About Pediatric Gastroenterology
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What is pediatric gastroenterology?
This is a subspecialty of medicine that focuses on dealing with liver, digestive system or nutritional diseases and disorders in infants, children, and adolescents.
Who is a pediatric gastroenterologist? This is a gastroenterologist who has specialized in treating children with diseases and disorders of the digestive system, liver, and nutritional problems. Such problems are usually different in pediatric patients than in adults and require the special training and experience of a pediatric gastroenterologist.
Training Pediatric gastroenterologists are medical doctors who have had at least 4 years of medical school, at least 3 years of residency in pediatrics and at least 3 years additional training in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition. Additional training also includes medical research, diagnosis, and treatment.
Why see a pediatric gastroenterologist? When your child suffers from a disease or disorder of the digestive system or liver or has nutritional problems the most qualified person to treat them is a pediatric gastroenterologist. This is because they have special training and expertise to perform diagnostic tests of your child’s digestive system.
Pediatric gastroenterologists use special equipment such as endoscopes to examine the digestive tract. They can obtain biopsies when they do the examination. They decorate their offices with children in mind to make them relax. Pediatric gastroenterologists understand that children may find it difficult to answer medical questions. They know how to interact with children so that they can be cooperative.
Pediatric gastroenterologists have the expertise to manage nutritional problems in children. This includes placing and monitoring feeding tubes and intravenous nutrition. They diagnose and treat infants, children, and adolescents with liver disease.
Gastroenterology team The pediatric gastroenterology team includes specialists who work tirelessly together to provide the best care for your child. They include:
- Pediatric gastroenterologists
- Nurse practitioners
- Transplant hepatologist
- Social worker
- Nutritionist
- Pediatric psychologist
Conditions treated by pediatric gastroenterologists include: - Food allergies and intolerance such as lactose intolerance
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Severe gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- Gastrointestinal tract bleeding
- Short bowel syndrome
- Acute or chronic abdominal pain
- Short gut syndrome
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Liver disease
- Chronic constipation
- Nausea and vomiting
- Feeding disorders
- Chronic diarrhea
- Nutritional problems such as obesity, malnutrition, and failure to thrive
- Pancreatic insufficiency
- Hepatitis B
- Meckel's Diverticulum
- Celiac disease
- Encopresis
- Crohn's disease
- Abnormal intestinal contractions
- Hepatitis C
- Liver transplantation
- Constipation
- Small bowel transplantation
- Encopresis
- Jaundice
- Hirschsprung's Disease
- Indigestion (dyspepsia)
- Eosinophilic esophagitis
- Jaundice
- Pancreatitis
- Swallowed foreign bodies
- Ulcerative colitis
- Colic
- Esophageal varices (abnormal veins in the esophagus)
- Metabolic Disorders
- Polyps in the colon
Tests and procedures performed by pediatric gastroenterologists include: - Endoscopy: This is a procedure used to look inside the body using an instrument called an endoscope. It uses a flexible tube that has attached to it a small camera and a light. The procedure can allow for the taking of samples of tissue, removing tumors, treating certain diseases, stopping bleeding and removal of foreign bodies.
- Capsule endoscopy
- Rectal suction biopsy
- Colonoscopy
- Percutaneous liver biopsy
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy
- Impedance testing
- Therapeutic endoscopy: foreign body removal, control of variceal bleeding(sclerotherapy), esophageal dilatation, banding, polypectomy
- Enteral access: gastrojejunal tube placement, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube placement
- Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
- Intraesophageal pH monitoring: Bravo pH, pH probe
- Diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy
Learn more about Pediatric Gastroenterology