my son has a G-J Tube, and it has made a huge difference in his life.  He used to get sick all the time and really just over all had a hard time gaining weight, since he has had the G-J, about a year now he has gained over 6 pounds.  The only draw back is you can't give big volumes of formula at one time right now Cody gets 60 ml/hr about 16 hours a day, so he does have to use a back pack and a smaller machine so he can carry it around, but it doesn't really slow him down, the only time we had a problem was trying to explain the process to his school nurse.  Also a lot of kiddos need venting frequently, but Cody has a venting system called a Farell bag, which until recently I thought all children had, but when we went to St. Louis for his surgery a couple months ago, they had no idea what it was.  The only difference between the G and GJ is that instead of the tube going into the stomach it goes into the Jejenum (sp?) hence the "J"  which is the bottom part of the stomach just before the intestines, that way it is digested quicker.  They found with Cody that he had a delay in his emptying, so we were told that the GJ would work better for him, so it didn't have a chance to slow down.  Have they done an emptying study?  it takes about 3 hours but it can give them a clear picture of what the  problem might be, sometimes if it is a delay they can give meds like Reglan to help speed up the stomachs digestion, the meds didn't work for Cody.  Hope that helps.  Take care..

quadriplegiccpmommy <quadriplegiccpmommy@...> wrote:

HI everyone,
I have a question does anyone know much about gj tubes, if so i would
be interested.I am having trouble getting accurate information.
my son has a g-tube and he vomits frequently and the doctor wants him
to have a gj tube and we have some concerns.

thanks,
Leanne

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