gastroesophageal reflux

General

There is a difference between Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux (GOR) and Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD) and it is important to understand this difference. GOR is normal and GORD is a disease.

GOR is a normal occurrence in all infants, children and adults during and immediately after meals. GOR is where the contents of the stomach wash back up from the stomach into the oesophagus and in some cases the throat. It can be ejected out of the mouth and can be quite forceful. This is a perfectly normal occurrence when the patient shows few symptoms, infrequent symptoms, or no symptoms at all.

GOR occurs in infants because they are growing rapidly, which in turn means they require huge volumes of feeds to continue growing at this rate. In infants the oesophagus is relatively short and their stomachs struggle to stretch easily to accommodate the large volumes of feeds required. This means their stomachs can very easily overflow causing the infants to regularly spitt up / posit or vomit. This is a normal part of infancy, and as they grow and assume a more up right position "positing" starts to slow and eventually disappear around the age of 12-15 months. Vomiting past the age of 18-24 months is considered abnormal.

GORD in contrast is were the patient shows more troublesome, severe, or long lasting symptoms or complications. The most common being damage to the oesophagus (oesphagitis).