Our little girl maybe be headed this route for reflux as well as having a Nissin (sp?) put in.
She also has a cleft palate and they are saying ita possible we could prolong surgery on the palate for a few more months with a G-tube.
But I wonder if what tests should be done first before we go to the g-tube. She is now full term and we haven't attempted bottles or bolus feeds since 32 ish weeks.
Any advice, concerns etc? A friend of mine has a lo with a g-tube still at age 13 due to food aversion, he refuses to take food by mouth at all, and this concerns me a little. Any advice to help prevent or over come food aversion with an infant?
Re: Any G-tube and or Cleft palate Momma's?
How is she eating now (continuous drip ng tube since you said she does not do bottles or bolus?). If she has an open cleft and not eating orally, I would assume it is an aspiration issue? We might need more details to help you know what possible tests you could ask about.
DD has a gtube because she aspirates. Quite honestly, food aversion is the least of our future concerns since it is dangerous for her to eat orally as long as she aspirates. We do oral motor exercises and tastes right now. She'd eat orally if we could let her.
A 13 yo who will not put anything in his mouth most likely has some other sensory/control issues going on--the gtube is not the cause of his issues. The gtube is what is keeping him alive if he won't eat.
My son had both a nissen and a G-tube.
The Gtube was absolutely 100% necessary for us. If it came down to a choice between a nasal tube and a gastric tube, a gastric tube wins hands down.
The NG did FAR more damage to my son's food tolerance than the G tube did.
I don't know if you've ever had a tube down your throat, but it's not very pleasant. My son ended up extremely defensive of his entire face for while a while, and he only had an NG for 4 weeks outside of the NICU. (He was born at 26 weeks.)
The nissen, however.. I don't even know how to say how I feel about it. We were honestly pressured into it w/o a lot of explanation. There are definitely issues with them in children- they make digestion a bit different, and can lead to trouble burping and vomiting when they NEED to. It also is a different kind of stretch to hold more food as they grow.
My son had a congenital defect in his stomach and we were lead to believe that the nissen was the fix for that. That wasn't so.
As it turned out, it didn't work anyway- my son continued to vomit upwards of 20x/day for over a year. So I can't speak to the effectiveness.
In my opinion, the only reason I would ever agree to one again (knowing what I know now) is if aspiration were an issue or if there was so much puking of food even after an GJ tube that it was hazardous to his health.
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