I wanted to add a post to warn others who have little ones given this diagnosis to just beware,it may be more serious.
I have 11wk old twins who were born about the same weight, both about 7lb, both really good feeders and stayed identical weights until about 7 weeks old when they were both about 12lb.
Then one started vomiting. Just one feed a day at first, always the 11pm feed for whatever reason.When I say sick I mean SICK, projectile reaching a few feet away.
Mentioned it a few days later to GP and she completely dismissed it "babies are sick, I'm sure its nothing to worry about" I went away feeling happy if a little foolish for being overly protective.
Anyway vomitting gets worse and worse, a couple of times a day, 3-4 times a day until maybe one a day would stay down. I've now been to the doctor a couple of times again to be made to feel like I was wasting her time. The the docto was away, and I saw a locum who thought it may be pyloric stenosis so sent me immediately to the paed. assess. unit at the hospital. After keeping him there around 6 hours, when the amount of assessment involved having me feed him twice and watching him throw up twice, clearing the length of a hospital bed, they diagnosed reflux, sent him home with appropriate medicine and told me I'd recive an appointment in2 weeks for a checkup. 3 days later he was weighed at the clinic and he'd lost 11oz since the hospital saw him, just 3 days prior and wasnt keeping anything down, including the medicine. I phoned the hospital and they said the medicine would take 2 weeks to work and that I would need to go back to the GP if I wanted him to be seen again. Off to GP who reluctantly saw me at the end of surgery on the friday. Again told me he wasnt dehydrated so he'd be fine. She phoned the hosptal who said they wouldnt see him if he wasnt dehydrated but they would phone on the monday to see him. Went away in tears because no-one was taking me seriously. Health visitor camr monday and he'd lost anoth 5lbin a couple of days. Paed dept phoned and said they wouldnt see him till thurs. I begged them to see him sooner telling them about the weight loss but the refused. By this time little one is chucking up everything, I'm keepig him still for hours on end to try and make something stay down and he's really sleepy all the time and he hasnt smiled in a week when he was really smiley before, he hasnt pooed in 2 weeks . See the doctor the next day who says he'd not dehydrated and maybe I'm overfeeding him (I'm just trying to keep 3oz down him). She suggests 1oz overy 3 hours(!!!) and says ther's still no need for the hosptal to see himsooner than thursday.
Health vistor weighs him the next day and another 6oz down. Phone the doctor who again says he's just got reflux. He now wont eat at all, and is very very sleepy all the time.
Consultant sees him the next day, listens to symptons, looks at his tummy while feeding, and diagnoses pyloric stenosis and svere dehydration. He's rushed up to the high dependency unit covered in drips, tubes and monitors and drips for 5 days until he is stable enough to operate. Thank god he's now recovering, albeit very thin and weak, and pretty sore around the scar but he'll be ok.
I know I've gone on a bit but I really wanted to implore anyone out there with these symptoms or the same non-interest to put your foot down and not accept the reflux thing if your gut tells you its more serious. We very nearly lost our little boy because of this, a couple more days and he wouldnt be here From now on, I'll be one of those people who abuses the A&E facility as I've lost faith in the GP/referral system.
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General health
reflux-be cautious of diagnosis
kathj33 · 02/06/2006 20:45
Kath, what an awful story, this must have been so hard for you to go through 
I can't think of anything useful to say sorry
what an awful thing to go through . Glad your little boy is recovering now.
I agree with Tissy, it's definitely worth a complaint to the consultant, maybe an official complaint in writing too.
pyloric stenosis isn't all that common, though. The surgeons at the JR will have seen loads of cases- and of course being surgeons they don't see the hundreds and thousands of sicky babies that GPs and paediatric SHOs see every day. These obscure the picture and can lull you into a false sense of security.
Even the paed registrar may only have seen a couple of cases in his/ her training.The problem was that you weren't seen by a consultant on that visit.
In our area at present, there are three hospitals that deal with sick children/ babies. Two DGHs and a maternity hospital that has a neonatal unit/ scbu attached. There has been a move to amalgamate the three units, so that ALL sick children are dealt with on one site, so that the Consultant on call doesn't have to split him/herself three ways, and so the paediatric trainees are adequately supervised. There was a HUGE hoo-ha in the local press alleging "swingeing cits" and "cost-cutting measures" and people seemed to resent the fact that they may have to travel another 15 miles for infinitely superior care. Luckily the Trust forged ahead with the plans inspite of the noise, and the new unit opens in a couple of months 
Kathj33
You poor thing ...
This is the first time I have come across someone on Mumsnet who went through an identical thing to me ....
I was made to feel like I was a neurotic mother when DS started vomitting at 11 days old. I phoned the hospital midwives and they told me that because he was over 10 days old he wasn't their problem 
. My GP said, "Babies are sick Mrs Ghosty, it is called possetting!". My HV saw him projectile vomit when he was 3 weeks old and said, "Oh dear, that is rather a lot isn't it? It must be severe reflux". Another GP gave us baby gaviscon to 'thicken the milk' and all DS did was projectile vomit porridge. He was so poorly and I was beside myself. No one believed me and I felt I was going mad. Everyone said it was normal and I remember thinking, "If this is normal how does anyone have more than one baby?" I used to breastfeed him over the bath or the kitchen sink because I knew he would throw it all up as soon as he was finished. He cried all the time because he was always hungry and was only quiet when he fell into an exhausted sleep. It was the worst time of my life and just thinking about it makes me cry .
Eventually, my mother (who was a midwife a 100 years ago) took us to her GP and insisted that DS was looked at at her local hospital. Even then it was a nightmare because the young doctor on at the time said it was so rare and so very unlikely. They sent us home too. This was only a couple of days after Christmas and they were very short staffed. That night, my 4 week old DS slept for 16 hours without waking. He was very ill and exhausted. We went back to the hospital the next day and they agreed to weigh him - he has lost 2 lbs since birth and was severely dehydrated. He had a scan and the radiologist said it was Pyloric Stenosis. We were blue lighted to Southampton General Hospital and DS had his op the next day. The relief was unbelievable!
Unfortunately the experience sent me into a spin and two weeks later I gave up breastfeeding and by the time DS was 8 weeks I was on a high dosage of Anti depressants .
You need to know that my DS is 6 and a half now and is a healthy fit lad who eats like a horse and has maybe been sick twice in his life (apart from the PS vomitting obvously!)
I know what you mean about losing faith in the GP system ... I stopped seeing my GP after he said to me "Oh, yes, Pyloric Stenosis - I could see it was going that way!" Bastard 
My thoughts are with you Kath, you have been through and awful time and thank god it came out good in the end. Your little boy will have a scar to show his friends when he is older and he will be all the more precious to you for this experience ....
Hugs to you from me {{{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Kath, of course we can keep in touch
I know of 2 other people who have had this condition. One is a friend of my husbands who was operated on in 1970 ... his scar is one to behold - he looks like he was involved in a fight with a machete ... When he showed me his scar I was so pleased that medical science had come on to a point where DS has a scar about an inch and a bit long - a bit above and to the left (as you look at it) to his belly button. The surgeon who did it told me that some surgeons perform the op through the belly button for cosmetic reasons but he preferred to not to do it that way because it would mean a longer 'journey' inside to the pyloric muscle.
Another is the eldest son of a lady I met at DS' swimming lesson the other week. She noticed DS' scar and asked me about it. Her son is 9 and is fit and healthy . We had a long chat about it and compared experiences and scars . Lucky for her she didn't have the problem of convincing everyone ... her DS was born here in NZ and the problem was picked up very quickly due to the policy of continual care they have here - you have one midwife throughout your pregnancy and the birth and then sees you and the baby for 6 whole weeks after birth - fantastic system! I had DD here and I can't tell you what a difference it made having the same midwife for that length of time ... not that DD had the problem but anyway YKWIM!
One of the reasons they didn't believe us was because DS was so young when he started vomitting (11 days) and usually the problem doesn't manifest itself until a baby is nearer 6 weeks old (like your DS) but the surgeon thought it may have more to do with the baby's weight ... DS was 10lbs at birth and 11 and a half lbs when he started throwing up ... so that fits with your baby as your baby was 12lbs when he started throwing up wasn't he?
What was really weird was after DS's operation his first two poos were merconium-like all over again ... which no one ever really explained to me - has that happened to your DS?
Interesting facts about Pyloric Stenosis:
Babies are born with it but the problem does not manifest itself until they are a few weeks old - it is impossible to tell at birth or in scans when pregnant.
1 in 4000 babies have PS and it is usually first born boys - was your baby the 'first' twin?
It is a very very simple op that fixes the problem almost immediately (I was allowed to feed DS 6 hours after his operation and he wasn't sick )
PS babies tend to grow up very strong and healthy and are good eaters
How long ago did your DS have his op Kath?
what an awful story . My ds had severe reflux and I was being sent home from my GP with nothing but patronising comments making me feel like a paranoid mother. I also nearly died of a blood clot in my lung last year when a series of GPs and junior doctors at the hospital put my chest pain down to a common chest infection and kept sending me home/refusing to see me. I have also completely lost my faith in the GP/referral system. So glad your little one is ok now.
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Oh, only 5 days ago? Poor little lad ... poor you
In six months time, when he is a big bruiser and eating everything in sight you will look back on this and laugh (well, maybe not laugh but you know what I mean )
Remember to look after yourself now too, you have been through a lot and he won't remember this ...
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