does anyone have a child with a g tube????????

Scott - posted on 01/03/2013

well I'm a father of a two year old little girl that has one. she just got it a few months ago did fine for a little while then she started having trouble with it but my little girl has med. problems like (diabetes insipdus, an blind) so don't let this scare you cuz every child is different. I think you an your daughter will be just fine an it's easy to take care of just keep it clean an keep the feeds up just like the dr's tell you but if you think she is getting to full maybe cuz the dr tell you to feed her way too much then bring it up to your dr an talk about it with them an see what they say. But if you do just like the dr's tell you and I think you and your little girl will be fine.

Christie - posted on 12/27/2012

Hello britany I was very worried about my son having his Gtube placed but it has been a blessing in disguise! You think how can I put my child thru another surgery? It will be fine and deffinatly worth it to have your little man come home! Through your feeding team you will be able to work out a feeding schedualed for your son and the new pumps are awesome easy to transport around and are compact in size! Good luck and if you want to talk about it give me an email
dcmgriffith@hotmail.com
Christie

Kellie Yvonne - posted on 12/21/2012

Hi Jessica, i know how you feel, my hart goes out toyou and your baby. My daughter has had a Micky Button For 25 years now, if it truly is the best thing for her then i would do it but i dont know why she needs it, but i would be happy to talk to you if you would like. kellieyvonne@yahoo.com God Bless

Brittany - posted on 12/14/2012

Hey my name is brittany and my baby boy has a trach and now they want him to have a g tube. I'm so scared. He needs the g tube cuz he can't eat and breath at the same time. Plez help me idk wat should I do. If he dnt get it then he will stay in the hospital longer if he does get it he will come home sooner

Cheryl - posted on 01/01/2011

My daughter has a g tube. we started with an NG tube and she constantly pulled it out so we made the decision to have the surgery for the g tube put in. She was around 10 months old when we had the surgery. It has made life much easier and better for her. Afterwards she started eating solids more and has an easier time with moving around

Mandy - posted on 12/27/2010

Well my daughter has had a g-tube since she was 4 weeks old and is now 2. It really saved her life. I was scared at first but it was worth it. hang in there.

Rachelle - posted on 12/09/2009

My son got a g tube when he turned 1 and it has help him gain weight. I had my worries too but it was the best thing for him he had it in for 6 months and now he is eating fine

Deborah - posted on 11/24/2009

My daughter had her g-tube put in the day after Thanksgiving 2005 at almost 2 years old. She initially had a bard but last year we switched it out for a Mickey. She was advised to have a g-tube due to failure to thrive, severe reflux and cerebral palsy. Born at 25 weeks, weighing 1. lb 4oz, she started having trouble at 12 months old. She was taking an hour to eat 2 oz of an 8 oz bottle of neosure formula andwould immediately throw it up. She was burning more caloried than taking in. At the same time she had surgery to place the g-tube she also had a fundoplication to help her reflux. She still has the g-tube, is almost 6 and weighs just over 40 lbs. Reflux is under control, but due to fundo she is unable to burp or throw up. If she is bloated or sick we decompress to help get the excess air and stomach contents out. To help her hopefully get off the g-tube we stimulate her mouth using nuk brushes and zvibes. Hope that helps.

Kimberly - posted on 11/23/2009

What is the reason your baby needs a g-tube? Mine had a birth defect called gastroschesis, which is where she was born with her intestines on the outside of her body. She had a bunch of intestinal problems, so she needed help eating

Kimberly - posted on 11/23/2009

My daughter has her g-tube in right now. She is 8 months old now. For the first 4 months of her life, she was in the NICU. During that time she had 3 surgeries and 2 intestinal infections. Her third and final surgery was to put the g-tube in. She was gaining weight just fine, she was mostly independent of her machines and monitors, they just wouldn't discharge her unless she could take in all of her food by herself. Because of the infections, we missed the window of time that she was supposed to be learning how to eat from a nipple. Getting her to relearn how to do all that was going to take some time. If we didn't go with the g-tube that would've meant another 3 months in the hospital! Don't get me wrong, the folks at the hospital are great, but I wanted my baby home!

You do have some weird emotions and thoughts to go through first. I couldn't help but wonder if I could've done more to prevent this from happening. Why my baby? Would she end up looking like a freak? I don't want her to look freakish. I don't want people to pity us, we don't need it. I want to celebrate the fact that she has come so far in her short life. I hated that g-tube at first. To me it was a step in the wrong direction. I wanted to be rid of machines and tubes! Thankfully I some practice with setting it up and running the pump so I was fully capable of doing it all an my own. So by the time I got home I wasn't scared of it anymore. I didn't have any nurses bossing me around, I could finally be the mom, I was finally in charge of my daughter's well-being.

The g-tube is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because my baby could finally leave the hospital and come home and properly bond with us, and we could bond with her. A curse because it takes some much work and maintenance. But I guess it's worth it in the end because all of our hard work paid off! She hasn't needed her feeding tube in 3 weeks! The doctor says after 90 days of not needing to use the tube she could get it removed! That means the end of January is looking like its just around the corner!

Besides, the average life-time is, what? 80 years? What's a year or two in the time of her life that she won't really remember? She have a a great story for a scar though....

Sabrina - posted on 11/23/2009

Yes, my son has one because it was too much work for him to breathe and eat. He was a 24-weeker and he stopped gaining weight when he was about 8 months old. It really is a simple thing to get used to and your baby probably needs one if she has multiple medical problems. It is much less difficult than an ng-tube.

Sarah - posted on 11/23/2009

My daughter was diagnosed failure to thrive and GERD. Because of her low birth weight and poor weight gain GI opted for a G-tube. I fought that idea with them for about 6 months. I wanted them to first try to get her reflux under control. I was terrified and I felt like a failure as my daughter was obviously not getting the proper nutrition to gain weight. Finally I gave in despite the fact that she was still vomiting. They placed the tube and my Aneesa started gaining weight, slowly but surely. Aneesa has had her tube in place for almost a year and a half now. She is still eating some of her daily meals by mouth and when she refuses we use the tube.

Your daughter's doctor will unless there are other issues, more than likely recomend that you encourage oral feeds as well.

Lorea - posted on 11/22/2009

sorry pushed wrong keys and sent without finishing comment. Ithought this one was one of the easiest surgeries to do. but it still worried me about having her to go under again,my daughter had three surgeries,each one was just as nerve racking as the other but you get through it with lots of strength that we somehow muster up from within. the gtube surgery was an incision made in her bellybutton with a laposcopic ? spelled?and i think one off to the right side then the gtube site.they put a large patch over her belly button and a smaller patch over the lower site and the patches just came off gradually and we did not force them. on the sites were little scabs and easy to clean.she only has a little scar now in her belly button.we had a little granulation tissue later on but eventually it too passed with special cream from the dr. we also hook our daughter up to a feeding pump at night so that helped with her weight gain,we were feeding her continuously and now very three hours slowly weening her from the night feeds,by pump, as least we can sleep again feeding her every 3 hours by ng tube was so tiring,(24hrs) we also feed our daughter buy bolus feeds or gravity feeds, this you have to watch how fast the breastmilk or formula goes in as too fast made her vomit and we also found that the amounts the doctor/dietition were ordering were way too much for her and we had to slowly decrease her volumes until she could handle it. so she would not vomit . then we increased it slowly,also we had to vent her, i found if i vented her each time before we fed her she did not throw up as much and this also helped with her gaseiness a little way of cheating but it so works. venting is putting on the attachment tube then put on a 60 ml syringe(luer lok tip)i found these stayed onto the attachment tube way better than the pointed syringes. then i let the air and fliuds come back up the tube, you will have to drop the tube down lower so it starts, when there is almost no air and the fluid slows down then i raise the tube up and put the fluids back in, you don't want to throw this out as it has their electrolights in it and could make them get dehydrated. sometimes this might be alittle thick,then i add her milk or formula to the syringe making sure i don't get an air bubble and off we go feeding time. or we hook her up to the feeding pump. i also found i still have to burp her a little after the bolus feeds.sometimes at night she cries out and l have to burp her about 1 hour after the pump has fed her usually only once a night. i hope this helps this is what my experiences are good luck. we are gradually weening her off the g tube slowly wish us luck.:) if you have any other questions please do not hestitate at ask love to help.

Lorea - posted on 11/22/2009

my daughter had a ng tube first to assist with feeding then after 2 months old she suddenly she went hoarse, turned out she had a paralized vocal cord which was then causeing her to aspirate. we had her surgery to put in a g tube (mickey) @ 6 months old. the doctors were not sure if the paralasis would change so it could be a long time or forever, this was a better way to feed her. and still is, although fortunately for us her vocal cord paralisis is now on it's way back to normal. our last feeding study in july was good she could swallow thin liquids and cereal, after an upper scope they said she has almost full movement ,the vocal cord is closing just not as quick as the other but the doctors are very happy to see this recovery.now we are slowly introducing puree it is not easy seeing your little one go through surgery.

Julie - posted on 11/22/2009

My son had to get a g-tube. He started wit ng-tube he had it till he was nine month corrected but it was hard because he was pull it put and was having to sit along time because where I'm from they would not let use pump on ng-tube baby. So we got the g-tube and it is more easier for us to use and we are to live move active lives. The first few month after the surgery you child will have a tube that will come from there site that the tube is placed. Than after that they will change it to Mic-key or what or company that you may get. There will only be there when feeding it make it a lot easier than they will have nothing hanging off their and can be hidden under clothing nicely. I hope answer your question. If you would li9ke to know more you can ask me circle mom page

Azaansmommy - posted on 11/22/2009

dec 04 09 we.ve har our g-tue 4 2 years..only 1 surgery...why is this gonna be your 4th hun???

Kidada - posted on 11/21/2009

Hi Jessica, My daughter was 3 months old when she came home from the hospital. She had the nissin procedure and g-tube put in. They did it laprascopically [hope I am spelling that right], so she healed much sooner. She only had the g-tube for six months. I kept stimulating her with playtex pacifiers or teething toys so that she would know how to eat or wouldn't forget that you eat with your mouth. Once she had a modified barium swallowing test that showed no reflux or aspiration, I was able to start her off with a little cereal, once a day skipping a bolus feeding. We didn't want her to have surgery either but at nearly 3 months, my daughter only weighed 7lbs. She was born at 35 weeks weighing 5lbs 6oz. My daughter is now 3 and she eats table foods! She is still delayed due to genetics.

Nicolene - posted on 11/21/2009

Hi Jessica ... I can put you into contact with people who's kids has been placed on g'tube's. Contact me on neln@polka.co.za

Good luck!!

Chelle - posted on 11/20/2009

My son doesn't have a g-tube but my niece does (she is 9 days younger than my son but full term). My niece had a feeding tube in through her nose and they decided to put in the g-tube cuz she is on the feeding tube indefinetely at the moment. It has been a real miracle for her and after having it placed she finally started to gain weight and was starting to develop again. It's also been less of a hassle on my sister in law. That's all the advice I can offer you, but good luck! I'm sure other mommies here can help you more!