When your baby is screaming in pain, there is nothing you wouldn't do to make their pain stop. With G-tubing, poor Evie gets more gas than usual in her little tummy. Having been pregnant, I know a thing or two about super gas, so I felt for her.
For some reason no one told me about venting with a G-tube after she had the surgery. So at first we tried gripe water and gas relief drops (simethicone). Gripe water did nothing, and also made her choke. Simethicone is actually a beautiful thing, but only gave her temporary relief. Bicycling her legs helped a bit, but really it's not good enough for a g-tube baby.
Enter addicted-to-the-Internet mommy. I've been reading all that I can find about gas and about G-tubes. I started to read about people "venting," and they weren't talking about all the snow we have been getting.
I started wondering if I had been missing out on a way to help Evie. When I asked the GI doc about this, she said, oh sure, I'll have the nurse teach you. I thought, why didn't they tell me about this in the first place!!! All it involves is using a large 60 ml syringe plugged into the G-tube and letting the air come out of her stomach. The first time I did it, I didn't take the cap off the syringe and wondered why it didn't work. Haha. The second time I did it, it rocked my world. The air bubbles just shot out of the tube. Seeing stomach contents of my baby isn't such a big deal, because it's just formula. Then you use the plunger to slowly put the stomach contents back in. And then baby is happy, so mommy is happy!
I kind of feel lucky that I can so definitively help my child with gas, while other mommies have to wait for the gas to work its way out. That's one upside to having a G-tube, at least!
For some reason no one told me about venting with a G-tube after she had the surgery. So at first we tried gripe water and gas relief drops (simethicone). Gripe water did nothing, and also made her choke. Simethicone is actually a beautiful thing, but only gave her temporary relief. Bicycling her legs helped a bit, but really it's not good enough for a g-tube baby.
Enter addicted-to-the-Internet mommy. I've been reading all that I can find about gas and about G-tubes. I started to read about people "venting," and they weren't talking about all the snow we have been getting.
I started wondering if I had been missing out on a way to help Evie. When I asked the GI doc about this, she said, oh sure, I'll have the nurse teach you. I thought, why didn't they tell me about this in the first place!!! All it involves is using a large 60 ml syringe plugged into the G-tube and letting the air come out of her stomach. The first time I did it, I didn't take the cap off the syringe and wondered why it didn't work. Haha. The second time I did it, it rocked my world. The air bubbles just shot out of the tube. Seeing stomach contents of my baby isn't such a big deal, because it's just formula. Then you use the plunger to slowly put the stomach contents back in. And then baby is happy, so mommy is happy!
 |
| from St. Louis Childrens Hospital |
This is probably TMI, but I wish I had as easy a way to get the gas out of my tummy sometimes. But yay for happy baby and mommy!
ReplyDelete