GERD & Heartburn Support Group

I am no expert,but I think that you could try small, frequent meals of non irritating food.Just Google GERD diet and you will find a list of the most obvious foods.Try not to get to full, with liquid or solids as this will worsen the reflux.Hope this helps.

Hi Suzannah, Welcome to the Gerd group! You may want to find a gantroenterologist if you don't think your pcp can handle it. But also, the most important thing, I think, is following the GERD diet. No tomatoes, onions, chocolate, caffeine, mint, spicy, fried or fatty foods, etc. It can be a tricky diet to start, because I know with myself, I was amazed to find out how many foods have either tomatoes or onions in them. But with practice it will get better.

Another thing that is crucial is to raise the head of your bed 4-6". Don't just prop up with pillows, because you need to elevate your entire torso. Short of buying an adjustable bed, you can either put blocks under the legs of your bed frame at the head of the bed, or buy a special wedge pillow, available at most health supply stores. You can buy blocks at Walmart for $8.97. (The call them bed risers, and they are in the laundry supply area, I think)

I found a website that was particularly helpful: www.heartburn.about.com. They have lists of ok, and not ok, foods, recipes, other hints, and articles, and they also have e-newsletters, so that you can learn about the disease.

As you've already guessed, stress is one of the biggest triggers. You will need to learn ways to decompress a bit. Relaxation exercises, meditation, exercise, etc, are all good.

I hope this helps you a bit. I sure do understand how this can be overwhelming. I wish you all the best. Hugs, Sue

To be honest diets make little sense to me in helping GERD. I always take my 2 150mg Ranitidine Tablets daily but When I started to Diet and eat foods that were supposedly allowed and ate little I would get bad irritation in my throat. Where as I can eat a Fat Greasy Chicken Kebab from the takeaway and feel absolutely fine, same goes for when I tried doing the Atkins high protein no carb diet I was still taking my tablets but would almost forget to take them every 12 hour period because the reflux was that little, so I'm not sure how these Doctors come up with a what you can and what you cannot eat list.

Plus do Antacid drinks not help you? My Ranitidine tablets are to stop acid production in the stomach but when I do get build up and heartburn I need to whip out some Andrews Antacids and drink some, normally mixed with some blackcurrent vimto and water which does the Job for me.