Q about a GI Study????

jlc071903

If you've had one for your preemie...what did they do?

TiA

preemieparent

What type of study do they want to do?

jlc071903

It sounds like they want to do an upper GI test...our twins have reflux pretty bad, but recently their prevacid (an upped doseage) isn't cutting it for them....so our EI program is recommending that we have a GI..they feel their eating issues are caused by their reflux issues....so they want us to have one of these and soon!

TriciaJoy

An upper GI is really no big deal. I've had one myself and Robbie has had 2.

The worst part of the whole thing is that they'll want them not to eat for several hours before hand and they can get cranky.

Then they just wheel them in and put them in a big machine- laying on their backs. You (or maybe a tech. I wasn't there for one when he was in the NICU, but I was for the other) will then feed them a bottle of barium. It's pretty gross but Robbie ate it no problem. If they won't take it, they can do an NG tube, but hopefully they'll take enough for them to see what they need.

basically they just watch on a screen and take pictures. After you feed an ounce or so of barium, they just stare.. just wait to see if it comes back up.

I know during robbie's, they also watched his swallow to make sure it was okay (it was) and such. Then it's done.

If they have an NG, the good part is they can suck the barium back out of their tummy. But if not, they'll pass it. They'll poop white liquid concrete for a day or two. Doesn't hurt them.. it's just gross.

 

lstaylor73

We just went through all of this with our twins.  They put us in for 3 to 4 days of tests and we ended up being there for 3 weeks and are just now home this week with GJ tubes.  You can read our story in my blog in my siggie.  Feel free to email me with questions at Taylo2Babies at gmail.com

julia0402

My baby had an upper GI study to diagnose her reflux (she refluxed into her lungs and was in the NICU for 2 weeks), but all I can really tell you about it is that she slept through the whole thing so it can't be too uncomfortable for them.  It doesn't take very long at all either.  GL!!