Gastroscopy for 6 month old!

Hi Ladies!!

Was just wondering if any one here could help me help a friend of mine.
She has a 6 month old boy who has pretty severe reflux. Her paed wants to have a gastroscopy done, but my friend is not really sure if she wants him to have it done.
She is particularly woried about any after affects. She thinks for some reason that it will disrupt his sleeping routines.. I thought it might for a day or 2 but not ong term!
I think if the Dr thinks it should be done then it should be done just in case there is something more severe happening (he was born 6 wks early and only 2lb 9oz due to a medical problem with the placenta).

Has anyone had any experience with this procedure on a little baby??

Thanks
Jen

Hi Jen,

I've only just seen this thread. I spent some time at the Children's Hospital here in Melbourne where I was involved in scopes. As Theresa said, disturbance to their sleep pattern is minimal and at best only going to last a couple of days. Most people find their children actually sleep better the day of the proceedure because they are "worn out" by what has happened to their little bods (as with any proceedure). The proceedure is perfectly safe and usually only last 20-30 minutes plus time in recovery to wake up from the anesthetic. Here in Melbourne it is done as a day proceedure and in most cases they can go home a couple of hours after the proceedure is done.
Common side effects afterwards are a sore throat from the scope going down the throat and sometimes a red mark on the eyes and around the mouth - both from tape (we tape the eyes to protect them from drying out and we sometimes tape a mouth guard in place to protect their teeth if they try to bite the scope).

I am happy to try and answer any questions and can be contacted on natashadATinternodeDOTonDOTnet

MG