I'm watching this thread with interest.  As many of you know, Bobby, my
breastfed (pumped milk) son now has a Gtube.  While I have no scientific
journals to back this up, I have personal experience.

We had to keep Bobby NPO for 4 hours before his GI surgery just last month,
but it only involved his stomach, so I'm assuming the involvement of a more
extensive GI tract is why this mother was told 3 days of clear liquids.
But I can tell you that after Bobby's Gtube surgery, one of the criteria
for us to be DC'd was that he had to "tolerate feeds".  In order to do
that, initially about 18 hrs. post op, we started with 30cc pedialyte via
his new Gtube.  In 3 hours, he had to have less than half of that volume
left in his stomach to consider it "tolerated" and to move on to the next
volume.  He met that criteria, having only 5cc residual after 3 hours.
Then we moved up to 60cc (2 ounces) 3 hours later.  Again, he tolerated it,
but the residual was about 1/4, or ~20cc+.  Then we moved on to breastmilk,
60cc.  In three hours, the entire 60 was gone.  Then we went up to 90cc.
At this point, we were tired of the numbers game, and desperately wanted to
go home, so I checked the residual at 1 hr. post feed, and it was all
gone.  The breastmilk was tolerated and digested better than the
pedialyte.  We also saw the same kind of thing happen when he was in the
ICU with the chylothorax, and we gave him the skim breastmilk.  It was
digested much quicker than the pedialyte.

Just my experience.

Just one of the many advantages I am finding out of having a
Gtube...checking breastmilk residuals!  Anybopdy need us for a study?

I also strongly recommend that this child be FIRST case in the morning.
Surgeries are often delayed by the afternoon, and what starts as 4 hrs NPO
turns into an entire day with no food.  First case you are less apt to be
postponed.

Trish

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html