Reflux, Silent Reflux and Colic: What's the Difference?

Parenting

Jul 18

If you have a baby, you've probably heard of reflux and colic. But do you know the difference between them? And how do they overlap? Let's break it down.

The differences between silent reflux, reflux disease and colic

Reflux, silent reflux and reflux disease are the same thing. The symptom that happens in all three is that there is a regurgitation of stomach contents into the oesophagus, which can cause heartburn-like pain. In silent reflux, the regurgitation only comes into the oesophagus, throat, or mouth, but does not appear as vomit. In reflux and reflux disease, there is vomiting, which can be projectile. The word “disease” is added to reflux when there is “marked distress”. Many babies with reflux find it uncomfortable to lie down, and difficult to sleep because the pain in their body is keeping them awake.

Colic is a subset of reflux, that is focused on digestive discomfort and it seems that babies “grow out of it” by the age of 12 weeks. You may notice that your baby cries a lot and seems to be gassy or uncomfortable. Babies with colic almost always get noticeable relief from passing gas, which is the key: it tells us that it is primarily digestive discomfort causing their crying.

The overlap of these three baby conditions

While reflux disease, silent reflux and colic are three conditions that appear to be different from each other, they are in fact closely related. They have multiple common symptoms (across over 80 that we can observe), and they can have commonality across their underlying cause. As such, there’s no difference between these three conditions when it comes to treating them. Here's how they overlap: they can have the same underlying cause. And with over thirty possible causes, we need to take a look at them differently. We need to see each of these conditions as symptoms in their own right. They are the end product of something else going on for baby. And this is why we treat them most effectively by figuring out and addressing that underlying cause.

Common Reflux Disease Symptoms

Frequent vomiting, fussiness and crying are some of the most common symptoms of reflux
Digestive discomfort including trapped gas, bloating and passing gas
Babies with reflux disease may also experience feeding difficulties

Silent Reflux Symptoms

Frequent swallowing not at feeding time, fussiness and crying
Digestive discomfort including trapped gas, bloating and passing gas
Babies with silent reflux may also experience feeding difficulties

Colic Symptoms

Colic is a term used to describe frequent and prolonged periods of crying in babies. Colic can be diagnosed when there's no apparent cause for the symptoms, such as an allergy or abdominal pain. It's also called colic-like behaviour or psychosomatic infantile colic. However, colic is real, and it’s almost always associated with gut immaturity. Symptoms that are frequently observed in infants with colic include:

Fussiness and crying for prolonged periods of time
Digestive discomfort including painful, trapped gas, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation
Babies with colic may also experience feeding difficulties

Not knowing the difference between the three doesn’t matter to allow you to treat your baby's condition

You can see that there is a lot of overlap in the symptoms between these three conditions, and honestly, this does not matter. Treating reflux, silent reflux and colic in babies is like going on a journey.

Firstly, you must know your starting point (baby’s current symptoms)
You must then know your destination (Reflux Free / Colic Free)
You can then plot your course and figure out what direction to go in (course of action to take)

Imagine you and I want to meet in New York. I’m starting in London so I tell you to go west to get there. However, I didn’t know that you were in Puerto Rico. If you followed directions (go west) you will go around the world and never make it to New York, because we didn’t have the same starting point.

Because there is so much overlap between these conditions the approach for figuring out their starting point is the same:

Capture all of your baby’s symptoms to understand their starting point
Use my Free Symptoms Tracker to know what to look out for.
Once you do this, you can use this information to figure out what direction you need to take for your baby to allow them to be free from reflux and colic.

Conclusion

We hope this article has helped you understand the differences between reflux, silent reflux and colic. While they may be related health conditions, it's important to know that by taking a more holistic approach we can understand the underlying cause and not be limited by the only answer the medical approach has: medications. Medications never address the true underlying cause of reflux, and so this will always be a better starting point.

Written by The Baby Reflux Lady