My 11 year old has been burping food 20 times a day for 5 months!

[debkoch]

My daughter started burping up food after a party new years eve this year.. She is 11. She was a little prone to this prior to the party but it only happened once every few months.   Now she does this almost every time she eats. (20 times a day) She's had an endoscopy, motility test, gastric scan, ultrasound, and a gall bladder test. She has a small weakness at the base of her esophagus.   The gall bladder test (torture for 3 hours) was inconclusive they said because she moved too much.  She is on 40 mg of nexium 2 times a day, and a drug called Reglan.  She is not getting any better after a month.  In fact tonight she has added stomach pain and incredibly loud stomach gurgling followed by frightening burps to her symptoms.  Her pediatric gastroenterologist is suggesting it is psychosymatic.  I don't think so. She's missed over 30 days of school.  The talk of esophogeal cancer being caused by constant acid reflux is terrifying me! HELP!

[debkoch]

Hi.  Good luck starting the Reglan.  My daughter really has not had any side effects so far.  I was researching her symptoms last night and found something called rumination disorder.  Kristen seems to fit into what they are describing.  I am going to see if the deep belly breathing they use in treatment does something for her along with the meds.
Deb

[JennasMom]

Reglan is a dopamine which means it works on those receptors, it is suppose to help with moving food faster out of the stomach (motility) and strengthing the Lower esophegal sphincter (LES), It is meant to help but not to cure. I would lthink that you need to make major adjustments in your daughters diet. Bland ,,,, Bland ,,,,, Bland and small amounts of food start with on half to three quarters of a cup of food at a time,  and no juices or fruits right now unless the fruits are cooked, I would even hold off of fruits all together until you see some improvement.  I would also stay away from raw veggies and salads.  No fats or oils. You need to make drastic changes in diet to calm her system down first. Use whole grain breads and no spices, I have seen alot of success with my daughter with whole grain English Muffins because they are heavier and stay down, with a little smear of fruit spread.   Not alot of drinking with meals since it creates volume in the stomach and is more likely to be pushed up. YOu also may want to consider stoping all dairy and eggs for now.  We are also eating Barilla Plus pasta a high protein pasta, last night for dinner we did a plain turkey sandwich the first protein she was able to keep down in TWO WEEKS!  It is going to take some time. Also make sure you are timing the meds properly, and I would try some Maalox to calm and coat the esophagus when she starts and episode of regurg.

A friend of mine was telling me about kinseology and how that helped her with a host of digestive problems and food allergies. A type of chiropractic care. Not cracking! I am going to go for that as well.  My main concern now is getting through the end of school too!  She has missed two weeks in a row!


So here is my strategy for now, keep advancing diet slowly, try the Reglan, find out more about the swallowing therapy and the eating therapy, as well as the Chiropractic kinseology and somehow someway with the Grace of God and His will we will get better!

We are going to start  the Reglan today, wish us luck! We are going to try it before lunch and see how it works. I will post later and let you know how it works.

[debkoch]

Kristen is taking 4ml of reglan 30 minutes before each meal and right before bed so 4 times a day.   We have not seen any side effects as of yet.   She has been on it for over a month, we've seen a decrease in the amount of food/fluid that comes back up but she is definitely not cured.  She still misses about 2 days of school a week.

My question to anyone who has used Reglan with their child is this.  Is it suppose to "fix" this?  My expectation is that it would stop her problem.  Yes it is a little better, but definitely not cured.  How long until I have a child who can go to school?

Deb

[ChitChatNine]

My son didn't get it but probably *should* have gotten it .. he was borderline senosry integration problems with the reflux with high startle reflexes and things bothered him along with extreme mommy attachment which didn't allow him to go to preschool until he was 4.5 (and he was my 4th child so you can imagine how hard that was for me LOL) ..

My son would cry from the reflux pain and vomit.  And then cry when he left my side if only for a moment and vomit and vomit and vomit!  The vomiting came from the weak muslce of the stomach and the reflux .. it was an awfully visious cycle .. he'd get frustrated as a toddler or if I said he couldn't get a toy in the store and vomit ...

I know this is a sidetrack but I forgot about this with him!

Back to the swallow study:  he didn't get it but wouldn't eat hard, crunchy foods .. what they do as I understand is they take a washcloth and rub inside the mouth on the tongue and cheeks to help in that regard.

What they do for the therapy for swallowing I'm not sure .. but I know he couldn't drink fruit juice for 4 yrs or drink from a straw .. both brought on reflux (suckling the air) and the fruit caused pain.

TMI (like the teens texting:  too much info I know) .. but all came flooding back with your one line post to me LOL!

If they offer the OT go for it is my opinion.  I had to push.

And my son had 2 yrs of speech .. sometimes the muscles don't form right in the mouth from not eating solid foods until later with some refluxers.  That happened with 2 of my children .. one was 80% uninteligible and her speech was 8ys with 100% success and my son was 2yrs @ 40% unintelliglbe and his was 100% success, too.

Also watch for development milestones to be certain all is on track.

C~

[JennasMom]

Did your son get sick on the reglan?

[JennasMom]

Yes that's it swallowing therapy,,,, did you get that and do you know what that is?