! I don't know if your daughter would even want to try it, but I swear by it.

[Bethe']

Thank you for your responces. I do prop her bed, that helps some. I have not heard of baking soda in the tomato sauce, I will try that. I really appericate your tips, thank you for helping my little girl. Bethe'