Pediatric Gastroenterology appointment

Forgive me - Jack is waking up and I don't have much time to type, so I'm going to C&P the email I sent to a friend earlier today.

I guess I'm sort of frustrated because we don't have any real answers and we've been doing some things wrong
(which reinforces my desire to go to a pediatric gastroenterologist in the first place).

She was awesome - did a thorough exam and said he looked great and she didn't see anything alarming. She said to try some different things -she wants him laid on his tummy for 30 minutes after he eats when he's awake, and she wants us to only burp him at the end of a feeding. (which we already do) She also said that the studies show babies
should lie flat - on their tummy is best but with the risk of SIDS they have to do back or side sleeping. She recommends back when sleeping, tummy when awake, and NOT inclined in his seat. I didn't have the nerve to do it last night, since he sleeps so well in his seat, but we got another sheet at PBK last night so I could try it tonight. (He only has one sheet because he doesn't actually sleep on it, so I was never worried about having a backup). The cause of reflux is an immature sphincter muscle at the top of the stomach, and since his esophagus is only a few inches long, it doesn't take much for it to back up into his throat. When they lay on their tummy, because of the positioning of the stomach, it allows the air bubbles to rise to the top and escape instead of forcing the food back out.

She wants to see him back in a month and said if we're still having problems, she's going to have speech therapy do a swallow test on him (not sure what that entails). She said Zantac doesn't work at all, and that if we were formula feeding there was a formula we could try - but that breastmilk is best and is more rapidly and efficiently digested so she didn't want us to try that (um - good thing, sista!).

So, no real answers - just kind of getting a baseline going and trying to figure out where to go from here. She said she suspects he'll outgrow this without any problems, and I am starting to think all the doctors are just stalling and waiting for nature to help him keep the food in his tummy.