narrow duodenum

[k8bailey]

I have a 4month old baby girl who has been throwing up since birth and her weight gain has been slow because of this.

After several trips to the hospital and various formulas, medications etc for reflux and cows milk protien allergy, they finally did an abdominal ultrasound last week and the sonographer said that her stomach looked very full considering she'd not been fed for 2hours and had just been sick all over her dad and the waiting room floor!!

They said that they could't tell from an ultrasound but it could be that her duodenum is too narrow meaning that food is moving very slowly from the stomach to the intestines? (I think!)

Has anyone heard of this before? I was told that futher tests would be done but as we haven't seen the consultant yet I don't know what these are - any ideas?
What (if any) is the treatment for this type of thing?

TIA
k8 and (pukey) Nancy.x

[Eve]

Could be Plyloric Stenosis?

some info here and more on Google.

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23069167/

[sqad617]

Pyloric stenosis is certainly a possibility, but you you mention the word duodenum. If you Google duodenal atresia, there is a condition which would account for the symptoms. 4 months is a bit late for both of these conditions, so it could turn out that neither is an apropriate diagnosis.
Further investigations would include blood tests and looking down with a camera (endoscopy). The treatment of pyloric stenosis and duodenal atresia is surgery, but as mentioned I would not put my money on either diagnosis.

[k8bailey]

Thanks for those answers.

We've been told that it's unlikely to be pyloric stenisis due to her age and coz she's a girl. TBH I didn't realise where the pylorus was so thanks for the link Jenna.

I've just had a look at duodenal atresia but whatever my daughter has doesn't seem that exteme. She doesn't projectile vomit and is putting on a bit of weight.

It was the sonographer who mention the duodenum specifically I should have asked more questions but there wasn't much time.

Can a person have a mild form of either duodenal atresia or pyloric stenosis? which may explain why her symptoms are slightly less severe

[sqad617]

No, you either have pyloric stenosis, duodenal atresia or not....there are no minor degrees of.
It sounds as though itis nothing to worry about.

[petal54]

hi,sorry to hear re your wee girl,i had pyloric stenosis & i'm a 'girl'(now an old bat according to kids),also my son had it,we were both 6wks old,my dad had it but was older & did not need an op.my son & i both did have ops,son now 6ft 4".but son & me would've not survived without an op,so sounds like something else.best wishes

[nubio36]

Hey everybody - this is basically in case somebody else falls on this post. I know usually forums are out of date but I HAD to reply to follow up on this. You see, I'm a 30 year old female with a dairy protein allergy, I get nauseous very easily, and I digest extremely slowly. I went for an ultrasound for stomach pain a year ago and was asked to drink a liter of water an hour before so that I would have a full bladder (you know, because they were so sure it was my uterus because I'm a woman after all) anyways, the point is that I did as I was told and the ultrasound technician said that my bladder was hardly full at all but my stomach was full of water! Then of course I spent the next 4 hours needing to pee periodically because that's how slow the stupid water went down my digestive tract. Another thing that's odd, when I hiccup it squeeks and this is also something that happened around the same time as the rest of the digestive symptoms. My husband studies biology and chemistry and he suggested the narrow duodenum might cause both these issues.