I totally agree with Roz about increased reflux with a liquid diet as i think I mentioned earlier Leo is SO MUCH better with less neocate. To be honest I didnt see a day where he would stop taking a bottle and take to a cup/drink bottle... IT will happen... it just takes time. I know its hard to focus on the now when things are so out of control but it has helped me alot. I am doing all in my power to avoid surgery so look at things a bit differently. I have spoken to 2 different paed surgeons and neither promise it is a permanent fix and it is the last resort. We have been told we have room to move with meds with Leo so im sure you could explore that option further. They both told me also that surgery is usually only for those with issues associated with reflux, including Failing to thrive long term tube feeds, frequent pneumonia, developmental delays or kids that aspirate. I realise this isnt always the case but surely helped me to realise that it wasnt a quick fix.

The specialists are trying to help they are trying different things but Jessica seems to react, but are those reactions so severe longer trials arent worth it? I also believe many of our issues are learnt behaviour is it worth working with someone who deals with psych issues? A SLT or something? I personally would be pleased that the specialists arent initiating anything too invasive, ie tube feeding etc. As they must not deem it necessary. 600-900mls of neocate would be keeping her very full & would effect her appetite in my opinion.

What is Jess eating??? What kind of behaviours around food are concerning you?? Is the specialist at all concerned about these? Do you think that Jess may feed on your stress? I know Leo does & the more I told him he couldnt have x y z the more he performed about wanting it. I find if he has more options he wont eat the things he knows make him ill (in saying that I keep him df). I have also found that daycare worked wonders in normalising food intake and he leant that having a bottle at 3.5 years wasnt 'normal' and that encouraged him to eat a little more. I think too kids learn so much from their peers.

Sorry for all the questions seems to be a long time since we have chatted. big hugs and I really hope that you find something that works for Jess. I love hearing all the opinions on here and peoples experience Often we feel alone but were not

Sorry if you have misunderstood me about tube feeding but what I was meaning by tube feeding was if the specialists had thought that was a option due to a medical condition they would be doing that before surgery. A few years ago Dolphin you were having the same eating issues surely you have exausted all options and it is clearly learnt ..her not eating.I do think you need to take her to see a specialist in that field that could help her overcome her issues and get her to experiement and actually enjoy the pleasures of eating.
I too believe she needs to eat and that is probably more so the root of all the problems. Giving Neocate is bandaiding her hunger. I know in the past you have tried reducing her liquid to make her feel hungrier and seemed to remember you thought she was reacting more. Maybe as you are now on holidays you should be looking into doing some food trails while you have the time to devote to it??

Dolphin - William's had 2 birthday parties so I've only just got on to the comp.

Homeschooling was a choice we made because of William's battles in school due to an autistic spectrum disorder (Asperger's) and then later Nicholas' ADHD etc. So not reflux generated if you like.

Since Jess is reacting so much I think you'd be hard pressed to get someone to agree to a tube without doing a fundo, nor would it be a good idea. An ng is known to increase reflux and food aversions and not recommended long term. A gastrostomy like Thomas has changes the shape of the stomach a little and so can also increase reflux.

I'm afraid that I wouldn't agree that because they aren't suggesting invasive measures it means they don't think it's so bad. The surgeon didn't want to act for Thomas until he'd checked everything out and was sure himself - which I thoroughly endorse but...Thomas was falling behind developmentally, having big impacts on his health, brain development etc. He'd get so tired you had to keep checking on where he was because you'd find him in a corner somewhere crying. No one took that seriously until one day at the paed's when I said to Peter, who was closest, to check on T - he was head down in the toy box in the corner and when he pulled him out was silently crying and clearly had been for some time.

As for acid and the tummy lining - as I understand it there is a very rare condition which causes excess acid but otherwise the problem is that the stomach lining is designed to take the acid but the oesophagus lining isn't because it's not meant to get there! All the kids have stopped gagging since surgery or vomiting unless something gets stuck before the wrap, or they bring it up before the wrap. In fact W overfilled himself today at one of his parties and commented he felt sick much to the other 12 yr olds delight. I said I wasn't worried as he still can't vomit post nissen and the boys thought that was even cooler that he simply couldn't do it!

I've said before, the SLTs, paeds and psychs I've dealt with say that working on the psych issues are pointless if there is still reflux causing pain. It doesn't matter how many times you tell the kid not to be scared of eating, that it won't hurt if it does! It's a self preservation technique - unless you are a masochist you don't seek out activities you know are going to hurt.

Anyway - I've got to clean up after the last party as I'm on my own. William fell playing games outside and has broken his wrist so Peter's at the hospital with him.
I'll be back tomorrow so if you have any questions then Dolphin - pop them down and I'll do my best with our experiences of the surgery and why.

dolphin, i look after 2 siblings who have both had nissans and who were both tube fed (one a gastro and one a gastro/jejunal tube). the oldest boys nissan was successful however the younger one's, a girl, wasn't. she had it done twice and both were unsuccessful.

The girl had severe reflux (she was fed directly into the jejunum, so bypassing the stomach, and still would vomit up stomach bile from her stomach), she also had multiple food alergies and severe food aversion. at 4.5 she wasn't eating anything, she was totally milk fed (neocate and duocal). It was basically accepted that this was her lot and the surgeons (highly respected ss surgeon) and her gastro drs believed that she would remain this way till she was closer to 10 if not a teenager. She was very very slight but growing anyway (just) but she would not eat a single solitary thing. just licking a bit of puree made her gag and gag until she puked. she didn't take any fluids into her mouth either.

well the same girl is turning 6 soon and she no longer has her stomach tube, and is completely orally fed. she eats everything the family eat and only has one cup of neocate a day extra to her meals. she's growing though is still slight, and she will try anything pretty much. her only dietry restrictions are around the dairy and egg allergies she still has.

what has changed to make such a significant difference in only a year? well i guess she's a bit older and bigger so the reflux issues have probably receded somewhat. and her dad remarried. and his new wife had zero tolerance for her food aversion. initially it started with me being really adament she had to eat her puree at kindy and from there it progressed to her having to sit at the family dinner table and at least lick some of the food that was put on her plate. that progressed to trying small bites and now to eating properly, all meals served to her. she no longer is milk fed overnight through the tube (infact the tube has gone) so has an appetite and with the lack of milk, i imagine came a decrease in the reflux aswell. But most definately, the biggest factor in all of it, was the complete intolerance to the aversion. It started slowly of course, but end of day it was expected that she could and would, eat anything and wallah, she does. she was nolonger pampered and pandered too, no more mucking around and accepting that she would never eat properly, and what would you know, she could and would eat. it was a total shift in thinking (due to the stepmum) and it worked. And i will say hand on heart, if it wasn't for this kind of attitude, she would still be fully tube fed today. her allergies and reflux would still be used as an excuse for her not eating and everyone would just accept it as being the way it was to be.

So, from seeing first hand the change (and honestly, the story is almost identical to yours accept she was tube fed) i honestly think it would be in your best interest to get professional help from the psych liasion team for both jess and yourself, to try and overcome the food aversion issues. Being tube fed didn't make it the difference either, infact, being tube fed just meant it was easier to fill her up with milk overnight and lessen the need to eat during the day.

i hope hearing a success story is of some help, and i hope i haven't come across as harsh. and i'm sorry too, if its something you are already doing but i didn't get that from reading your posts?? Good luck with Jess.

Thanks gals. You're comments and thoughts have helped me to clarify what's going on, what I'm concerned about, and where I want to go next.

I'm pretty relaxed (now, though not earlier) about Jess's eating habits, and there aren't any psychological food aversion issues with her eating any more (not like there were still a year ago!). She is totally happy eating when she wants to and feels fine, or not when she feels crap. On a good day (once or twice a month) she'll happily eat a couple of bowls of pasta and half a packet of rice crackers. However, most days her throat is simply to sore to swallow anything other than liquids or ice blocks. Textures and stuff are absolutely fine, and she's finally learnt to chew, so the major stumbling block (as I've been able to clarify in my own mind) is the pain from constant oesphagitis means that she simply doesn't want to eat most of the time as her throat is too sore to swallow. (The constant red throats, ice blocks, and now that she's got better language she can tell me more finally! confirm this.)

Her reflux is not controlled, and hasn't been for a long time (she's had constant red throats for over 18months now, and gp's checked for strep throat etc etc). So until we get some kind of control on this we simply can't expect to make any progress with her eating. That said, once we get the reflux under control, given how she WANTS to eat everything we do, and willingly tries new foods, getting her to eat won't be a problem. But until the pain subsides there is no point in trying to move on this.

Virtually all of her behaviour, lethargy, etc is due to this reflux pain. And given that at age 3.5 even jumping up and down for a couple of minutes causes a major flare up, there is obviously something not working properly that she is constantly regurgitating the acid - whether the oesphageal motility issue is still there and adding to the reflux I don't know, but I am comfortable now that we do need to get more testing done, and that I can't sit around waiting any more. If it all spontaneously resolves that would be simply fabulous, but the chances are pretty slim from what the gastro guys said last visit (less than 5% I think?).

So next step is more tests, and I'm going to see a different gastro-paed, one I feel more comfortable with, and see what turns up. But I am feeling that we may well be heading towards surgery to try and stop the constant regurgitation.

But we're seeing a Paediatrician this Friday, so I'll be able to talk this all through and see if my thinking makes any kind of sense, and what his thoughts are.

Eleanor - thank you so much for your thoughts, they really resonate for me with Jess. With the surgery, what kind of recovery time did your boys need? I know surgery isn't a complete "fix" and there are definitely risks involved etc. Do your boys still regurgitate acid at all? Does the surgery mean that it's harder to do, so it happens less often, or has it stopped it altogether? If any of the boys had their wraps come undone, given the level of adhesions and scarring that was there the first time around, would you still get it redone?

We've just today been reducing Jess's bottles so that she drinks a smaller total volume per bottle. So we'll see what happens next as to whether she eats any more or not (but given that swallowing hurts .....) but hopefully reducing the volume of liquid this will ease some pressure so her stomach is quite as full.

lelo - yes the food reactions are so severe they aren't worth trialling longer. We've tried it, again and again, but she gets horrific diahhroa, stomach cramps, and doesn't sleep due to the pain for more than 20 minutes at a time, even when exhausted. Her reflux flares up majorly and she stops eating and drinking completely. Takes about a week to recover.

HK - we're constanly doing food trials, giving her a week or two between trials or illnesses so that her stomach has time to recover, and we see Rohan every 2 months. He's told us a couple of times to stop trials for a month to see if more recovery time would help, but it doesn't. Her tolerance levels just steadily increase with every exposure to food, until it's simply not possible to keep going anymore. We had to stop gluten about a month ago, and we've also tried egg, fish and a few other things in the last few months which have all turned to custard. Some immediately, or like gluten turned to custard a week or two afterwards and got progressively worse. With the food intolerances we totally follow what Rohan suggests and interestingly enough, he is totally happy with Jessica being totally on Neocate, just to give her tummy more time to come right. Of course, he isn't looking at it from a reflux point of view, just a allergy/intolerance point of view.

But a big thanks to you all gals, as always you help me to clarify in my own mind what I'm struggling with and what to do next.

Would it be worth also seeing an ENT about the red throats?? We have seen improvement since tonsils and adnoids have been out... not perfect by any means but eating has improved

So does she eat any veges, any meat on a good day? You've only mentioned carbs. What foods can she eat that you know don't cause the reactions?

Eating is a normal part of life and even if she is sore, she needs to eat a little bit at least three times a day. I really think the mainly liquid diet and carbs, will increase her GORD and make her throat sorer.

GORD treatment needs to extend beyond medications and surgery.

Good luck with your paediatrician vist.

dolphin, from what you have said, jess's issues around reflux and intolerances to pretty much everything she is ever exposed too, must mean she is in such a small minority of cases in nz. like percentage wise, she must be in the worst 1% of all cases the dr's have come across yes? Certainly the child i look after was (quoted as being one of the most severe cases of reflux and feeding issues seen in starship) and she didn't have all the intolerances that Jess seems to have. So why on earth haven't they been more aggressive with diagnosis and treatment plans. She had a tube in before she turned one, had 2 nissans performed before she turned one and was under constant supervision by every team in the hospital. Perhaps seeing a new dr is what you need.

And i know this isn't what you are thinking, but honestly, your thoughts on Jess's non aversion to food, mirrored exactly what the parents of the kid i looked after thought. everything else was to blame EXCEPT psychological issues, and they were very very convinced of that. it took an outsider, with a degree of removal from the child (so not an actual parent) to see the reality of the situation and force a change in thinking. and it worked, beautifully. So, regardless of whether or not it really is an issue in your situation, surely if you are as desperate as you are say then including psych liasion input for both you AND jess, would be an option you would be open to pursue just incase they have something useful to add to your situation. certainly if it was me, i would be open to everything and would be actively pursuing getting ALL the assistance i could, including psychological.

good luck

Hi
My kids have reflux and have had food aversions also.
I highly recommend the book "just take another Bite" by Lori Ernsperger and Tania Stegen-Hanson, which was loaned to me by our special needs advisor. Its wonderful, simple, great explainations basically about how to go right back to the beginning in getting your child to eat and enjoy food. Lots of food games also. Even if she cant eat the food, she can play with it, help cook ect and normalise the process. I kind of get the feeling (sorry-hope this doesnt offend you) that you want a 'total' answer, but most often the reality is lots of hard work by the parents and slowly, slowly, little by little increasing food tolerences with eating.
From a medical perspective, I think her lethergy is most likley related to lack of solid food intake. I cant think of any medical process that would make reflux responsible totally for tiredness (other than keeping a kid awake at night!)
I also wanted to agree with roz about the fluids. My kids at 7, still reguritate most fluids but solids are so much better. The simply are thicker so stay down better.
Also perhaps after eating, she could be asked to lay still or sit still for 30 mins while her tummy has a chance to digest her food (pop on a dvd for example).
You can also teach her to take a sip or two of water when she refluxes. This washes the acid back down & prevents that sore throat. My kids find this effective.
While you are waiting to see another gastro spec, what about getting a dietician and speech therapist on board because from experience, they are SO important.
Good luck!

Liz, I am so glad you are getting a second opinion. It seems like the gastro paed has been faffing about for ages telling you to ride it out and that things will get better.
Well obviously they have for Claire, but not for Jess.

Psychological issues are hard, they sneak up on you and suddenly you turn around and think hey how did I get here?

It's scarey to think that your child is different, and wonder if they will ever do what normal kids take for granted. (like eat!)

I really hope Friday goes well.

I would also be looking at a SLT. They are fab. I am actually suprised that no one has referred you on yet! Jess is a prime candidate.
You certainly need more back up than you are presently getting.

Big hugs lovely lady!

With the surgery - N was in on a Tues, had the op in the afternoon and out on the Thurs about lunch time. T was about the same, W wound up in hospital for an extra night so in on a Tues and home on the Friday morning.

Thomas' recovery time was quite different with the gastrostomy tube as well but you can check out that process on the Hugs For Thomas thread about 5-8 pages back. Nicholas was off school for way longer than the surgeon recommended but that was largely because of the need for a pureed diet for 6 weeks and the school's total refusal to allow him to refrigerate smoothies. It was summer and I wasn't having him get a tummy bug through spoilt milk products. So he went back to school after around 7-8 weeks. The weight loss he had also meant that I was trying to feed him 6-8 times a day anyway so home was easiest.
W was the beginning of Dec and he was in the Sunday School production a couple of weeks later. Of course being homeschooled he had virtually no time off school. He was seen by the surgeon around 4 weeks post op and cleared to do anything he wanted like jump on the tramp etc after that so long as he stopped if anything hurt.

The surgeon has said to the kids and us that the surgery doesn't totally stop the reflux - everyone refluxes a little and that's normal but it stops the constant acid bath they were getting. They will occasionally comment they can taste something but generally that's just after they've eaten something and then burp or whatever. My guess at that point is it hasn't got beyond the wrap fully and so the air has pushed it back up.

Thomas caused a little panic on my part a few months back when he was complaining of puky burps but he also had a cold at the time and when I chatted to the surgeon about it (he comes to our church as well and T had bowled up and told him he was doing puky burps so he was concerned!) we both agreed that colds may increase it a little and so long as it was isolated events that was normal.

Every surgeon does things slightly differently and our one def needs the purees for the 6 weeks - even scrambled eggs got stuck on the way down 2 1/2 weeks post op. Our guy says kids learn to vomit past it in about 6 months but while N can now burp again (nearly 3 years post op) and vomit maybe a mouthful, T can't seem to burp at all or vomit - although when he's uncomfortable we do vent him through the tube so he's had no reason to re-learn, 16 months post op. W can burp I think but def not vomit at all and he's 6 months post op now.

As for re-dos etc - again every surgeon is different but I've quizzed our one extensively - unsurprisingly. He says in his experience may be 2-3 % need re-dos and they are the kids with multiple issues, malformations inside, those with CP etc. Supposedly normal kids, like my guys, it should be all they need.

I asked about the life of the repair - they say it's a life-time fix, but so is a hip replacement etc and they last about 25 yrs. When you are dealing with a 4 yr old that'd mean 30's...
I told him I couldn't find any data on the life of a wrap etc but that there was a little uncertainty in the studies.

He has said that there's no record of them 'wearing out' as such. They've been doing them for around 30-40 yrs on kids apparently and he said there hasn't been a rush of adult gastros ringing and asking how they did paed fundos 30 yrs ago because they have to re-do them and if that was happening the paed surgeons would know about it.
His advice was, was the kids get older and approach their late 20's to just keep an eye on any studies and data as we learn all the time but that it should be fine - although if symptoms return don't assume it will be fine but get it checked!

As for a re-do if it came undone - YES! I'd absolutely re-do it.
The internal damage for all three put them at very high risk of oesophageal cancer in middle age. That has a 5 yr survival rate of something horrible like 5% and at 8 yrs it's around 2%.
W was already showing minor cellular changes.

BUT - N was vomiting on a regular basis as well and a major quality of life issue.
T - was seriously FTT and in regular extreme pain, crying in his sleep etc. He was also anemic due to oesophageal bleeding and even high dioses of iron wasn't bringing his counts up to anything more than low normal.
W - was having cardiac issues due to vagus nerve irritation from the reflux, never mind he was bringing up blood with the reflux.

So they were having significant issues other than just reflux.

The surgery is simply a mechanical repair and sometimes reflux is more than a mechanical issue.
But when you have come to the end of the road medically, with life style changes etc and this kind of thing is still going on then something needs to happen.

As for the psych issues around food - I know just how horribly stressful eating issues are. We're working with a psych with Nicholas and one of the things I've gained is a feeling that at least we're working on it. With all of the kids we have always done our absolute utmost not to show our fears, concerns and frustrations. DH and I have long had a tag team approach - when you can see the other's struggling then you take over and the other goes to do a 'job' so again the kid doesn't know it's because they are about to send you mental with yet another rejected meal. But in some ways, with the psych working with N too it's like I'm not slamming my head against a wall on my own any more. They are trying too, they are working with me and everyone acknowledges it's hard. Just not being alone with it day in and day out with no break helps me.
But with N - we've managed the medical aspects - reflux is gone, meds have minimal appetite suppression etc so psych IS all we have to work with.

They did describe T as having some kind of food aversion before surgery. But everyone also agreed he had very good reasons for it. He was also interested in food, would happily sit at the table, would cook with me, it was just the actual eating that he'd suddenly chicken out at! At times he was so bad he'd take a sweet and then spit it out half chewed because things hurt. Someone said he was doing it for attention but when he did it with jelly beans at the GPs and did it quietly in the corner with no fuss or drama she agreed with us that it was def not an attentional thing.
Once T had recovered from his surgery his interest in trying food increased and his overall volumes are also increasing. He's a long way from a normal amount for his age but he's making steady and happy progress and no one's suggesting there are psych difficulties there - just slowly developing as he should - he's even been through a compacted 'fussy 2 yr old' type stage briefly since he's been eating more.

W def had a major aversion - aged 2 he'd run crying from the idea of food. We wound up with him pretty much completely on pediasure and because WE felt he was getting enough nutrition - happy, active, healthy, growing and gaining appropriately - we backed off all pressure to eat. If he wanted to then cool but it was bonus calories. He decided it was interesting, wanted to explore and try and it took about 2 yrs before he was eating enough we could stop the pediasure. I can see Thomas working through the same process. But for you to feel that's okay and safe then you need a safety net - in T's case it's the tube. But it does defuse all that worry and angst and makes the whole eating thing a total non-issue.
I can see N is different, the same approaches haven't worked with him and so his problem IS different.

dolphin, any further thoughts on the psych involement advice for yourself and jess?

what testing has Jess had done so far for her reflux and intolerances/allergies etc?

it might be useful for tomorrow, to go armed with some ideas for follow up testing but i'm not sure what she has had already?

Dolphin where are you????

Hope all ok :0

Sorry, just had a test to sort today, and Jess has been an absolulte mess for over a week now, sleeps with me and won't let me move till about mid-morning when losec has kicked in, etc etc. And I've needed a few days to get my head around all this and let it sink in - I've been burying my head in the sand for quite a while now but I can't do it anymore, for Jess's sake.

Seeing paed tomorrow for Jess, it's a new guy, so I will take her by herself, (as Claire is seeing someone else to get assessed for autism at the same time) and sit down and go right through her history, and talk about what we can to do about her reflux, and what we can do about her food and eating issues, also about her FTT. So I'm hoping/expecting that we'll start the ball rolling and get some tests organised, so that when we see the new gastro lady in a months time we'll be futher down the road to seeing what else is possible, and whether or not surgery is a viable/real option. And by taking just Jess we won't confuse the issue by talking about Claire as well, but just focus on her. In fact DH had a good idea the other day, that if the girls both need appointments with any of the same specialists anymore, that we do separate appointments on different days, so that we can just focus on one at a time, and make sure the specialists focus on THAT particular child.

lelo - We have thought about the tonsils etc, the GP has constantly checked her red throats, and her tonsils, and never found any issues with her tonsils at all, so certainly no call for a referral to an ENT - it's just her arches that are always red.

Roz - she'll occasionally eat a little lamb (a teaspoon or two a day maybe? some days nothing at all) and can't eat any fruit/veges as she reacts badly to them. Her current diet is rice crackers, rice pasta, lamb mince and neocate.

yodasmum - when our dietician (who specialises in allergy kids) went to a conference last year she took 4 case files with her to talk about with other experts - our girls were two of them. So yeah, pretty rare with so many intolerances. I think the mismatch in treatments has come from us going private, and not having any one person to coordinate it all and fill in the gaps. We've got a nanny for the girls during the day now (as I've just returned to fulltime study in March this year) and that has definitely helped with the normalising of food for both girls. My initial reaction is that no, there aren't any pysch issues with her eating, but a few days of thinking about it and trying not to be defensive (cause I've worked so darn hard) I think there may well be psych issues that will need to be addressed. Testing wise we've had RAST tests (just had another lot done last month) and patch testing - which have shown up a few, but most of the intolerances are all delayed gut reactions, which for many of the reflux kids don't show up on these tests. We see an immunologist, so there's not really anything else we can do for testing with her foods etc, as it's all just a matter of food trials, which we keep doing.

Karen - yup, she sits still for half an hour after a bottle, and we see a dietician (who interestingly has told us several times when I've asked that we don't need a SLT as Jess will put things in her mouth .... hmmmm, yet we still have issues with eating ....) As you can see I'm rethinking this opinion .... and yes, I would love a "total" solution, cause the last few years have been incrediably hard, but for the moment I just want to get her out of pain, cause we can't work on the food issues till the pain and reflux is improved. But some good ideas there about the food play, as soon as she's not reacting we'll start doing that. and yes, lethargy is the food intake issue ... sigh ...

Suomi - will catch up soon! And thanks for the message - I've made an appointment with the lady you suggested.

Eleanor - thank you sooooo much for the detail and time you've given me, I truly appreciate it.

So yeah, appointment tomorrow, I want some tests to look into whether she still has the oesphageal motility issue (so probably a barium swallow again ... sigh ...) and possibly a x-ray to look at the constipation, and a scope if necessary for the gastro-lady to look into whether surgery is a good option or not. Other than that, hopefully the paed will have some thoughts and ideas about eating, SLT, and more importantly, any other ideas to control the reflux that I'm not already doing.

Cant wait to hear all about your appointment Dolphin. Good Luck with finding a solution to getting her back on track and eating normally. I am curious who you are seeing.Is it a allergy or gastro pead.
As you know we have been through them all. I think we were onto our 5th allergy pead but our situation is slightly different nobody understood EE back in the early days.
Has she had a ph probe maybe that would be a option to.
That may guage the amount of reluxing taking place
What came of the conference with the dietician doing a case file... did the other peads have any suggestions

In regards to the fruits and veges she reacts to saliyates right can she not have the low to moderate on the list??
Just wondering what your mealtime routine like, do they sit at the table do you eat as a family.

Good luck today Liz.

I can't wait to hear how you go.
Are you seeign the new lady today, or is that later?

HK- my SIL was givent he name of a new gastro paed in Auckland (to deal with my neices Coeliacs). She has just moved here and set up a practice. Our GP has had dealing with her and said she was great.
I'm interested to see what she is like.......seeing as we may need her in the near future (head in sand).
It's always nice to know of another option for that second/third/fourth opinion.

Just as a side not, my little refluxer turns 4 tomorrow! Where did that time go? God, this time 4 years ago I didn't even know what reflux was!

Best of luck for the appt today!

good luck today then dolphin. its a shame hubby can't go with you, can be good having someone else helping with the history and taking it all in.

I would suggest the ph probe to, and barium swallow. but then i doubt very much they would do surgery without doing all that anyway. i'm guessing she has had all the testing for reflux already yeah?

good luck

Hi Dolphin,

I have been reading this thread with interest. My Braden sounds very similar to your Jess, but not as severe. He starts school in five weeks. I have hit a bit of a brick wall at the moment with his reflux, allergies, etc. And reading this thread has given me some ideas to discuss at our appointments next week (paed appt and gastro specialist appt).

I just wanted to say good luck for your appointment today. I am looking forward to hearing how it all goes.