Digestive problems in children range from the everyday to the complex. A baby with persistent reflux, a toddler with chronic constipation, a school-age child with recurrent abdominal pain that keeps them home from school, a teenager with inflammatory bowel disease managing a condition that will be with them for life. Each of these situations requires a different level of expertise, but they share one important common ground: they are better managed by a specialist who understands the developing gut and liver in children than by a generalist working from adult protocols.
The Paediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology service at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura provides specialist assessment and management of digestive, nutritional, and liver conditions in children from newborns through to adolescence. Our team brings dedicated expertise in the full range of paediatric gastrointestinal and hepatic conditions, with access to advanced endoscopic procedures performed specifically for children in a child-appropriate environment.
Why Children's Digestive Conditions Need a Specialist
The gastrointestinal system in children is not simply a scaled-down adult system. The normal patterns of bowel function, the presentation of symptoms, the causes of specific conditions, and the management approaches that are safe and appropriate all differ significantly with age. A condition like coeliac disease looks different in a toddler than in a teenager. Inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed in childhood requires a management approach that accounts for growth, pubertal development, and the psychosocial impact of chronic illness in young people. Liver disease in children encompasses conditions that are uniquely paediatric and require specialist diagnostic and therapeutic expertise.
Getting the diagnosis right in childhood and managing conditions appropriately from the outset protects the child's growth, nutritional status, and long-term organ health in ways that delayed or inadequate management cannot recover.
Conditions We Manage
Our paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology team at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura manages a wide range of conditions:
Gastrointestinal conditions
- Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease — including assessment and management in infants and older children, distinguishing normal infant reflux from pathological disease requiring treatment
- Chronic abdominal pain — including functional abdominal pain disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia, which are common in school-age children and require careful assessment to exclude organic causes
- Inflammatory bowel disease — including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, managed with the specific protocols appropriate for paediatric disease including exclusive enteral nutrition in Crohn's disease and close monitoring of growth and pubertal development
- Coeliac disease — diagnosed through serology and endoscopic biopsy and managed with a strict lifelong gluten-free diet with ongoing nutritional monitoring
- Constipation and faecal incontinence — common and often undertreated in children, managed through a structured combination of dietary, behavioural, and medical approaches
- Eosinophilic oesophagitis — an increasingly recognised cause of swallowing difficulties and food impaction in children, requiring endoscopic assessment and specific dietary or medical management
- Intestinal failure and short bowel syndrome — in children requiring parenteral nutrition and specialist nutritional rehabilitation
- Gastrointestinal bleeding — investigated and managed endoscopically where appropriate
- Foreign body ingestion — which is common in young children and requires endoscopic removal when the object is in a position or of a type that poses risk
Liver and hepatology conditions
- Neonatal jaundice and cholestasis — including investigation and management of prolonged jaundice in newborns to identify and treat conditions including biliary atresia, neonatal hepatitis, and metabolic liver disease
- Viral hepatitis — including hepatitis A, B, and C in children, managed with appropriate monitoring and antiviral treatment where indicated
- Autoimmune liver disease — including autoimmune hepatitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, requiring immunosuppressive management and long-term follow-up
- Metabolic liver diseases — including Wilson's disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and fatty liver disease associated with obesity
- Liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension — including management of complications and preparation for liver transplantation when indicated
- Liver transplant follow-up — post-transplant immunosuppression management, monitoring for rejection and complications, and long-term hepatological care
Advanced Endoscopic Procedures
Our service at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura includes a full range of endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic procedures performed specifically for children, under appropriate paediatric anaesthesia:
- Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for assessment of the oesophagus, stomach, and duodenum
- Colonoscopy for assessment of the colon and terminal ileum
- Endoscopic biopsy for diagnosis of coeliac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, eosinophilic oesophagitis, and other mucosal conditions
- Endoscopic foreign body removal
- Variceal band ligation and sclerotherapy for the management of oesophageal varices in children with portal hypertension
- Oesophageal and pyloric stricture dilatation
- Colonoscopic polypectomy for removal of colonic polyps
All endoscopic procedures are performed using equipment sized for children and in a setting designed to minimise distress and maximise safety for patients of all ages from infancy through adolescence.
Nutritional Assessment and Support
Nutritional status is closely linked to gastrointestinal and liver health in children, and our team places significant emphasis on nutritional assessment and support alongside disease management. Growth faltering, micronutrient deficiency, and the nutritional demands of conditions like inflammatory bowel disease and liver disease are all addressed as integral parts of the management plan, in coordination with our paediatric nutrition team at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura.
Why Choose KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura
Paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology requires a team that combines clinical expertise in children's digestive and liver conditions with access to advanced endoscopic technology used safely in children. At KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura, our team operates within a fully integrated children's hospital, with direct access to paediatric surgery, nutrition, pathology, radiology, and the ILDS liver transplant programme at KIMS Hospitals for the most complex hepatic cases.
For families in East Bengaluru, Whitefield, and Marathahalli, having specialist paediatric digestive and liver care close to home makes the regular monitoring and follow-up that these conditions require considerably more manageable.
Book a Consultation
If your child has a digestive, nutritional, or liver condition requiring specialist assessment, our team at KIMS Cuddles at KIMS Hospitals, Mahadevapura is here to help. Book an appointment online or by phone.
