The hydrogen breath test is a test for bacterial overgrowth, or intolerances to lactose, fructose, or sucrose. He tested negative for the malabsorption portions but he did test positive for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or SIBO for short. Issues with breaking down foods (malabsorption) can cause SIBO but because he doesn't not have an issue with that, his Dr thinks it's because of the structural abnormalities of his colon and small intestine. He has motility issues obviously because of his Hirschsprung's.. So the small intestinal waves as they call (waves of bowel wall muscular activity) them don't function properly which causes the bacteria to overgrow. Kids with Hirschsprung's are prone to slow motility and it is causing his small intestine to not function properly. We aren't sure if this will be a reoccuring situation, it may very well be. We don't know how long this has been a problem because we just started noticing the symptoms after he was sick at Christmas. But looking back we think this is what was causing his issues on and off all summer which subsequently lead to his sedated procedures back in October. That testing would of not caught this as all we were looking at was his large intestine. Right now we are treating with antibiotics (yuck) and then will work to restore the good bacteria. We will also do certain small diet restrictions to keep it under control. We may take him to naturopathic dr, who specializes in SIBO, in Oregon. We haven't really gotten that far yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment