Due partly to Ethan's heart defect, and to his chromosomal
anomaly, Ethan never was a great eater! Definitely not like everyone else in our family!
He came home from the NICU with an NG (nasogastric) tube placed in his nose down to
his tummy. This tube allowed us to give Ethan the chance to orally feed for 20 minutes at the beginning of each feed,
then put the rest of his required feed down his tube. More often than not, the majority of his feeds went down his tube!
Ethan suffered from severe reflux, and most of his feeds also came back up-and out all over everything! We continued
to push the oral feeds and increased his Zantac to try to get him to take more by mouth than tube-but at 4 1/2 months of age,
he began to lose weight. I used to think that if I just let him wait longer between feeds, he would be hungry enough
to take more by mouth-Not so!!
We couldn't put him in the car and go anywhere within an hour of his completing a feed.
Any movement caused him to vomit, and he was miserable.
We tried most of the medicines on the market, until our ped decided to refer us
to GI Clinic at Mercy. Ethan's wonderful babysitter, Beth,
works in GI, and got us right in and admitted on the same day. Within 24 hours
he was having a gastric emptying study and pH probe study done. The results proved unanimously that Ethan could benefit
from the Nissen fundoplication with g-tube, and would need a pyloroplasty to help his tummy empty faster.
His surgery was done in September 2004. Ethan now has a Mickey button in his tummy
through which we put his feeds and 'burp' him. His feeds are about 6 oz. ran over an hour, 6 times a
day. Sometimes I feel like all I do is hook him up, feed him, rinse out the bag and start over! Despite the
surgery, Ethan has remained on the Zantac, and sometimes does still wretch and vomit. But he has grown by leaps and
bounds, and finally made it on the growth chart! He is still very orally hypersensitive, we work with it every day,
and are hoping after his repair that he will begin to want food by mouth!
Nissen Fundoplication with full wrap