Endoscopy–what to expect

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  • #594359

    My baby is having an endoscopy soon and I’m wondering what to expect. Have any of you gone through this with a young child? I’d appreciate hearing about your experience.

    Thanks.

    #731265
    gefen
    Participant

    I, too, am supposed to have an endoscopy. I’ve never had one before and would also like to know what to expect. I know they are going to sedate me, but I’m still worried that I might feel something down my throat.

    #731267
    always here
    Participant

    Sorry I can’t help the OP with any info regarding a small child.

    gefen– you have to fast, but then you’re asleep & feel nothing.

    #731268
    ontheball
    Member

    Its a simple procedure. For the baby, the tough part is that the baby has to fast,so try to schedule it as early in the morning as possible.Also, sometimes after anesthesia, the child can be cranky.

    For an adult-you won’t feel a thing! You’ll be asleep, & wake up when it’s over.

    Good luck!

    #731269
    Health
    Participant

    There’s nothing to expect. It’s done as an outpatient procedure -takes about 20 minutes.

    Mother in Israel- Are they doing a procedure endoscopically or are they just looking for something?

    #731270

    I had 2 endoscopies done on my son,one when he was 5 months and another one when he was 10 months. He is now 4 so I dont remember exactly how the fasting was, I think he couldn’t eat or drink after 2 or 3 in the morning because he was scheduled for his test to be around 9.

    He didn’t exhibit any symptoms of anything going wrong after the test.he ate and drank a bottle like regular when we cake home. I did this in a city hospital and felt like we were in good hands. They did want to see him be able to drink before we left the hosp.

    #731271

    Thanks, everyone. Health, she has been dropping percentiles consistently and is below the charts now. She seems to have a dirty diaper after every meal and I won’t talk about the smell. She had some blood work done which was not all normal–there seems to be some absorption problem. The GI wants her to have an endoscopy to see if we can figure out what’s going on with her.

    #731272
    aries2756
    Participant

    The anesthesia is probably the scariest thing but it is nothing like the heavy forms used in surgery. It is usually some form of valium for adults, so you can figure it being something light like that the baby will wake up from very quickly after the procedure. They will give the child something to drink and crackers/cookies to eat within 10 to 20 minutes after waking up. There is no throat pain afterwords just some grogginess till you sleep off the remainder of the anesthesia.

    #731273
    anon for this
    Participant

    Mother in Israel,

    My daughter had an endoscopy when she was 4 years old to confirm her diagnosis of celiac (had the bloodwork done because she was falling off the growth charts but had no other symptoms). As other posters noted, your baby will have to fast so her procedure will probably be one of the first scheduled for the day. My daughter was given versed and was discharged about half an hour after she woke up. As far as I remember, she did not report any pain, but was hungry afterwards.

    #731274
    Health
    Participant

    MiI -That’s a diagnostic endo, so it’s like I and others have said.

    #731275
    Health
    Participant

    aries -there is nothing scary about anesthesia. We give these drugs so the patient shouln’t feel pain -that’s the definition of anesthesia. If there were a lot of complications to anesthesia, we wouldn’t give it because then the risk would outweigh the benefit!

    #731276
    jesse123
    Member

    my baby has anesthesia when she had an endoscopy and she did not re act how i would have liked…. it is very scary

    #731277

    Jesse, care to elaborate on that? I’ve had other kids undergo anesthesia before without complication, so that part isn’t what scares me. (One of them was an absolute maniac when he woke up and he had to get something to calm him, but eventually he was back to his sweet little self.)

    #731278
    oomis
    Participant

    The anesthesia is the wprst of it; the endoscopy itself is a short procedure and if under anesthesia, the baby will not be aware of it at all. For anyone who is older and having this done, it really is no big deal at all. One second you are getting an IV, the VERY NEXT SECOND (as far as you will be concerned), the procedure is already over. You will have no recollection of time passing, though ti will probably take about 20 minutes or so.

    While we are on the subject, if you have not yet had a colonoscopy and are 50 or more years old, or if you are younger and there is a family history of a problem, PLEASE arrange to have this test done ASAP. It really is nothing with nothing, and the test itself can save lives. The prep the day before is nowhere near as awful as I always envisioned it.

    #731279
    gefen
    Participant

    Thanks for the info.

    Mother in Israel – hatzlacha rabba. May your baby have a refuah shelayma.

    #731280
    always here
    Participant

    I had an endoscopy & a colonoscopy done @ the same time.

    when I orignally tried to post it, the Mods deleted it… maybe they thought I was kidding, but I wasn’t.

    #731281
    ontheball
    Member

    My baby (6 months old at the time) had a colonoscopy & endoscopy done @ the same time. The colonoscopy prep was very difficult. He had to drink this awful salty drink to clean out his system. He kept on vomiting it, bec it tasted soooo bad!

    #731282

    Thanks, everyone. Gefen, refuah shelaima to you too.

    On the ball, I don’t know if my baby will need the cleanout for an endoscopy. In any case, she seems to do her own natural cleanout every time she eats. 🙁

    #731283
    haifagirl
    Participant

    The prep the day before is nowhere near as awful as I always envisioned it.

    I had a colonoscopy done in the U.S. The prep the day before was not fun.

    I also had a colonoscopy done in EY. The prep was done the same day, so it killed only one day instead of two, and it wasn’t so bad. But there were three days of restricted diet which I didn’t like. I don’t remember if I had to do that back in the U.S.

    #731284
    anon for this
    Participant

    MiI, my daughter did not require a cleanout before her endoscopy–just the fasting because of the anesthetic.

    #731285

    Thanks, anon. Hopefully they’ll schedule us for early in the morning, because she loves food and is miserable from the time she wakes up until she’s fed. I don’t think it will be too easy on her.

    #731286
    anon for this
    Participant

    I never had to have a baby fast, but I’ve had to have older kids (toddler and up) fast for procedures/tests. I try to change their routines so that they are less likely to notice that they’re not eating, and of course I don’t feed my other kids around them.

    #731287
    watermelon
    Member

    I’m waiting for the virtual colonscopy to be affordable,and the prep to be done away with.I do not have time to be “out of commission”!

    #731288
    aries2756
    Participant

    Health, since you are in the medical field, and I don’t mean any disrespect to you, YOU should know that the scariest and most serious part of many surgeries on children IS in fact the anesthesia. Putting children under general anesthesia can be a very dangerous situation. A procedure such as endoscopy or colonoscopy does not use heavy duty anesthesia and therefore the risk factors are heavily reduced. However, we avoid putting any child “to sleep” as much as possible because the outcome CAN turn sour.

    #731289
    aries2756
    Participant

    The reason they probably did both an endoscopy and colonoscopy on the child at the same time was to avoid giving the child the anesthesia twice.

    #731290
    Health
    Participant

    Aries -In this case you’re right. It’s just a diagnostic endo. But like I posted before if the risks outweighed the benefits, we wouldn’t give anyone anesthesia, adults or children.

    #731291
    Health
    Participant

    watermelon/eclipse -You can just have a FOBT every year instead of a colonscopy. You don’t have to risk not getting screened for colon cancer. There are three different tests recommended by the gov. task force if you are over 50 years of age -Stool blood test (yearly), sigmoidscopy (every 5) or colonscopy (every 10).

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