Not sure if there is the right place to post this...

Our pediatrician is ordering an upper GI to appease me while I wait to get Bryna into the specialist...I am halfway through the three month waiting process for her first appt. She is currently on .9 of Zantac 3 times a day and 1.2 of Reglan 4 times a day. (she's 13 1/2 pounds) I'm assuming she has DGE since she only takes 4 bottles a day (6 oz) that I schedule (she doesnt seem to want them) and before I started the reglan she was only taking one bottle in the morning...throwing up most of it...and still throwing up lots of formula six hours later. So my question is....will her medication effect what shows up on the upper GI? Should I take her off the meds before the upper gi? I don't trust her peds at all, so I'm concerned that the meds might effect the results and subsequently effect the care she receives based on those findings...

Well the Reglan does moves things more quickly through the digestive track, so if it were me and wanted an accurate reading, I would discontinue the meds about 48 hours prior to the test:)

Good Luck..keep us posted!

Hello,
An upper GI cannot accurately diagnose DGE. Although in our case it did because they recognized it on the screen so if you stop the DGE meds it may make a difference but they won't be looking for that. An emptying study would need to be done to determine that.

As Erin said a regular upper gi wont show DGE unless they are looking for it. The child would require either a gastric emptying study or an upper gi with a small bowel follow through.

My son DGE was dx by both of these studies. The gastric emptying study is much more accurate though to dx the delays. I do wish you luck and hope that things improve.


Melanie

I agree - Allie had an upper GI which did not show DGE, but an emptying scan showed she had severe DGE. If you're concerned about DGE, get the emptying scan and don't waste time with the upper GI.

Christyn
Allie 9-2-05

From my experience, they have to be off motility drugs for 48 hours, but the zantac is ok. One mom here did an upper Gi with a small bowel follow thru. You could do that but i think the child would be on the table too long. For us, the Upper Gi was done just to rule out anatomical problems . I did not like this test, and kind of regret doing it. The ph probe was wonderful to diagnose reflux, and we just did a milk scan for DGE- which was not too bad either.

Sorry I am late on this. Iain was confirmed a silent refluxer via a milk test which also shows he has DGE. Another aspect of this test was the suspicion of his aspiration but this is not the test to definitively determine it as an x-ray is better. However, I agree a milk test is great for DGE determination.

Iain was off meds for less than 24 hours for his test and I am sure it skewed the results to show moderate reflux instead of severe. I would hold off on the meds based on what I have learned here over time and have the test be more accurate.

Let us know how things go.

Thanks everyone. The point of this test isn't really to diagnose DGE. I think they are just doing it to shut me up. There is nothing the peds can do for me. The Specialist can't see us until the end of May, so this is the only thing the pediatrician can do in the meantime.

I'm just concerned that if this test looks great because she is on medication - will they determine she doesn't need any further testing in the future and that I am crazy???? Hopefully not. My kids have a great nack for projectile vomiting when we are in doctors offices - usually right in front of the doctors if not on them. So I might have to hope for that to happen!!!

The upper Gi looks for anatomical abnormalities, that is about it. Just so you know: Maiya tested negative on it - no reflux, nothing. But we had done a ph probe the month before which showed 209 reflux episodes in 24 hours! So the test is not good for reflux- just to make sure nothing else is going on, like pyloric stenosis I think, and other anatomical issues.

The common thought around here is that testing is really not so necessary in most cases whereas response to meds is. Unfortunately, it often takes some testing to get a GI to push up on the limits of the meds in some cases. Wonderful merry go round for some people. End of May is coming up fast and I hope things go well for you until then. I hear you on the wanting the test to be accurate. I think that often they do not pull the meds long enough before and it does indeed skew the results as I have said before.

Wishing you all the very best.