Q: My one-year-old daughter was never a good eater and was breast fed till 5 months of age. She stopped taking milk when she came back from India at 6 months. She drinks milk only at night when sleeping. She was diagnosed with reflux (GERD) but she does not vomit any milk. After feeds she sometimes feels uncomfortable and we feel milk is coming up. We keep her vertical after each feed. The head end of her bed is raised by 30 degrees. We have introduced solids. She chews/tastes and spits it out. She takes only one sample of food and then she is not interested. She does not take any food at all during the day. She sleeps well at night and takes occasional naps during the day. We manage to feed around 11oz formula when she is asleep. We are worried that she no longer thinks she needs any food. Her milk intake is also reducing. Please help.

A:Your child has gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) which tends to get resolved over 1 and a half to 2 years. She does not need large amounts of milk intake anyway. What ever she is eating it is important that she is growing appropriately. You have not mentioned about her growth. If she is not growing well we need to confirm reflux by some investigations, may be perform an endoscopy and put the child on medications if she has reflux esophagitis. If inspite of this her reflux is so severe that she is not growing and we do not find any other reason for inadequate growth then other options like surgery to treat reflux need to be considered.