Motility Program

The Motility Program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health is dedicated to evaluating, understanding, and treating your child’s gastrointestinal (GI) motility problems. GI motility is the movement of food and waste along the digestive tract by peristalsis, which is wavelike, coordinated contractions of muscles and nerves. There is complex communication between our brain and our gut that allows us to swallow and propel food through the GI tract and eliminate waste. Issues with gut-brain communication can affect motility of the GI tract, causing symptoms. Our goal is to help manage these issues to help your child feel better.

In our comprehensive multidisciplinary program at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, we diagnose motility disorders via advanced manometry studies, which measure pressure and contractions in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Detailed results help guide your child’s treatment, which can include medication, intestinal rehabilitation, physical therapy, or surgery. We treat patients from birth to young adulthood.

Why choose Stanford Medicine Children’s Health for motility care

• We are one of two pediatric motility programs in Northern California. As one of a handful of programs in the West to offer a full range of motility studies, we help you understand your child’s condition and provide information your doctors may need to manage troubling symptoms.
• Our care is multidisciplinary and personalized to your child’s needs. We partner with other experts within Stanford Children’s and your child’s primary GI doctor to address your child’s digestive symptoms. Our Stanford Children’s neurogastroenterologist (motility specialist) regularly collaborates with specialists in gastroenterology, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal rehabilitation, intestinal transplant, aerodigestive/airway, and otolaryngology (ENT) to help create a customized care plan for your child, one that gets to the root of digestive concerns. We also collaborate with surgeons (general, bariatric, esophageal) for a wide range of pediatric procedures to improve surgical outcomes.
• We offer the latest evidence-based, research-driven care. We are pleased to care for your child with the latest technology, including a full range of manometry testing (anorectal, antroduodenal, colonic, and esophageal), along with EndoFLIP, IB-Stim, pH-impedance (MII) monitoring, EsoFLIP, and gastric electric stimulator interrogation.

Ask your child’s gastroenterologist or primary doctor if a motility study would be helpful for your child.