What Causes Reflux in Babies?
After your baby swallows milk, it glides past the back of the throat into a muscular tube (the esophagus) and, from there, into the stomach. At the junction of the esophagus and the stomach is a ring of muscles (lower esophageal sphincter) that opens to let the milk drop into the stomach and then tightens to prevent the milk (and the stomach contents) from moving back up into the esophagus. If the stomach contents should happen to re-enter the esophagus, this is called “reflux.” Infants are especially prone to reflux because: • Their stomachs are quite small (about the size of their fists or a golf ball), so they are easily distended by the milk. • The lower esophagus valve may be immature and may not tighten up when it should.
