SO LOST!

i would find a new doctor. my 86 year old grandmother just got diagnosed with severe reflux and barrets esophogus (pre cancerous cells) and her only symptom was severe pain when she swallowed.

it sounds like your son may need to be treated with a PPI.

nataliachick72007-4-10 10:4:20

I agree with Laura that an endoscopy might be a good idea. If it shows something, then at least you know what you are dealing with and can start to treat it appropriately. If it shows nothing, then you at least have some peace of mind that that isn’t the problem. As well, has the doctor ever considered that he may have asthma? It can start to show up quite young. Here is a link about asthma and wheezing in infants, and you could see if it sounds similar to your son’s symptoms or not.

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/asthma/wheezing_ast hma.html

Good luck, I hope you have some answers soon.

The wheezing in his chest, sounds like it could be asthma. Perhaps due to food allergies/intolerances? This table is from http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T041800.asp

Hi Sandermom!

I’m sorry that you’re going through another difficult patch with Sander. Hailey has a longstanding feeding aversion, and so I tend to be a worry wart about feeding issues.

Firstly, what kind of feeding behaviours did Sander show with bottle/breast feeding early on? You mention “screaming while feeding”- are you talking about solids or liquids- and was there any arching or pushing away from the feeding going on? When did his feeding change? Did the prevacid help with his feeding? How much and how long was he on it? (I’m just asking these questions to get a baseline.)

About your peds comment that liquid causes reflux, I don’t know what he’s talking about, and would have to say from our experience that is not entirely true. Some kids prefer drinking as a way to soothe the burning in their throats- especially if the formula is cold. Foods can also cause reflux is there are food allergies or intolerances going on. I have recently developed reflux and liquids do not seem to bother me, but many foods do.

Another thing you mention is that he’s never really taken solids well. What has his introduction to solids been like? When did you start them, what did you start giving him, how did he react. Are there some things that he likes? How does he do with finger foods?

About the testing that he’s had done- it sounds like he had an upper GI series, which is not the same as an endoscopy. The upper GI is intended to look for structural problems along the GI tract that are causing the reflux, not to diagnose reflux itself. Some old fashioned doctors tend to use this test to diagnose reflux, but that is not the intent. The gold standard way to diagnose reflux is to do a pH probe. It involves placing a probe through the nose into the esophagus, and the child wears that probe for 24 hours while the pH is measured in the esophagus. The other test that some were talking about- an endoscopy- will take a look at the esophagus. It involves general anaesthetic, and then the GI inserts a small camera through the esophagus, stomach, and small bowel. It allows them to see what’s going on in there, and for them to take biopsies to diagnose some allergies and types of allergic esophagitis like EE. Laura mentioned esophageal thrush, which they can also see. Kevieb’s daughter had this, though I understand it’s pretty rare. The endoscopy itself will only tell you if there’s damage or no damage, and then the results of the biopsies, but it doesn’t tell you if there’s reflux or no reflux. Some parents chose to do the endoscopy, and then hav the pH probe inserted while they’re under- since this is apprently the worst part. That gives a pretty clear picture.

Even if you’re not interested in going the testing route, I would consider getting a referral to a ped GI. That’s just my opinion though. It sounds like you have a great ped, and that’s amazing. But I’ve learned the hard way that even great peds (and supposedly great GIs) often don’t know too much about reflux. I remember “Lisaan” saw a GI who she really liked in Ohio, I think at Columbus, but it might have been at the other hospital. I can check if you’re interested. We have an amazing ped, and he doesn’t know too much about reflux- even though he’s one of the best in the city- but thankfully he isn’t arrogant, and was willing to admit that he didn’t know everything. We’ve seen various specialists since then, and some are better than others.

What (if any) symptoms does Sander show these days other than the feeding? Any silent reflux symptoms?

Now, about the feeding… I certainly know where you’re coming from about the feeding issues, probably to the extreme. And I’ll tell you that I’ve learned that mommy’s instinct tends to be right in these situations. We’ve seen many feeding specialists-doctors and therapists to address Hailey’s issues. Most docs, including our GI have looked only at the weight and not the behaviour to see if there’s a problem or not. I look at the whole picture. Firstly, I would say to look at Sander’s growth curve to see if there’s a problem or not. If he’s pretty much stayed along the same curve, even with slow growth, and he’s been eating willingly and supporting his weight willingly (i.e. not by sleep feeding or force feeding or extremely unusual desperate measures required to get calories into him), then you are probably not in too bad of a place. I don’t mean that to say that he doesn’t have a problem, but that he is likely growing along his own curve even though he’s small. If he’s dropped percentiles along the way, or hasn’t demonstrated even growth during his first year, or if you’ve had to force feed him or resort to drastic measures to get him to eat, then I would say that all of those things are not normal. If you are going to try some testing, that might give you the best answers. But even if not, I’d say that some feeding therapy is warranted. A feeding therapist can assess the situation and tell you if his refusal to eat is just “him”, temperament, normal fussy eating, or if there’s more to it. Either way they can give you suggestions to help move him forward and help you by giving you recommendations of things to try, and things not to do. I highly recommend feeding therapy. It was a miracle for us.

Having a child who doesn’t eat or who eats poorly can be very stressful, especially when people minimize the situation. Our family often says that Hailey doesn’t have a problem with her eating and that she’s just a fussy picky eater, or that I’m the problem, and I’ve given up trying to explain things to them. People see what they want to see. Our feeding therapist once told us that the majority of babies she sees had reflux at some time or another- that’s not a coincidence.

You mention that he gets colds constantly. Is he in daycare? If so, how does he eat at daycare and what do the daycare providers think of his eating compared to the other children.

In the meantime, colds always made Hailey’s reflux flare by a million times, as did teething. Can you try some mylanta before a feed and see if that helps things a bit? Or can you ask your doc to try prevacid again and see if that makes an improvement for him?

Good luck sorting things out. Feeding problems are really an awful thing, worse then the reflux even, I often feel. HUGS. Please pm me if you ever want to talk.

Mummy instincts are the best there is. Please trust them…I have often thought I was a hypochondriac and call myself a “frequent flyer” when I go to the family dr… But its mummy’s right to be those things. I felt vindicated one day when I saw an email from my hubby to a friend who had just announced his wife’s pregnancy…it said just remember “mummy knows best” (of course he never tells me that).

I’m sorry I don’t have any specific advice because I have never really expereinced this, but I would agree with Lori, for most adults its food that causes reflux so it is probably the case for children as well.

Goodluck at the peads and please keep us updated.

I wouldn’t worry about offending your ped.(mommy instinct beats everything in my book.).none of Brianna’s drs. even thought she had reflux (she was the silent type), but I presisted. We ended up having to get an endoscopy and it showed damage to the esophagus, despite being on 15 mgs of prevacid (Brianna was actually on Nexium for a while to heal the erosion). Also about the liquid/solid thing I do remember reading that (at least going down) liquids can kind of soothe the burn of reflux…it is coming back up that they hurt. I would imagine that since solids are so rough and have different textures they wouldn’t soothe the throat going down. Good luck