ot-baby with acid reflux & X-ray

[02AggieGirl]

Has anyone ever had to have their baby get an X-ray for acid reflux? My dr recommended we do it b/c our baby has forceful spit-up episodes. (My husband really doesn't want her to get one b/c she is so little). What will they do if they find something on the X-ray? Anyone else dealt with this? Thanks.

 

[lovinpoohbear]

My DS had lots of excessive spitting up and sometimes, vomiting. He had a upper GI with barium.
His upper GI was said to be "normal" but the symptoms continued.
Than he had an ultrasound and Pyloric Stenosis was diagnosed. He needed surgery.
I think that PS is pretty uncommon in girls but worth mentioning to your dr. My DS was initially diagnosed with acid reflux, but since the symptoms continued after he started the meds, the dr didn't think it was acid reflux.
Thats when we were sent to go have the other tests done.
Hope your DD is feeling better soon!!

 

[Miss LD]

when dd was about 4 weeks we took her for a well baby visit. Long story short, they ended up sending us to the hospital for an x-ray. It was such a rush situation (and i was panicky) that I did it.
I guess it was good because it ruled stuff out, but I'm really not that keen on x-rays for babies.
FWIW the doctor found nothing and sent us home. I felt there was still a problem so I went to a naturopath who told me to cut out milk and gave me some special baby probiotics. DD was better in a couple days. (but I'm not suggesting you do that on your own - especially with a baby)

 

[GoofyG]

My DD now 2 had reflux. It was so bad that she stopped breathing every time she had an episode. Very stressfull! She had an upper GI, and I forgot what the other thing was. Her sister was having other test done for other reasons, so I don't recall everything they did on each child.
They also told me she would stop around 6 mos, DID NOT HAPPEN!!!!! When she was about 15 months I asked about milk, and they had me take her off it, 48 hrs later I had a different child. She is still off milk, and now her 4mos old brother who started having trouble, they took him off milk too, and he is doing better. He also had an upper Gi. Actually, all my kids had Upper GI.
I don't recall an x-ray being done. I would think an upper GI would show more then an x-ray, but that's why I'm not a Dr.
Good Luck!

 

[lil mermaid]

Sorry your little one is having so much trouble

Our experience was sort of the opposite of lovinpoohbear. My Joey had an ultrasound because he was forcefully vomiting after every feeding and it was obviously causing him pain. His ped. ordered the ultrasound because pyloric stenosis is most common in first born males and also because just about every male in DH's family (including DH and his Dad and grandpa) had PS as an infant. The ped. believed that it was reflux, but because of family history wanted to check for the PS as it can be hereditary.

The ultrasound turned out to be negative for PS, and he was diagnosed with reflux. He was put on medication for it and after the first day or so, he felt much better - no more crying and arching his back after eating. The particular med that Joey was put on didn't do much about the vomiting, but helped with the discomfort and prevented his esophagus from being burned.

I know this doesn't really help to answer your question as I don't have any experience with an Xray but here is a good site about reflux in babies http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com/gerd-overview.php

I hope that you get some answers soon.

 

[princessmom29]

An xray is pretty standard here and is not really a significant risk. My dd had reflux even on meds and hypoallergenic formula and it took a year for her to quit "spitting up". In the beginning it was more like a projectile. She was on corn based formula with NO milk products and still had it, so it may not be a milk allergy.

 

[amandaraye]

when my DS was born, he would stop breathing and it turned out to be from severe reflux. They put a tube down his throat to measure how much acid he was dealing with the did an x-ray to check placement of the tube. Never had any complications from doing the films. It's all so common and standard these days, I wouldn't be concerned. They put my DS on Zantac drops daily and it was a HUGE improvement. He enventually just outgrew it. Hope your DD gets better soon!

 

[02AggieGirl]

Thanks everybody! I just hate to see her in pain!
It's just funny I guess when you are pregnant with them, they are like can you please step out of the room (like when my DD4 broke her arm) and now that she's born, they are like X-rays aren't harmful.
Anyway, we've experienced reflux with all 3 of my girls w/ different levels of severity--just never had to have an X-ray. She is on Zantac and Reglan but still spitting up a lot--it's not much different than the symptoms the other 2 had, so I doubt it's anything but reflux.

 

[Syrreal]

We had to get our DS an upper GI w/ barium too. He was about 2 1/3 or 3 wks old when we got it done. It's scarier to see since they had him in what looked like some torture device (but really wasn't at all) to keep him still for the xrays. He had the exorcist spit up. He was on zantac for 2 months and then on prevacid until he was a year old. Then he just grew out of it.

 

[disneymarie]

dgs has super reflux, and no sleep. We tried every formula and sleeping postion. Finally at three weeks old I told the kids to show the doctor the spot on his tummy below sternum that went in.

The doctor confirmed watching for the area to heal. I think it was a hernia of some kind that by 2 it should heal up or need surgery to close.
About only thing that helped was his very expensive formula, zantac, incline sleeping and totally tireing out.
To let the kids have some sleep in the beginning I had to have them spend the weekend, I stayed up all night and the baby would sleep in the portacrib by me.
i tried keeping him upright on my arms almost sitting to feed, then burp frequently, Lay on his side on the incline with the two foam supports to keep from rolling.
It was a long time until he out grew it.
di

 

[SILLYANDI]

Has anyone ever had to have their baby get an X-ray for acid reflux? My dr recommended we do it b/c our baby has forceful spit-up episodes. (My husband really doesn't want her to get one b/c she is so little). What will they do if they find something on the X-ray? Anyone else dealt with this? Thanks.

My son was a micro preemie and had horrible reflux until about 18 months old. We had multiple x-rays, barium swallows and a mri. Each time with my son they gave a sedative orally to knock him out then strapped him onto an x-ray board before taking the pictures. The barrium swallows were much worse..
My son could not tolerate feeds from birth and had heart decels when eating, was losing weight, started having an oral aversion because of the violent episodes and was refusing to eat at this point. We went through multiple high potency prescribed meds (Reglan, pepcid, tagament, aciphex...) and we were scheduled for surgery when my husband found an internet article about milk of magnesia for infant reflux. It basically explained that sometimes it was a matter of the digestive system getting upset and irritated and not having a chance to recover before food is introduced again. The lining and or muscles stay irritated and the cycle starts over everytime food goes in. We checked with our specialist who said "it can't hurt to try" so we did. We gave him 2.5cc of milk of magnesia about 15 minutes before feedings and within 2 feedings he was holding his food down. Within 2 weeks he was gaining weight and happy (had to do OT for the oral aversion though). Thankfully we cancelled the surgery and it hasn't been a problem since.
I don't have a link to the article anymore (he's 7 now) but I'm sure you could find supporting info on the internet.

I absolutely would NEVER put any child on Reglan again. My son had horrible neurological side effects including involuntary tics especially while sleeping and at one point had difficulty controlling his limbs. He was on it for over 12 months and NO ONE ever told us about the severe side effects (or the fact that the FDA has not approved it for infants or for longer than 12 weeks of treatment).I often wonder if his processing problems at school are somehow related.
FYI...
http://www.ndri.com/article/psychological__neurological__effect_of__reglanmetoclopramide-90.html
http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com/reglan.php

 

[minkydog]

I understand your fear. We went through something similar with our youngest DS. He didn't vomit, but he would cough all through his feedings. Finally we had a special xray done where they put barium in his formula and took xray film while he drank a bottle.

BINGO! there's the problem. In one afternoon we had our answer. What we had assumed was a quirk or some reflux was actually aspiration, inhaling his milk hundreds of times a day Thank goodness we had the xray done instead of just medicating him. No medicine in the world would have ever fixed that.

We were in for some rough roads, but at least we knew what the problem was and we could deal with it properly. I never worried about the amount of xray exposure during that test--it saved his life and I'm grateful for it.

 

[bonybroad]

My little one had reflux. Wow, he puked a LOT!
He had an x-ray, got medication, and it got so much better!

 

[blessedby3]

I absolutely would NEVER put any child on Reglan again. My son had horrible neurological side effects including involuntary tics especially while sleeping and at one point had difficulty controlling his limbs. He was on it for over 12 months and NO ONE ever told us about the severe side effects (or the fact that the FDA has not approved it for infants or for longer than 12 weeks of treatment).I often wonder if his processing problems at school are somehow related.

My DD was diagnosed with reflux at 2 weeks. She has silent reflux so her spitting was not too bad. She was put on Zantac, then Previcid, then Reglan. Yikes--I agree about the Reglan. It made her absolutely crazy and she was up even more at night than before she started taking it. I threw the bottle out and told the Ped we wouldnt be taking that. I didnt know about the severe side effects, but after her being on it for just a few days I can believe it. Now she is only on Previcid, but she still has major sleep issues that we attribute to the Reflux. She cries out A LOT in her sleep like she is in pain- this in turn keeps us up and very tired!! We had her tested last week for a milk allergy and everything came back fine. We are losing our minds after not having sleep for a whole year. I had taken DD off all dairy (she had been on hypo formula) and put her on rice milk. Didnt notice a huge difference. I decided to put her back on the formula until we ran out (I had about 3 cases left) and we have had 2 horrible nights
DH says to put her back on rice milk and see if it gets better. We think she may have a sensivity to milk, not an allergy. Anyway, we are waiting for her to outgrow her problems and sleep.
Hope things get better for OP's DD. I wouldnt have a problem with the x-ray. I like to rule things out and wish my GI would have done more tests early on to rule things out or in.

Good luck!

 

[SILLYANDI]

My DD was diagnosed with reflux at 2 weeks. She has silent reflux so her spitting was not too bad. She was put on Zantac, then Previcid, then Reglan. Yikes--I agree about the Reglan. It made her absolutely crazy and she was up even more at night than before she started taking it. I threw the bottle out and told the Ped we wouldnt be taking that. I didnt know about the severe side effects, but after her being on it for just a few days I can believe it. Now she is only on Previcid, but she still has major sleep issues that we attribute to the Reflux. She cries out A LOT in her sleep like she is in pain- this in turn keeps us up and very tired!! We had her tested last week for a milk allergy and everything came back fine. We are losing our minds after not having sleep for a whole year. I had taken DD off all dairy (she had been on hypo formula) and put her on rice milk. Didnt notice a huge difference. I decided to put her back on the formula until we ran out (I had about 3 cases left) and we have had 2 horrible nights
DH says to put her back on rice milk and see if it gets better. We think she may have a sensivity to milk, not an allergy. Anyway, we are waiting for her to outgrow her problems and sleep.
Hope things get better for OP's DD. I wouldnt have a problem with the x-ray. I like to rule things out and wish my GI would have done more tests early on to rule things out or in.

Good luck!

I feel your pain. It is gut wrenching (no pun intended) to watch your little one be in so much pain and not be able to help. Best wishes, I hope you can find the right combo of positions, food & meds to help her.