Ok, one of my triplets had Pyloric Stenosis as an infant. It happens within the first six weeks. My son's happened later because he was two months premature and if you did his adjusted age he fell into that age range.
Pyloric Stenosis is where the top muscle of the stomach begins to close off, basically slowly starving the baby. The only way to see if it is Pyloric Stenosis is by an ultrasound. The baby has to drink a special concoction that glows on u/s so they can see if that muscle is closing up. Never heard of a blood test being able to show this, unless it's new. The docs have to visually see this happening.
When it was happening to my son, he was projectile vomiting because there was no where for the food to go buy out. There was no diarrhea. Our useless doctor changed formulas, put him antacids and swore it was reflux, even though we told her repeatedly that the symptoms she gave us for reflux was the direct opposite of the symptoms my son was having. He was a heavy eater and gained weight quickly since birth. He suddenly stopped gaining weight and again thought it was fine. We made an appointment and the morning we got our son up to go he looked pale and visibly thinner. We went in demanding a proper diagnosis or we were going to the ER and demand help there. Mind you, the doctor mention in the beginning that this could be a possibility but refused to go down that path because it go to the point that she didn't want to be wrong about her original diagnosis of reflux. Ego. Meanwhile, my son had lost weight when he was at the doctor's office, was projectile vomiting all over and the nursing staff was freaking out. They knew something was wrong but the doctor refused to budge. My husband screamed, "My son is pale, thin, vomiting anything that goes into his stomach and you refuse to help! We're not leaving until you diagnose him properly or we're heading to the ER for tests ourselves!" She finally gave in, reluctantly. Sent us to the hospital for the u/s for suspected Pyloric Stenosis. They asked us what his symptoms were and we filled them in. They did the u/s. My husband went in, I stayed out. Only one was allowed. When they were done the doctor who did the u/s came flying out of the room in a near rage. She told me it was obvious Pyloric Stenosis and was very upset that the doctor waited this long to do anything about it. In essence, our son was slowly starving to death. He could have died or had damage done to his internal organs. She stood right there and called the other doc while we were sitting there nearly yelling at her telling her it was obvious Pyloric Stenosis, asking why she waited so long to diagnose the child and ordered that he be sent to the nearest available hospital immediately for emergency surgery. They needed a specialist who could do this. It was a simple surgery of making a slit at the belly button, pull the muscle out with a finger, make a slit across the muscle to open it and sew up. It's an instant fix and the baby can begin eating as soon as he woke back up and did vitals.
Needless to say, the original doctor was upset with us for making her look bad! DOH! We had to save the life of our child. We never saw her again and the next thing we knew she no longer worked there. We switched to a new team of doctors at the military hospital.
It seems to me if it were Pyloric Stenosis that they would not just send you home with a ho hum attitude. I would be suspicious of both doctors at this point. Never heard of Pyloric Stenosis being checked with a blood test so I'm wondering if she was given the wrong diagnosis at the hospital. I would demand the original doctor call back immediately if there's a life threatening diagnosis, even if it's in the early stages. None of this makes sense so I'd demanding an answer now and do not delay on taking care of the problem, IF it is Pyloric Stenosis, but I'd want to be sure that was what it was.
At the end of the day. The surgery was an immediate cure. He immediately ate like a piggy again right after surgery and came home the next day, which was Christmas Eve. He kept eating with no vomiting and stopped crying. He got his color back, started gaining weight again and all was right with the world immediately after surgery.
K. B
mom to 5 including triplets
