could someone tell me about endoscopies?

[Anonymous]

For example… how do you know if your baby should have one? What will they show? How invasive is the procedure?

Finn’s reflux pain has returned after being on Marci-dosing of prevacid for a few months along with elimination diet. I’m wondering if this means that the esophagus is damaged again?

Thanks–

[Anonymous]

I think the answers to your questions could vary greatly depending on the baby but I will share how it applies/applied to Evan.

Evan had an upper endoscopy (EDG- looking @ esophagus + stomach + part of small intestine) & also a colonoscopy (self explanatory-lol). He had these done @ the same time.

Ped GI suggested he have this when he was around 8wks old b/c of the continued blood, mucous, green stools… despite 4+ wks of strict TED. He initially just wanted the lower (colonoscopy) but then he & general ped decided to add the upper as well to rule out esophogael thrush.

They can show all sorts of things… for us they were mainly looking for: irritation in the esophagus & inflammation colon. They took biopsies as well.

It’s minimally invasive but they do have to put to sleep w/ light anesthesia. I posted a while ago about our experience w/ great detail if you’re interested… here’s the post.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11394&PN=1

Scroll down toward the bottom where I update.

HTH

[Anonymous]

I read your siggy and it says that food intolerances are suspected and you also said you are TED ing it. All that said. I’d get one done. The biopses can show if if you are dealing with somethign like Celiac’s instead of a plain old allergy.

It can also tell you abtout any damage in the esophagus and through the stomach. You get some really neat pictures as well…LOL

It a VERY simple procedure. It took all of 15 mins. Jedd had NO pain form it afterwards either.

This was actually the first OR trip Jedd had after his open heart procedure. He was around 7.5 months old at the time. So he was only about 1.5 months post op of heart surgery.

He had an IV for his ABX due to his heart issue. We really only had time to sign in to the waiting room and get a cup of coffee and then we got the call that Jedd was in the PACU.

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