Globus Sensation

[JerkintheMerkin]

Having been to A&E and the GP have been told my 8 year old DD is suffering with this. Has anyone had any experience with this. She's naturally slim anyway but the whole not being able to eat is getting worrying. Any suggestions?

For clarification, a globus sensation is when you feel like you have something in your throat when you swallow food and feel like you're going to choke. I'm told it's quite common but in the meantime my daughter refuses to eat solid food.

Bump. Anybody??

Globus is caused by either reflux or anxiety causing the muscles of the throat to tighten giving the perception of being unable to swallow and so,eating being stuck there - when in reality, there's nothing wrong.

With my (adult) patients they usually need 1. Reflux medication 2. Anxiety support from psychological services 3. Biofeedback from inserting a camera to watch them swallow so they can see nothing is stuck and they can swallow - once they 'believe' they are ok, everything subsides.

Not sure what people do to help children. Presumably they have looked inside her throat with a camera to rule out all mechanical problems before leaping to globus?

We’ve had this issue too in recent months! Had a trip to a and e when it first started as my child had hardly eaten all weekend. What’s worked for us is lots of reassurance/no pressure. We’ve stuck to ‘safe foods’ which my child decided were ok. We have been slowly trying new foods - fruit skin is one of the issues. I also told them that I had read online about another child with a similar issue who found that tickling their nose when they were struggling helped. So we’ve been trying that too! Sometimes if it gets too much, I reassure that it’s ok to spit the food out and try again.

We also had a big chat about how the throat and food pipe work, how it’s very tricky to choke as the body is so clever, how important it is to eat etc.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.