Upper GI Questions

[Anonymous]

My son is having an upper GI on January 4th. He spits up hours after he eats so they want to make sure that there are not any structural abnormalities. My questions are:

1) Is the procedure difficult for the baby? I know that it is not invasive, but I was not sure whether it was traumatic in any way for them.

2) Do babies without structural abnormalities spit up a lot of formula hours after a feeding. I am so worried that he will need some sort of surgery or something.

[Anonymous]

I am not sure about the Structral Abnormalities, but Landon didn’t have any problems with the GI, We got to go back with him, until right before they started, he was “drunk” and laughing when we left, the room. It only took maybe 30 minutes and he was in recovery, We had a PH probe placed too, so they did an X-Ray and we were out the door. He was very sleepy and confused for the rest of the day, by the time we went back to get the probe out (the next day) he was his normal self.

HTH a Little

[Anonymous]

Kaelyn had major issues with spitting up hours after eating and she had no structural abnormalities. Are they going to test for DGE while they have him in? The upper GI wasn’t bad. Kaelyn was 5 weeks old and hated being strapped down, but it went fairly quickly and gave us a good amount of info.

[Anonymous]

The upper GI really is a breeze. The most traumatic part for Cooper was not being able to eat before the procedure. They do hold the baby down so that they can do the procedure, but I was in the room and just talked to Cooper and he did wonderfully. We spit hours after eating with no abnormalities and no DGE so it is possible Best of Luck. Don’t freak out if your lo has putty like white poop after that is the barium and should be out of their system within 24-48hrs so they say just to make sure they get plenty of fluids as the barium can cause some constipation.

[Anonymous]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is DGE? How common is it to spit up hours after a feeding and have no abnormalities?

[hellbennt]

The Upper GI, (also called a barium swallow?) is good to look for structural abnormalities,
it is *not* good to verify reflux: it is a snapshot in time if you were, so if baby doesn’t happen to reflux at that particular time of the test then a dr might be quick to dismiss you & tell you reflux isn’t there/isn’t bad- the way to show reflux is a ph probe, where the actual length (duration) & frequency (how often) of reflux episodes are recorded…

another ‘Barium Swallow’ is a Swallow Study, where they look at *how* your baby swallows and they look for aspiration of liquid into the lungs- they try various thickness of liquids to see how your baby swallows them

[Anonymous]

Do a lot of you have refluxers who reflux hours after a feeding without any structural abnormalities? My son can reflux or choke hours after a feeding. He is otherwise healthy (but for the GERD). He is gaining weight and so far, meeting his milestones. He is on a good dose of prevacid and sleeps well at night. His naps are kind of random. The pediatrician did not seem too concerned about structural abnormalities, but the nurse practitioner at the specialist’s office said that “he deserved to have an upper GI since he spits up hours after feedings.” Is it common for refluxers to spit up hours after a feeding? How indicative is it of a structural abnormality?

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can spit up hours after a feeding without having any structural abnormalities. My dd could (and still can) spit up meals that she ate the night before. My dd has suspected DGE, which is delayed gastric emptying. She is also chronically constipated, so who knows if that’s part of the problem.

[Author]

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