necrotizing enterocolitis

[becky7904]

I have an infant that was diagnosed with this disease at birth, however I am not certain that this is exactly what she suffered from.  Is anyone familiar with this disease?

[becky7904]

Thank you so much for all the helpful information.  You have cleared up a lot of gray areas for me.  It was so odd that my daughter even had this disease.  She was far from premature, and weighed 8lbs 10 oz at birth.  I just dont understand what kind of circumstances cause the whole disease.  Can you give me some specific examples?  The intestinal scarring was on the inside... and the surgeon thought maybe it was like that all along.  Would that be considered maybe a birth defect instead of nec?  I understand while her stools are the way they are... I am just wondering what the future holds for her in that respect.  I am not having any luck toilet training her.  She is not even interested, and I am sure that has something to do with it.  The part of her large intesting removed was the first 2/3's adjacent to the small intestine.  That is where the ruptured occurred, right where the two organs meet.  So can you tell me to what extent the remaining intestine will be able to compensate for that lost?

[ozark]

Hi I'm glad shes doing well...Nec usually affects premature infants after the initiation of feedings but sometimes it can happen before feedings begin. An infectious process is going on inflamming the intestine, making it friable and causing air and or stool  to leak out into the abdomen but the cause is unknown. It could also be due to decreased blood supply to that area of bowel in utero for whatever reason. Scarring is due to irritation/inflammation of the bowel or outide in the abdomen.I'm not sure if the scarring was inside her bowel or outside.If it was outside, it was probably due to the rupture. When there is scarring there is constriction of the area If it was inside,, the scarring would cause the inside of her intestine not to absorb anything since the lining is essential for absorbing nutrients and water. Since her surgery was of an urgent nature, it could have been like  that at birth and discovered during her 2nd operation when she was stabler.....it's very hard to know.
Her loose stools are probably due to decreased absorption of water secondary to removal of part of the large intestine and/or secondary to certain foods. Many times the rest of the large bowel will compensate for that lost over time  But it depends on which part of the large intestine was removed.  I hope i answered your questions and good luck in the future.

[becky7904]

My daughter is 3 now.  She went through the whole ostomy process having 2 operations in the first 8 weeks of her life.  The first was to remove the "dead" section of her intestine that had caused a blockage and eventually ruptured.  She had an ostomy for several weeks and the second surgery was to reattach the intestines and restore her to normal function.  My question arises during that second surgery when they discovered that 2/3 of her large intestine were "scarred" shut and had to be removed.  What would cause something like that???  She is doing rather well now aside from pretty much always having loose bowel movements.  These are just questions from way back when that I nevered had answered.  What causes nec?  What happened to her large intestine???

[ozark]

I know about nec pretty much...what questions do you have?  Does your baby have an ostomy? Is he/she in the hospital?   Let me and i'll try to answer ?s if I can.......

[ozark]

I know about nec pretty much...what questions do you have?  Does your baby have an ostomy? Is he/she in the hospital?   Let me and i'll try to answer ?s if I can.......