is it a shunt problem

[mumtotwo]

Hi jamie has been very quiet the last few days, crying at any large noises and squiting his eyes alot. He threw up last night a few times. he wont eat any thing today so far i got him to take 1/4 slice toast a yorgurt and 2 bottles of milk.
i measured his head there and it measrures 49cm where before it was 52? can it get smaller??
Any advise on what it is?

[Dodger67]

How quickly did it go from 52 to 49cm?
It is possible that the shunt is draining too much - so that the pressure is too.
What does his fontanelle look and feel like?

[mumtotwo]

it was about 6weeks ago when i measured it before. so i don't know when it changed
His soft spot is closed and doesn't look any different as far as i noticed.
What causes the shunt to drain too much? If that was the case would it not do that all along and not just start all of a sudden?

[Dodger67]

You should really ask a neurosurgeon these questions.
I don't know if 3cm shrinkage over 6 weeks is significant.

[mumtotwo]

he has perked up a bit this evening i will keep a close eye on him tonight but maybe it was only a bug r teeth r something else a baby gets. lol I get so paranoid if he even sneezes i think it something wrong sb related.
does anyone else have any ideas on if the shunt could all of a sudden start draining too much. He got his shunt in feb09 and theres never been any problems with it since. He had surgery jan10 to drain a cyst in head into his ventricales so shunt could drain it

[Jilleyann]

I just want to pop in and say theres nothing wrong with being 'paranoid', asking questions or taking him for a quick shunt series to check on everything, peace of mind is a rarity in the lives of sb parents, so force someone to give it to you! I would make an appointment with his Neuro, and start documenting any signs you see, times and dates included, also measuring his head more frequently will help you really alleviate the 'what if's' It's actually so refreshing to see other moms with the same worries as I get, just keep in mind that babies have moods too, make that appointment and keep us posted, good luck ^.^

[LillyPie]

Lillys used to drain to much, but it was because it is a programmable shunt and it was set at the highest level of drainage, no one knows how it got that way, but since her last MRI and reprogramming the level, she has had no problems.

Lilly is sensitive to sounds, she has been since infancy, its better now than it was then, but mostly because she is a little older now and she can tell herself that its just loud noises and that everything is OK. As a baby who couldnt communicate with words her only way of communicating how she felt around loud noises was to cry and freak out.

Kids get viruses, and infections with SB or without. It was so stressful at first because anytime she couged, threw up, had a fever, or slept a lot I FREAKED out, because of my own fears but now I understand that she woulda gotten fevers, coughs thrown up even if she didnt have SB... But like I said I know that FEAR, the ANXIETY... its scary. Its sometimes hard to follow your mommy instincts when "that fear" is involved, because everything says "SOMERTHING IS WRONG". Just gain as much knowledge as you can and live everyday like there is no tomorrow....

JENN

[mumtotwo]

thank you for the surport i feel alot better after reading that. He is going for a mri next thur anyway so going to ring the neuro and say i have a few concerns and for him to look at results right away instead of waiting for next appointment.
but jamie dosed at moment and got back teeth comming through so think that was playing on him.

[lsanchez]

if he has a vp shunt then it will be easy to reset it takes about 2 seconds...my son had it set up too drain alot when he was born and slowed it down about 3 times, the DR told me that she doesnt like the shunt to drain all the liquid because then the shunt is just sitting there and its easier to get an infection, as if it had a some liquid it would float on top ..Make sense?lol when my son had his first shunt revision it took me about 4 days to figure out it was the shunt , it wasnt until his left eye started turning in. so hopefullly is just a bug your son caught because i know everytime my son throws up i freak out and think is his shunt