could this kid have acid reflux?

[Jena]

yea maybe i'm just shot at this point, yet could this kid just have something as simple as acid reflux?? which is known to cause throat problems?

why hasn't anyone tested for this? i sat here tonight listening to her flipping out as usual as she does almost everynight, regardless of effort i make during day to do for her. i don't wanna take medicine, my throat hurts, meanwhile an hour beforehand she was just fine drinking milk and sucking on a piece of chocolate watching t.v. with me.

yet there's one thing she says i feel like the foods coming back up. what food im thinking?? yet maybe she's given herself acid reflux now because all she's ingested in two and a half mos. is mostly milk and sugar?

just sitting here thinking and researched it and it states that acid reflux can cause multiple swallowing problems, chest pain etc. which is all her constant complaints besides my ankle hurts, my head my this my that. you never know what's true with-her because she is constantly complaining.

 

[smallworld]

M had an upper endoscopy as part of her workup when her choking phobia started. It was negative. That doesn't mean that C is not experiencing discomfort because of her sporadic eating habits. The less you eat, the more chance there is of stomach acid washing back up into the esophagus and causing discomfort. Furthermore, if she is constipated and her stomach is distended, that can cause pressure on the juncture between the stomach and esophagus and force acid to wash back up as well. One way to see if things will settle down is to give her an over-the-counter acid reducer like Zantac or a PPI like Prevacid for several days once you check it out with your pediatrician. (Can you tell my father is a gastroenterologist -- LOL?)

 

[Jena]

lol ok you always impress me with-the medication knowledge now you just went doctor on me!! LOL.

 

[Jena]

i got prevacid was first thing peds told me to do. yet she wouldnt' swallow it! maybe i'll try tmrw. could that hit though all of a sudden like that out of the blue to make a child stop eating?? or am i just nuts at this point and want a medical explanation for it all because i like black and white and right now my world's just really really grey??

 

[donna723]

Has she ever been checked for a hiatal hernia? When my daughter was younger she had a very large hiatal hernia and severe acid reflux. A simple surgery with a series of tiny incisions made a huge improvement.

 

[Jena]

no.......... i wouldnt' even of thought of that. doctor's didnt' even go medical except for blood work because they know her and her let's say gfgness?!

 

[smallworld]

Prevacid is available in an oral-disintegrating solutab, but it may only be available by prescription. Your pediatrician may be willing to write the rx for you.

Jen, when M was going downhill fast, I wanted with all my heart to believe there was a medical reason for it, not a psychological reason. For whatever reason, it was very hard for me to accept that anxiety could make her so ill. But in the end our doctors ruled out all physical causes and I had to face the fact that a mental illness was causing her to become physically ill. You don't have all the facts yet. Once you do, you will need to follow a treatment plan to get her well.

by the way, M's chief complaint was that her throat "felt bad" and that she couldn't swallow. The way her psychiatrist described it is that the anxiety takes hold in the throat and that they actually feel a tightness, even though it physically doesn't exist.

 

[Jena]

yea that's exactly what i researched that the throat muscles can actually tighten due to anxiety hence giving them a feeling of being sick or unable to swallow. i'm not totally digging it's just so weird, you know? i do not think difficult child could handle the test M had done at all. yet i know the barrium swallow will be difficult. i told difficult child tonight listen buddy if it comes back negative we have alot of work ahead of us still but we'll get there. i can see how a child could focus so much on that area of their body i really do.

 

[smallworld]

The upper endoscopy is done under sedation so it's no biggie. M couldn't handle the barium swallow at all. She wasn't able to drink but two tiny sips of the barium.

 

[Jena]

really? wow that's not good. i'm probably going to go thru same with-mine. they do it under sedation? so maybe i should of ordered that as opposed to swallowing test? gotta love how the doctor's i deal with-don't think of this stuff.

 

[smallworld]

The tests are used for very different things -- upper endoscopy is for digestive tract problems and the barium swallow is for swallowing difficulties. The reason the barium swallow was ordered is because your daughter was complaining of swallowing difficulties. You yourself just thought of the potential acid reflux issue.

 

[zba189]

My difficult child has an extreme case of acid reflux. It's one of the things that I have become an expert about because of my little boy. Acid reflux can cause a ton of discomfort. For my difficult child, it causes a tightness in his chest, a burning in his throat. In my difficult child's case it was always after eating not during. difficult child took prevacid solutabs (they melt in your mouth) and as an emergency backup Tums. One of the things to keep in mind with prevacid is that it is best taken about 20 mins before a meal in order to give it time to work. Some of the telltale signs of acid reflux in my difficult child are: bad breath, hiccups, throwing up in his mouth (I know it sounds awful but whole fries and other things would show up in his mouth as long as a half hour after eating).

I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with searching for something physical, but be real enough to understand that might not be the case. Everything I've read about your difficult child and how you are handling things if that you are very very real about what could be the possible reasons for your daughter's trouble. I don't know if it's at all helpful, but I really believe you are going to get to the bottom of this with your daughter and you and her are going to be stronger because of this. As I read all your posts about your difficult child, I see you becoming stronger and stronger with each turn of events and I admire how much devotion you have for her. She is very blessed to have you in her corner. You're doing good, just keep going.

 

[shellyd67]

Jena, it very well could be. ACID REFLUX can cause so many other issues as well. I just took my Aunt for an endoscopy for her reflux and they told her she also has a hiatal hernia. I would def check into it.

 

[BusynMember]

Acid reflux is a yukky feeling, but it makes you WANT to eat to fill up the "empty cup" in your gut. Milk is usually soothing although I was told dairy products aren't good for it. The only thing that ever made me feel like I was choking though was a panic attack. I had a lot of those as a teen and I had to force myself to relax in order to swallow my own saliva.

 

[HaoZi]

Because milk is alkaline, and about an hour later you have more acid in your stomach in order to counter it. Even if physical issue isn't the main cause, if there are physical issues adding to it getting some relief for those could help make everything a little easier to handle.

 

[confuzzled]

is there a gastroenterologist on board? (i'm guessing not)

thats who would do an endoscope, and thats who would look at reflux and other (more rare) esophageal anomolies...including hiatal hernias, strictures, even eosinophilic esophogitis, just to name a few.

personally, i'd want a gastroenterologist on board anyway--she really needs to be hooked into a gi clinic with a nutrition department. calories arent everything, nor is weight gain. you havent posted your hospital shake recipe, but unless its VERY complete i have a hard time believing that with her limited intake she could be nutritionally stable. certainly, someone can live on a blended (liquified) diet, but it needs to be carefully monitored for vitamins/minerals and other balanced nutrients. and there are very good commerical "complete" liquid diets available--easy otc ones are ensure plus and boost, but even they may need to be additionally supplemented...zinc comes to mind, sometimes iron if an iron based formula cant be tolerated (can cause constipation). those two are milk based products, but there are hypoallergenic products available if a milk intolerance is suspected. there is even a juice that is nutritionally complete-who's name escapes me (its something like EO27, but i can't say for sure). at this point, even a low sodium V-8 has more nutritional value than a mcD's shake, if you could get her to drink it...you mentioned tomato soup, so maybe even heat it and say its soup.

but this is really becoming unmanagable without proper medical guidance. and its going on way too long...its horrible when you have to piece together services, but at this point nutritional needs have far surpassed psychiatric ones--i am very surprised at the lacksidasial attitude of your current team, and i'm really shocked they havent, at the very least, inserted an NG tube, which could be easily managed at home.

honestly, this is way beyond a pediatrician. i know you dont want to hear that, but it is. no matter what direction this goes in, medical or psychiatric, specialists need to be on board. i'm under the impression you were hooked up with an eating specialist (pediatrician's next door neighbor?)...ruling out medical causes is the "first do no harm" course of treatment, before theraputic ones.


its their job to be ruling out every single known to man medical cause, and it shouldnt be your responsibility to direct them. (gi's foam at the mouth over endoscopes--routine, easy procedures for them-and beats going in the other direction...thats not quite as fun.)

in today's litigious society, the last thing doctors think about are "unneccessary" tests...no test is "unnecessary" if you miss something and get your pants sued off.

seriously.

 

[Mamaof5]

y youngest is a GERD kid (gastro esophageal reflux disease). The best medication out there these days is a PPI or proton pump inhibitor (prilosec is a good one) and the best out of the PPIs is omperizole.

Avoid H2 inhibitors with kids they tend to acclimate to the H2s fast (zantac is an example of histamine 2 blockers, blood based blocking medication rather than the PPIs which block the acid production within the stomach cells that produce the stomach acids). She could actually have esophageal damage that is causing problems in swallowing, eventually speaking, etc.

Milk helps, it's a natural antacid. Chocolate on the other hand is something that will exacerbate the disease. Avoid these things:

Coffee, tea, chocolate, onions, salt, sugars (especially things with aspartame and high fructose corn based sugars), red sauces, extremely spicy foods, oily based foods like fast foods and fatty foods.

Foods that will help: ginger, garlic (in pill form), milk (in small quantities, larger quantities can exacerbate the disease), pre and pro biotics (yogurt with both can help).

 

[Jena]

i'm not saying that's it, she might of given that to herself from not eating this long. who knows at this point. truly. i don't think she'll be able to do the swallow test on monday from what i'm hearing about it. so that other test may be needed.

i do think though these types of tests should of been done first. not now. yet i didn't know about them till is spoke to everyone here. it's just so weird how she keeps saying her throat is sore.

 

[HaoZi]

Did you try anything for her throat like drops, sprays, tea with honey? Could she have strep or something?

 

[Mamaof5]

Strep would present much sooner than that, strep can become a raging infection that passes through the whole face and gut if left unchecked. Honey may be a good idea (get non-pasteurized organic honey not that low grade stuff, no nutritional value and no antibiotic properties in the highly pasteurized stuff). Honey can coat the throat and protect it.

There is a "candy" on the market that's called Preggo Pops, it has ginger and honey in it and they are in candied sucker form. Might be something you can try and it also settles the tummy too as well as coating the throat to relieve pain.