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Success after IF
Can you "see" reflux?
I am taking Ben in to the Dr. this morning. After yet another sleepless night and him wretching all over the place as i try to feed him, I called and begged to come in to get him on some medication now.
Can the Dr. "see" that he has reflux? Why am I taking him in?
ugh.. so frustrated.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Can you "see" reflux?
i know there are some diagnostic tests..but they can really for the most part just tell by hearing the history..
the doc will want to see him though to at least give a feel of the belly, and to rule out anything else..
i have heard that sometimes when it is really bad you can see some evidence in the throat..but my docs have always just listened to the symptoms..?
Joey, Ronnie, and Audrey,
my awesome IUI 30 week twins, and my surprise miracle
LOVE my SAIF ladies
No....you can't "see" it and there isn't a definitive test. You are the mom.....you know him and you see what's going on. Tell your pedi EVERY little thing he does and make sure you stay firm on the fact that you truly feel something is going on.
I agree with Mr&Mrs.S that the meds can't hurt him, so if they don't work.....you can just stop them, but if you don't try, you'll never know. Ask about putting some rice cereal in the bottles as well.......it worked miracles for us
I was able to get Connor's under control with cereal instead of the meds (I wanted the meds, but pedi suggested trying cereal first.....the cereal with the hypoallergenic formula worked, so we never did the meds....)
GL! Let us know how the appt. goes
Aw, poor Ben!
Traditionally, reflux tests and procedures are done by GI docs and are pretty invasive. For that reason they normally try medication first to see if it helps before doing further investigating.
That said, when Jasper started choking while eating at EVERY feeding I didn't know it was/could be reflux related and made an appointment with an ENT (ear nose throat) specialist. He put a little tube down his nose to see his throat etc which sounds HORRIBLE and invasive and I was totally freaked by it but honestly Jasper only cried for like the 5 seconds the tube was actually IN there, so I don't think it bothered him as much as it sounds.
Anyway, while looking for the cause of his choking the ENT said he saw redness around Jasper's esophogeal opening from his reflux.
I was sort of relieved to have a true diagnosis because I felt weird medicating him without knowing for SURE even though I was pretty sure myself anyway.
It's important to get his reflux under control, then I would think about trying to find the cause.. from what I've read and experienced a lot of reflux is actually caused by food allergies, so that's something to consider for later on.
Good luck at the doc!
PS, it took a while for zantac to help Jasper..it doesn't really necessarily start to work "right away" and even then he had to be on pretty high doses of it which is why we switched to prevacid.. don't be afraid to up the doses, babies actually metabolize them faster than adults!
I hate that I have to be a reflux expert.
No, your doctor can't see it, so to speak and the usual dx tool is an upper GI. They basically tie your kid down, force him to drink contrast through a fast flow nipple and xray. But some kids dont even show reflux this way.
We opted not to do the upper GI. My Pedi (I love the man) believes that sometimes the treatment confirms the dx. So we did zantac and when that made a small improvement, and then we added prevacid and that made a HUGE improvement, he considered it a confirmed diagnosis.
Sometimes (one of our GI docs does this) a Dr wants to see the baby eat, to look for the classic signs (arched back, grunting, wheezing, so on)
I hope they are willing to try some meds, sounds like you and Ben need some relief now!