Hello,
I have a couple question for those of you who have been through the test or have read up on it. The GI did the DGE test on Gabriel but he threw up in the middle of it so the results were inconclusive. The taped him down onto this small table and made him lie there for an hour and 15 min. Is this how the test is normally done? I would hate to have to put him through that again. Gabriel has no problems with the tube feedings. He gets a total of 70 ml's per hour for 8 hours at night. If he had this DGE, wouldn't he possible have a problem with the feedings at night. He doesn't eat much at a sitting and throws up randomly. Its been hard to keep track of exactly what makes him throw up. I sometimes think its milk products but sometimes he seems to do fine with them. Like yesterday for lunch he had a little over half a container of cottage cheese for lunch. He loved it! Its not very often he keeps asking for more. Well for breakfast this morning i gave him the rest and he was asking for more but after about 10 min into breakfast he didn't look right and moaned then threw up. So I'm confused. Not sure if its an allergic reacion/intollerance, or this DGE. 2 differnt doctors prescribed erithromiacin and reglan for him but i just do not want to put him on a drug when we just do not know for sure that he has it. Especially when the drugs could jsut upset his stomach even more. Any one have any advice or info that may help???

That's the test Sam had done twice. The last result was emptying at 5% which he is having a pyloraplasty surgery on 1/30 for. His major issue is not tolerating tube feeds. He can not tolerate any more than 25 cc./ hr. for 6 hrs. at night. At the test he was only able to eat 3 1/2 oz. and his stomach showed full. I don't know if this helps, my train of thought would be like yours as far as allergies or something.

Kerri, thanks for your reply. That definitally helps for me to understand better. I'm so sorry for Sammy, that sounds so tough, but hopefully after the surgery he will be so much better! I'm just going to have to keep watching what I feed him and when he throws up. thanks again

Hello,
I have a couple question for those of you who have been through the test or have read up on it. The GI did the DGE test on Gabriel but he threw up in the middle of it so the results were inconclusive. The taped him down onto this small table and made him lie there for an hour and 15 min. Is this how the test is normally done? I would hate to have to put him through that again. Gabriel has no problems with the tube feedings. He gets a total of 70 ml's per hour for 8 hours at night. If he had this DGE, wouldn't he possible have a problem with the feedings at night. He doesn't eat much at a sitting and throws up randomly. Its been hard to keep track of exactly what makes him throw up. I sometimes think its milk products but sometimes he seems to do fine with them. Like yesterday for lunch he had a little over half a container of cottage cheese for lunch. He loved it! Its not very often he keeps asking for more. Well for breakfast this morning i gave him the rest and he was asking for more but after about 10 min into breakfast he didn't look right and moaned then threw up. So I'm confused. Not sure if its an allergic reacion/intollerance, or this DGE. 2 differnt doctors prescribed erithromiacin and reglan for him but i just do not want to put him on a drug when we just do not know for sure that he has it. Especially when the drugs could jsut upset his stomach even more. Any one have any advice or info that may help???

We had a milk test done on Iain and he was taped down and had a big ole machine hovering over his body so close that he could barely move his head around. To a wee one it must be very frightening to be so restrained and basically made to feel clausterphobic.:hairpull:

Our test was 2.5 hours. For one hour solid he was on the table and we waited for his stomach to empty. A "normal" stomach empties out at 50-70% within one hour. Iain was at 24%. That is DGE and I have seen much, much worse here on IRD. We were allowed to get Iain up and moving around to help him empty faster and every 30 minutes we had to repeat the scan to see where he was at. Normally the test is about 1 to 1.5 hours but Iain's went to 2.5 because he was "so slow" we were told. At the end of 2.5 hours and after being active in between scans he finished off at 45%. Not so great. Iain has never been addressed nor medicated for his DGE. I know it is a big reason for many of the setbacks we have with his eating status (or non-eating status depending on how the wind is blowing on any given day or week).

My guy is not tube fed so I can offer you no advice on that. What I can say is that my son before he was diagnosed and medicated for GERD did not eat well at all during the day yet tolerated "sleepy" feeds with a bottle amounting to up to 80% of his intake overnight. Often we find that our GERDlings tolerate night feeds much better than when they are awake as the pain or fear of pain seems to come into play. It could be the case with your son, too.

The only way to tell for sure that there is no allergy or intolerance going on is to go to a bland diet or to eliminate fully the suspect food (ie: milk which emcompasses milk, milk ingredients, casein and whey). and then slowly introduce it back in and watch for any reactions. If he seems to do well with milk and then not so good another time make note of exactly what he is ingesting and his reaction to it. When he yakked up the cottage cheese, maybe it was because he did take in too much? If he does well on things such as cheddar cheese then bear in mind that it may be a lactose intolerance instead of an allergy. Have you noticed any histamine reactions at all? Sneezing, hives, rash, swelling, tearing, etc. when he ingests foods or is it all gut reactions? make note and watch carefully.

With Iain's DGE we found he would eat one meal and then skip the next one to two meals in a row. It was rough to see that. If he eats well at one meal even now we find he skips the next one for sure. It is a double edged sword for Iain. Who by the way has the same vibrant red hair your Gabriel does!:-)

If you are wanting to find out more on your own, I would start a food log and see where that takes you. Just my opinion as a place to start.;-)