Gastroesophageal reflux disease in infants and children.

Gastroesophageal reflux (GER), represents the retrograde movement of gastric contents into the esophagus, and is a frequently experienced benign but symptomatic condition. At the one end of the spectrum are infants with physiologic reflux, also referred to in the United States as “happy spitters”, and at the other end are children with objective pathologic sequelae comprising gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD also has come to denote symptoms affecting quality of life even in the absence of objective damage. GERD is the most common pediatric esophageal disorder; although precise data are not available in children, GERD accounts for substantial health care costs in children, as it does in adults [1].