Visceral hyperalgesia

[Guest guest]

This is a cross post from the No-Milk list. Since it talks about abdominal

pain, refusal to eat and reflux I thought it might be something you all would

be interested in reading about.

Lynda

Although discussion of milk allergies and intolerances, etc. is more

> pertinent to this list I would like to add a few other comments on

> visceral hyperalgesia, as this topic has come up now. I am a

> physician that has a one year-old patient with severe ge reflux and

> milk allergy, presenting with severe irritability and vomiting at a

> few weeks of age. It did help to use medications for reflux and a

> milk-free diet. However, even with that she has had three admissions

> to the hospital requiring iv fluids and eventually tube feedings. At

> times she would " shut down " completely and refuse to eat, presumably

> because of the visceral sensations of refluxing liquid into her

> esophagus. Even though the liquid was not acidic it still must have

> caused pain presumably. Therefore it can be a very real and serious

> phenomenon. Recognizing and diagnosing it can be quite difficult as

> many physicians are not aware of this problem and there are no tests

> to diagnose it. Fortunately this patient has done better over time

> without antidepressants, etc.

>

> In my experience I would like to add that many of the infants I have

> seen with severe ge reflux also seem to do better on a milk-free or

> very broken down hydrolyzed formula. Although it seems in the

> garden-variety " reflux " usually choice of formula has no effect.

> However in older patients this does not seem to be true, and I agree

> that LI and milk allergy would not be associated with this phenomenon

> of visceral hyperalgesia, as far as we know.

>

>

> Yagoda, MD

>