We present an amplitude damping channel for Laguerre-Gaussian modes. Our channel is tested experimentally for a Laguerre-Gaussian mode, having an azimuthal index l = 1, illustrating that it decays to a Gaussian mode in good agreement with the theoretical model for amplitude damping. Since we are able to characterize the action of such a channel on orbital angular momentum states, we propose using it to investigate the dynamics of entanglement.