Echogenic bowel and meconium ileus

C

concernedmom

New member
Hi, my sister-in-law is due with my niece any day.  The baby
had echogenic bowel on all ultrasounds although it was not as
bright on the later ultrasounds.  I have a couple questions
regarding echogenic bowel and the incidence of meconium ileus.
 Has anyone's baby presented with echogenic bowel but did
<b>not</b> have meconium ileus??  Also, for those that did
have meconium ileus, what symptoms did your baby present with?
 In the event she does have meconium ileus, how long is the
typical hospital stay assuming everything goes as planned with the
surgery?   Thanks!!
 
I

izemmom

New member
Sorry, I can't help with the first part of your quesiton - my ultrasounds never showed anything abnormal. Emily was , however, born with meconium illeus. She had a slightly distended belly and some trouble/lack of interest eating by about the second day after birth - before we knew about the mi/cf. By the end of that day, she also had not had a good sized bowel movement (Some small, mucusy ones, but no real "poops" and no eveidence of mec. being passed). That's whenwe transferred to Children's and learned about the cf. We were very lucky, though. Emily never needed surgery to resolve the meconium illeus. Instead, they did frequent rectal irrigations with mucomyst and eventually began flushing throught he upper gi tract, as well. They kept telling us that since her vitals were good and she was responding well to the ng tube feedings we would go "one more day" before operating. That went on for four days. Finally, on the day they said would be the "last chance before surgery" the mucomyst did its trick and she began to pass meconium. She was in the hospital a total of 25 days, mostly because she was premature and had some eating/gaining weight issues. I hope this helps and I hope your niece gets off to a great start. Keep us posted!
 
A

anonymous

New member
My baby did show signs of meconium illeus during ultrasounds. He did have meconium illeus at birth. Please e-mail me at sdelorenzo@sbcglobal.net
I want to forward you some information on the condition that I think would be helpful to your sister. You are very sweet to be finding information for her!
Sharon, mom of Sophia, 5 and Jack, 2 both with cf
 
M

Marjolein

New member
I can't really help you with your first question. I don't think anything was detected before my birth, but i can ask my mom although that will be in two weeks, she is on holiday now. When i was born everything seemed normal although my mom was induced cause she didn't feel me move anymore. After i was born my stomach was ok but after a while (i don't know how long but i don't think that long) my stomach started to get bigger. And i had to go to another hospital by ambulance. They did tests and thought about CF. And after the last x-ray (i think) before the possible surgery, things started to clear. And in the end i didn't need surgery after all.
I don't know if that happens a lot.

But just so you know, things can go relatively well. I thought i'd post this although it doesn't really answer your questions. But it's always nice to hear a somewhat positive story in this difficult time.

Good luck to you and your family!
 
R

Ratatosk

Administrator
Staff member
Normal pregnancy. I don't believe it showed up on DS's ultrasound. When they broke my water, they noticed the amniotic fluid was a little green. They thought DS pooped in the womb, so they had a whole crew from the NICU on hand to suction out a bunch of green goo from him when he was born and he spent a night in the NICU. Next morning we fed him, and he downed the bottle like a maniac. later in the afternoon I went to feed him and he didn't want to eat. He was examined by a neonatologist, who said he was fine. A peditatrician DID mention that he thought he had a LOT of stool in his tummy, but as a new mom, I didn't have a clue that that might be a problem.

Started vomiting green stuff. Xrays showed a blockage. They lifeflighted him to the City and the next morning he underwent surgery to repair the twisted bowel, clean out the blockage, reconstruct, untwist everything.... 1 1/2 of surgery lasted well over 4 hours. We were thrilled that he pooped a couple days later. He ended up getting a couple of infections --- NICUs/hospitals are germy places. Came home about 6 weeks after he was born.
 
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anonymous

New member
We probably would have been released from the hospital after a a week or so; however, DS developed an infection after a week and needed to be on IV antibiotics for two weeks, wasn't gaining weight. Was ready to be released again and still had an infection. Two more weeks of IV antibiotics. Got home for one night and spent another two weeks at the local hospital on iv antibiotics.

We were VERY fortunate that the one and only pediatric surgeon at the local hospital was on vacation and nobody else felt comfortable doing the surgery, so DS was lifeflighted to the a children's hospital about 250 miles away. Was also an accreditted CF facility and a high level NICU. Things could have gone badly if we hadn't been transferred.
 
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Nicole

New member
At about my 20th week of pregnancy the drs saw echogenic bowel. I had an ultrasound about every 2 weeks after that and it remained the same, no better no worse. Danny was born with meconium ileus. Right after birth he looked good--no distended abdomen, they did an x-ray right away. They decided to start feeding him and see if he would go on his own. After about a day and a half (with no poop) his belly began to get distended and hard, did another x-ray and stopped his feeds. They decided to try enemas, one a day, to see if they could get him cleaned out. They did this for about 4 days with no luck. On the 5th day the surgeon came down to watch the enema and she said this isn't working, this kid needs surgery today. So at 5 days he had his surgery and it went well. He was given an ostomy which was repaired at about 3.5 months. The surgeon said his poo was rock hard, there was no way he would have passed it on his own. To make a long story short he was in the hospital for 7 weeks bacause of many issues that kept coming up.
 
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anonymous

New member
My daughter showed an echogenic bowel on ultrasounds but it continued to get better and was gone by the time she was born. When she was born she passed the meconium the first day. So, sometimes when the ecogenic bowel is present it will be OK! She does have CF, but as of right now only takes enzymes.
 
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