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Babies: 6 - 9 Months
Surgery in the morning
My DS, who is 7 months old, is having surgery tomorrow morning. He is having an Orchiopexy to place his undescended testicle into his scrotum. While I'm am confident in the doctor performing the procedure (a pediatric urologist), I'm most worried about him being put under anesthesia for the procedure.
So when the pre-surgical nurse called this week, she gave me all the details of the surgery. We have to arrive at the hospital tomorrow morning at 9:15am and his surgery is at 10:15am. She also informed me that he should have nothing to eat or drink after MIDNIGHT tonight!! Now while I am completely familiar with the importance of no food before surgery and the complications that it can create, to me, 10+ hours for my 7 month old son, who is a BIG BOY and loves to eat, to go without food or drink is absolutely INSANE! I asked her if there was anyway they could schedule his surgery earlier in the morning and she said no. And yet I am aware that they would say the same thing (no eating after midnight) if his surgery was at 7am.
I realize it is only 1 day of his life that he might go hungry for and also that it's for good reason, however, I came across a few medical websites (including Cedars-Sinai and Pediatric Anesthia Assoc) that listed the following eating criteria prior to surgery:
Children between 6 months and 3 years of age may:
- eat solids up to 8 hours before surgery
- drink formula and regular milk up to 6 hours before surgery
- drink breast milk 4 hours before surgery
- drink clear liquids up to 2 hours before surgery
Its not that I don't trust what the pre-surgical nurse told me, but 10 whole hours without food and drink seems a little extreme to me and I'm worried that at that point I'll be begging them to take him since he will probably be overwhelmed by hunger!
Anyone faced a similar situation? Any suggestions? Would you trush the suggestions that I found listed above? Or should we just suck it up and deal with it? Ultimately I want nothing more than for him to be safe but I feel like depriving a big, growing boy of food for 10 full hours might be more harmful than helpful. Thanks in advance for your help!
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Re: Surgery in the morning
We had to do a CT Scan over Thanksgiving and my LO couldn't eat after midnight. I woke him up at 11:45 at night the night before and did a feed, even though he normally sleeps through the night.
Ignore what another hospital says. You need to do what your hospital says. They all have different procedures. You can't give him anything after midnight. You can't...they'll likely cancel the surgery if you give him something. It's more harmful than helpful for you to feed him.
That's a great point. I really appreciate the feedback. He might think the world is ending without food for 10+ hours but I know he'll obviously survive. And that's the plan
wake him up at 11:30 and fill him as full of milk and cereal as I can to fill his little tummy.
That's nuts. Both my boys who have had sedation and surgery were allowed to eat.
They could have formula up until 4 or 5 hours before and water and clear pedialyte until 3 hours before. I forget how long the breastmilk rule was because we formula feed.
yeah, this.
our little guy had a hernia and had surgery at 3 months. He couldn't have food for quite awhile but was able to have water or pedialyte til 3 or 4 and his surgery was at 7 am. We gave him water and he was just fine. Didn't fuss or anything pre surgery. I think it was because all the nurses were flirting with him!
Good luck. It will pass quickly and you'll get to love on your LO just after. They are so resilient when they're this little!