Results from X-ray

[Anonymous]

Our DD just underwent a barium swallow today (is that the same thing as an upper GI?). Other than the reflux everything is fine, which is what we were expecting. The doctor who did the test said that on a scale from 1 to 10 her reflux is a 2. Now I’m kind of worried that the doctor will dismiss her because she doesn’t have “really bad” reflux. Clearly she is bothered by the reflux – it wakes her up, it keeps her from falling asleep, it makes her cranky, etc. My husband is worried that the fussiness is just part of her temperment but my counter argument is that your temperment doesn’t wake you up at night. Am I right? Has anyone else had an X-ray done that only showed moderate reflux but still had a child who was clearly suffering?

[Anonymous]

Dylan showed no reflux on the swallow study. Just becasue they had a certain level of reflux during the test, does not mean it is worse/better at other times. The test is more for ruling out abnormalities, not necessarily to diagnose reflux. There are a lot of babies with severe reflux who did not have an episode during the upper gi.

Hopefully your GI will know this, as he should……

and I agree, temperment should not wake the baby at night.

[Anonymous]

Ann Marie,

Thanks for your reply! It makes total sense. I guess not all reflux episodes are equal, even for the same child. Just because she only had a little reflux during the exam doesn’t mean that at other times it’s not worse. I think the attitude that the doctor had at the time made me feel like we were making more out of this than we should. We’ll be seeing a GI next week (have been dealing with our regular ped so far) so we’ll see what he has to say. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Agree with Ann Marie here – from what I know (which is admittedly very
little), you can’t tell “severe” versus “moderate” reflux from an upper
GI. The UGI should only show any structural abnormalities – to actually
determine how bad the reflux is, I believe you’d need a PH probe and/or
endoscopy.

Hopefully one of the experts here can add more.

[Anonymous]

No problem, Karen. I remember leaving the test, similar as you, thinking then what in the world is wrong? the people performing the test looked at us as totally overreactive parents, and assumed we were inflating the situation.

It is so hard to figure it all out as it is…..Hopefully you will get in with a great GI and be on the road to recovery soon!

[Anonymous]

monty123 wrote:

I remember leaving the test, similar as you, thinking then what in the world is wrong? the people performing the test looked at us as totally overreactive parents, and assumed we were inflating the situation.

Same here! Hailey did no reflux during her UGI, maybe because her stomach was completely empty other than the barium. The doc doing the test said “there’s no sign of reflux, and you say she doesn’t drink her milk, but she drank the barium just fine.” I was thinking, “yah, half an ounce of barium…”

s&h’s mum2006-2-23 15:11:27

[Anonymous]

If I remember correctly, we were told that any number given during the test shows the extent to which she refluxed during the test (like how far up her esophagus it went), but that it really didn’t mean much because 5 or 10 minutes isn’t an accurate indicator of the episodes that she is having during the entire day. The only accurate test of that is the pH probe.

[Anonymous]

sylvia’s first upper GI didn’t show any reflux—–and her reflux was bad enough that she needed surgery before she was a year old.

[Anonymous]

As already stated, this is merely a snapshot, one minute out of her day. I get irritated because my guy didn’t reflux immediately after eating, it was usually an hour later. We were in and out in 5 minutes! (well, until I freaked out on them and told them they didn’t do enough position changes. They scanned him again and he refluxed to his nose). An upper just really doesn’t get the entire picture but it is “industry standard” unfortunately.

[Author]

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