After surgery, your baby will receive care in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. They will be placed in a special bed called an isolette. This bed has an incubator to keep your baby warm.

Your baby may need to be on a breathing machine until organ swelling has decreased and the size of their belly area has increased.

Other treatments your baby will probably need after surgery are:

• Antibiotics
• Fluids and nutrients given through a vein
• Oxygen
• Pain medicines
• An NG tube placed through the nose to drain the stomach and keep it empty.

Feedings are started through the NG tube as soon as your baby’s bowel starts functioning after surgery. Feedings by mouth will start very slowly. Your baby may eat slowly and may need feeding therapy, lots of encouragement, and time to recover after a feeding.

The average stay in the hospital is a few weeks up to 4 months. You may be able to take your baby home once they are taking all foods by mouth and gaining weight.

After you go home, your child may develop a bowel obstruction (a block in the intestines) due to a kink or scar in the intestines.

Most of the time, gastroschisis can be corrected with 1 or 2 surgeries. How well your baby does will depend on how much damage there was to their intestine. After recovery from surgery, most children with gastroschisis do very well and live normal lives.