Hi, my name is Rose Pauley.
I’m a nurse practitioner with Pediatric Gastroenterology at Boys Town Hospital.
I’m here today to talk to you about Breath Hydrogen Testing.
First we will talk about the preparation.
No antibiotics should be taken for at least one week before the test.
The night before, try not to eat anything containing a lot of dairy or food that causes
gas like soda.
There should be nothing to eat or drink except water after midnight the night before the
test.
The night before the test mix up the packet of sugar that comes with the kit with 8 oz.
of water and refrigerate it.
Do not brush teeth in the morning before the test.
Do not smoke or be around smoke during the test and avoid sleeping or vigorous activity
until the test is over.
Label all the tubes with the person’s name and the time of collection.
This is a very key component and should be done accurately.
We will now proceed with the test.
This is the Breath Hydrogen Test that we are going to do today with Connelly.
It comes in a nice little kit like this, has everything you need inside of it.
You will need a scissors but other than that, you won’t need any special equipment.
Inside each box there is a device for blowing.
There’ll be instructions on how to do this.
There is the sugar to mix up into the water and then test tubes.
There’s also a mailer to mail it back, but we’ll talk about that later.
So as I said in the preparation, the sugar has already been mixed in with the water and
kept in the refrigerator overnight.
In your description of the activity, you will see according to weight, how much of this
your child should drink.
It could be anywhere from 2 ounces to 8 ounces.
First of all we have to get a baseline breath sample before the child takes the solution,
so the kit comes with four test tubes and we would label all of these one, two, three,
four, with the name and the date.
First of all we’re going to get a baseline breath sample okay?
There is a little bag right here.
This here is where we collect the breath samples, see right there?
You shouldn’t put your fingers in there or anything and we want you to blow around
this end of the device and keep your lips on there tight okay?
You’re going to blow into this and keep blowing while I get the sample of breath okay?
Just take a regular breath in and out okay, then place the mouthpiece in your mouth with
your lips around it.
Now you start blowing and keep a continuous breath going while I put the tube in and out
okay.
So go ahead and start.
Alright, good job.
So we have our baseline base sample and then now Connelly would drink his solution.
There get it all down.
Normally you would want to have this drink in about five minutes but if they can drink
it right down.
That’s fine.
It’ll be kind of sweet tasting.
Now after they drink the solution, you should set your timer for an hour and we do the second
sample in an hour.
So it’s been an hour, we’re going to repeat this test okay?
The same thing we did before, you’re going to take a regular breath in.
You’re going to blow and keep blowing a constant breath while I push this in and out
okay.
I have tube number two.
So go ahead and start your blow, put your lips all the way around there.
Keep blowing, blowing, blowing, blowing, blowing good job okay.
Now we wait another hour and during this time Connelly can play or more around.
He doesn’t have to sit here the whole time, but he should not eat anything, that is very
important not to eat anything.
He can drink water if he wants but not eat.
Time for our third sample.
Are you ready?
Are you a pro.
Okay start blowing keep blowing, all done.
You’re doing an excellent job.
Make sure when you blow, you’re blowing as hard as you can blow.
You don’t have to take a deep breath though okay.
Our final sample is done three hours after he finished the drink and then we will do
that.
So Connelly put that in your mouth.
You make a tight seal, now start blowing and I will put the tube in and you’re all done.
Good job, we’re all done.
So after the four samples have been collected, again make sure they are marked and labeled
with the time, the date, and the name.
put them in the bubble wrap packaging that comes with the kit.
Seal that up and put it back in the box.
Put some newspaper in there to prevent it from breaking.
Seal the box up, tape it up, put the address label on it as well as the stamps and you
can drop it in the post office back to our clinic and within a week of getting the samples
at our office, we will get back to you with the results.