Anti-reflux pillow: be careful because it is more dangerous than useful!
Parents often find themselves tired and exasperated when their little one cries incessantly and sleeps little due to gastrointestinal problems such as reflux. This leads them to make impulse purchases, such as the anti-reflux pillow , to try to find a solution.
But can it be a solution to reflux?
Small spoiler: absolutely NOT , in fact, in addition to being expensive, it is more DANGEROUS than useful!
1. What is an anti-reflux pillow?
Many parents resort to purchasing an anti-reflux pillow to combat gastrointestinal problems.
This type of pillow, by keeping the baby slightly raised , should help him digest better and reduce the possibility of milk coming back up.
Unfortunately, due to too little correct information about reflux and colic, parents try every possible strategy to make their baby feel better, who is suffering, irritable and cries constantly, even at night!
It is precisely on these difficulties that all the advertisements and publicity for anti-reflux pillows focus, but the truth is that these are more harmful than useful!
2. The risks of using an anti-reflux pillow
First of all, it is necessary to say that the pillow for the newborn should be avoided until at least 18 months of age because it increases the risk of SIDS and suffocation .
In fact, the newborn is not yet able to move his head easily until he has sufficiently strengthened the muscles of his neck and back.
For a safe sleep I refer you to my dedicated article inside the Blog.
The second problem caused by pillows, both anti-reflux and plagiocephaly, is the high probability that the baby will develop brachycephaly . This is a postural cranial alteration characterized by the flattening of the back of the head.
In fact, the newborn finds it difficult to move his neck and head because he is too wrapped up in the pillow; therefore, maintaining the same supine position for a long time and having a very malleable skull in the first few months, he tends to develop a flat head .
3. What are the real causes of reflux?
Pillows cannot improve reflux. Tilt your baby is not the solution to the problem.
To understand why these statements are true you need to know the real cause of reflux .
Gastroesophageal reflux , regurgitation and vomiting in newborns are some of the most frequent and disabling problems for children in the first months of life and parents are often told that it is something physiological due to a fateful immaturity of the cardia, or the valve that closes the stomach.
But this is NOT true!
After having studied these problems in depth and having successfully resolved thousands of cases of reflux in newborns, I can affirm that reflux is not at all normal or physiological, on the contrary.
Gastroesophageal reflux , vomiting and regurgitation in newborns (as well as colic) are caused by an inflammatory and irritative condition of the stomach (and of the gastrointestinal tract – see subsequent scientific studies).
To demonstrate what I just said, above I report a recent scientific study from 2018 (”Infantile Colic, New Insights into an Old Problem”, published in the journal Gastroenterology Clinics of North America) which demonstrates how gas colic is caused by an inflammatory and irritative condition of the gastrointestinal system.
In short, they took the baby's poop , analyzed it in the lab , and found increased levels of fecal calprotectin (an objective sign of intestinal inflammation).
The same factors that irritate and inflame the intestines, disturb the stomach.
Also because the milk (i.e. what the baby eats) first passes through the stomach and then goes into the intestine .
This is why colic and reflux often coexist in the same child.