Me again,

Allie's doc says that the G tube will make her DGE worse. Does that mean we're looking at a J tube?

If so, what are your experiences with J tubes? Roni, I'm sure you can help with this one.

Thanks,
Christyn

Um, I know a G tube can make reflux worse, but that was not the case for Daniel. Is Allie's DGE severe? Is it being treated effectively with meds?

I was wondering how severe her dge is? My son has severe dge and has a gj button placed. He uses the jport at this time due to his emptying issues.

I was wondering if you have discussed with your doc about placing a gjbutton? If this is placed than you could start with the gport and if doesnt work than could move to the jport. I do wish you luck and hope that things work out.


Melanie

she only emptied 13% after 75 minutes, so I guess that's pretty severe.

We are on Reglan and have been for a little over a week. We had a great day on Weds where she took the bottle awake, did 5.5 oz at one feeding and 6.5 at the next, but the last few days have been the same - screaming at teh site of the bottle and sleep feeds only, so I don't think the Reglan is working. Who knows?

We haven't discussed the differences b/t g/j tubes with teh doctor except that he said a g tube would make her DGE worse. What is the difference?

Thanks,
Christyn

I think the g tube would make it worse because you are filling her stomach with a normal amount, and due to the DGE she cant tolerate the normal amount. We were grateful that we didnt do a temporary ng tube back when my sons weight fell off the chart. It was kind of neglect on the GI's part but at the time we didnt know he had such a significant delay. The NP told me though that it could be a disaster if we put an ng tube in overnight with the normal amount and he has dge--it would all come up and make him feel worse. It all ended up working out because over a few months he started eating more when we started Neocate and the feeding tube wasnt an issue anymore.

To my understanding, the j tube is used for severe DGE problems, because it bypasses the stomach alltogether--right Melanie?

I'm sure about it specifically making DGE worse, unless like someone else mentioned already it would just cause more problems in that there was more food in there needing to be digested. G-tubes, as Becky said, can make reflux worse b/c they increase the amount of pressure inside the stomach, thereby increasing the pressure on the LES.

Are they talking about doing a g-tube or a j-tube? Purely in my own opinion, based on 13% after 75 minutes, I'd say a j-tube would be the best bet. That's of course assuming that once the food arrives in the intestine it is digested better. If the intestinal motility is lacking as well, that may be a problem.

The j-tube for us was the best thing we did. It's inconvenient in that she needs to be hooked up about 20 hours a day and it's completely obliviated any appetite she'd ever hope to have, making the transition to oral feeds difficult at best but it's also helped with the vomiting dramatically. It's much, much easier than NG or NJ tubes to manage.

Alex has both a j- and a g-tube. He got the g-tube first and while I didn't see things get worse, they didn't get any better either. We then tried a gj-tube but the vomiting was so severe and because the sphincter between the stomach and the intestine was kept open with the tube, he started vomiting bile. We then had to have another surgery to have the j-tube placed. In hindsight, if we had the j-tube placed 1st, we would have saved ourselves a lot of grief. But that's just our experience. I know babies that have done fine with the g- or the gj-tube.