Here I am
Christie for your story ...
Yes, DS had PS ...
It is a rare(ish) condition (1 in 4000 I was told) that occurs mainly in first born boys (not common in girls at all but can happen).
To my knowledge there is no one in our family that had it before.
Generally babies are born appearing healthy and then a few weeks on they start being sick as the Pyloric Sphincter muscle at the base of the stomach thickens and stops food going down into the intestine so comes up instead. As the muscle gets thicker the less food gets through and so eventually the baby gets quite poorly.
DS was pretty sicky from birth, but it got bad pretty quickly. He was 11 days old when I phoned someone about how often he was sick. Our problem was that NO ONE believed me how sick he was ... everyone said it was reflux ("He can't have PS, he is too young").
Baby Gaviscon was prescribed which made him projectile porridge [eeew]
Anyway, he was 3 weeks old when I was pretty desperate, he started losing weight and sleeping a lot (when he wasn't screaming with hunger and throwing up). I used to feed him sitting on the side of the bath, or standing by the kitchen sink because I knew he would be sick . I was still told it was reflux "Babies are sick Mrs Ghosty, it is called Possetting" [bastard GP]
Can you tell I am not bitter?
It was my mother (an old school midwife) that marched us down to her doctor and told them she wasn't leaving until DS was referred
Another bastard doctor at the hospital STILL doubted how sick DS was and told us we were neurotic new parents.
We went back two days later and they saw how much weight DS had lost in those two days ... Indeed he was 7.5lbs at this point but was 10lbs at birth - so his weight loss was pretty dramatic. He also slept 15 hours the previous night
Finally diagnosed with an ultrasound by a very experienced radiologist who then blue lighted DS to Southampton General.
24 hours later (after drips etc to get him rehydrated - he was too sick to operate on immediately) he was operated on and was on the road to recovery. He was exactly 1 month old.
He has a certificate for bravery from the operating team [lip wobble]
I can count on one hand how many times he has vomitted since - he is 7 and a half, is very very fit, strong and healthy and is the best eater I know of his age
Our experience was particularly traumatic, not because of the condition - which IS easy to diagnose and fix, but because of my bastard patronising GP and my stupid HV who would not believe that DS was ill.
It need not be like that for anyone ... I stopped seeing the GP after that (he had been my GP for years).
It used to be a killer of babies but absolutely is NOT now ... it is easily found and fixed. DS has a good looking scar to the left and slightly above his belly button. These days it can be fixed through the belly button so no scar. The operation is a simple 20 minute procedure where they cut the muscle to relax it.
If your sister's baby has it she has nothing to worry about - honestly.
In fact, despite our trauma, I would go so far as to say, I would much rather DS had had PS than he had had proper Reflux ... chucking up for months and months ... yuk.
Oh ... and yes, it was projectile. When I held DS in my arms standing up, he could throw up vertically and it would hit the ceiling (then drip down on my head - nice)
I wouldn't say he was distressed when he threw up that much ... but he was a miserable screamer of a baby anyway so I couldn't tell ... by the end, just before he was diagnosed he used to have the sad old man face that said, "Oh no, not again, I am so fed up with this" ....
HTH