our DD (two and a half) has finally got a date for her gastroscopy (5 march) but we are finding it really hard to get any info about what we need to do leading up to it ie: does she need to come off her medication (losec and milk of magnesia), do we have to give her the 'bad' foods to flare her up before it and for how long etc? (She can only eat lamb, rice and potato, and stops eating pretty quickly if you give her anything else so not sure we could anyway). My GP doesn't know, the hopital just keeps transfering me around and her paediatrician (who we see privately) has a bad track record for returning calls and is only there one day a week anyway!

After waiting nearly a year for the appt we don't want to blow it by doing the wrong thing! So is there a 'norm' for preparing for it and who should be telling us what to do, eg her paed, paed dept at the hospital, etc?

As far as I know its mainly to check for reflux she is not outgrowing and EE at the same time.

Be grateful for your ideas / experience!

Hi Debs,

Done this one with 2 of my kids but both in prep for surgery really - rule out EE as surgery wouldn't help.

I'm racking my brain but I don't THINK we stopped meds. The biopsies when they are looking at reflux are to see whether or not there is damage being done at a cellular level. Certainly we didn't change either of the kids' diets. I'd have thought if they are on a restricted diet then again that's what'll show up on the biopsies as it takes a bit of time for things to change.

We doubted W had EE at all, even the surgeon doubted it but wanted to rule it out - and see what was going on in there anyway.

With T he was dairy and soyfree (known allergies) and certainly having them out of his routine diet would mean they won't be impacting on the reflux.

Check out the Allergy Board too - there's a thread there about EE where we went into some detail about scopes etc - there were around 4 of us doing it about the same time.

Best of luck!

For our scopes our gastro-paed had us go off losec 2 weeks before, and stop gaviscon a day before - this is so that they can see if there is any acid burn scaring in it to confirm the reflux - the biopsy's they take measure the depth of scaring etc.

To reliably check and rule out EE our immunologist wanted us to be on a everything diet for a month at least beforehand. Only way to rule it out apparently.

oh, and part of the stopping meds beforehand is also to confirm the severity of reflux occuring. As in is it mild, moderate or severe reflux.

We have never been advised to stop reflux meds. Infact we have just returned from hospital today after having our 5th gastroscopy. THey have always in NZ and even Australia advised us not to stop losec but Zantac yes as it has "allergic qualities" and also larapead they advise to stop that too.IF shes getting the EE symptoms on the diet she is on if she has EE I am sure it would come up on the biopsies.
EE symtoms are VERY similar to reflux symtoms. I would urgently leave a message with the specialists rooms that you want your call returned ASAP and its urgentor phone the hospital directly where the scope will be.Every patient is different so your specialist should inform you of the best plan for your childs needs and situation.
What age is your child and what are the symtoms .
Good luck with your scope its never easy seeing your little ones go under.

Hi, she's two and a half and pretty stable at the moment, another reason why we are reluctant to torture her by feeding her 'normal' food! Mostly has night symptoms (at least one waking every night, different levels of discomfit and problems resettling). We do still have quite a lot of days where she has hardly any appetite and recent weigh in at the drs looks like she has gained virtually no weight in the last year if they are correct. (not sure I trust their scales tho so are going to check it out at plunket!).

I think EE is unlikely as she was recently put on milk of magnesia for her bowels, but we've discovered it works brilliantly as an antacid for her - a couple of weeks ago she ate a strawberry out the garden and was screaming within 15 mins, we gave her a dose and she calmed right down within about another 15 min or so - normally it would be the rest of the day and a bad night too! I think if she had EE milk of mag wouldn't of helped, though I could be wrong and wonder if they can have both reflux and EE causing different pains? Milk of magesia doesn't help for her night (delayed) symptoms, only immediate reactions.

Think I will certainly try and contact the paed, if I get no reply I guess we will take a punt and stop the meds, we are meant to be reducing her losec anyway at the moment from 20mg to 10mg but havent been brave enough, wanted a good holiday for a change!

Have you had any luck contacting the pead Deb??

Dolphin - how much dairy do you reckon they would need to be on to see effects on biopsy for ee?

Deb - what's milk of magesia?

We have finally been referred for endoscopy for DS (3 1/2). EE is obviously on his differential diagnosis...

JMK...My son who has confirmed EE only needs 5 mls of milk(0ver a 3 day period) in his neocate and hes reacting visably.Let us now how you get on with your scope fingers crossed its not EE

Hope the scope went well.

Gem is having one for possible EE plus surgery for her reflux on Tuesday.

We aren't stopping medications because we know she has GORD. I wasn't told to stop anything either but have stopped the Loratadine but will give it if necessary for hayfever. I stopped that a week prior and gave her one the same day as I stopped it. I've also stopped the natural medications that are contraindicated for surgery.

As for foods. Gem is dairy, peanut and gluten free. We let her have some dairy a couple of weeks ago and was going to continue doing this up until surgery but as most of us are dairy free the available foods unless we go out are limited. She then got quite unwell on Tuesday so we are now doing everything to keep her well so strict diet and medications for GORD. If she has EE it is only relevant if she strays from her normal diet anyway because she knows those foods make her ill. She does have symptoms and signs of EE also on her normal diet so hence the scope. My only niggle with this - is that we know we make mistakes and I would have liked to be able to include those suspect foods...but can't have her too sick going into surgery. We weren't given any instructions on foods either and I was going to ask but then decided to do what I thought best which I guess has paid off.

Good luck with surgery Roz, he she getting her fundo tightened??

And fingers crossed the scope comes up with some answers for you guys.
Its such a tough situation re the foods.Its really a catch 22.
I know the kids in the 3 yr EE trail over here in the Brissy Royal Childrens Hospital dont need much of that food to get a positive scope again as they are scoping after every food is introduced so they are gathering so much info its great.

Yes, or redone depending on the state of it. I think the wording on the barium swallow was "possibly still intact".

I don't know whether I want the scope to come up with some information or not. She always had stomach pain after her Nissen Fundopliation. It was blamed on air being trapped between constipation and Nissen. Inbetween applying for Movical and actually getting it, she started vomiting with the tonsillitis so we never really found out if that was the cause. By then also her eosinophils in her blood were raised - found when they started investigating joint pain. Gut inflammation could apparently explain the joint pain but they discounted that because she was constipated rather than having diarrhoea. Can EE cause joint pain as well?