MCADD emergency: glucose infusion when a child keeps vomiting
What happens at the hospital when food intake fails.
- Answers
- What happens when a child with MCADD keeps vomiting and cannot keep food down?
- Topics
- Amsterdam · daddy · mcadd
- Full article on willem.com
- https://willem.com/en/2021-05-04_hospitalised-with-mcadd/
Summary
When my son with MCADD kept vomiting, the hospital put him on a glucose infusion. The sugar enters the bloodstream directly, bypassing the stomach, and he responded almost instantly, averting a metabolic crisis.
Full text
MCADD means the body cannot burn fat properly for energy, so once glucose and glycogen run out, a metabolic crisis follows. Regular eating prevents this, which makes vomiting the danger scenario, especially combined with fever. Our procedure went in steps. First food and sugary drinks, but the fruit pouches came straight back out. I called our doctor at the hospital, which already knows my son and his condition, and picked up a specially prepared fluid meant to deliver sugar with less chance of vomiting. When that came out too and he turned drowsy, we drove to the emergency room. There he was hooked onto a glucose infusion and stayed a few days in the Emma Kinderziekenhuis of the UMC Amsterdam until he ate and drank normally again. Depending on age and body mass a crisis takes hours to develop, but you do not stretch that limit.