Eosinophilic Esophagitis

The symptoms for adults and children can differ slightly. The main symptoms for adults include:

• Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
• Food getting stuck in your esophagus while eating
• Acid reflux
• Chest pain
• Upper stomach pain
• No response to acid reflux medication
• Cough

The main symptoms for children include:

• Difficulty feeding (infants)
• Difficulty eating (children)
• Stomach and abdominal pain
• Vomiting
• Dysphagia
• Poor growth, weight loss, malnutrition
• Impaction (food stuck in the esophagus)

If you or your child are experiencing any combination of these symptoms, or take over-the-counter (OTC) heartburn medication more than twice a week, make an appointment with your nearest GI Alliance gastroenterologist today.

Treatment for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) primarily focuses on treating the symptoms of the condition. If you are experiencing symptoms caused by food allergies your physician will most likely recommend that you refrain from eating triggering foods. Patients are often encouraged to follow the six-food elimination diet (SFED), excluding wheat, milk, eggs, nuts, soy, fish, and shellfish from their diet for a period of time. Symptoms are monitored closely, and individual foods are slowly added back into the diet to determine which foods are triggering the reaction. Some medications may be prescribed such as topical steroids or a proton pump inhibitor. If symptoms continue to persist, your physician might recommend dilation. Dilation is a treatment to help stretch your esophagus to make swallowing easier.