4 Year Old Bloating

[evman99]

Hi

 

We have a 4 year old son who has been having bloating and gas issues for the past 7 months.

 

The symptoms are

 

Bloating of the stomach in the late afternoon/evening (in the morning his tummy is flat)

Wet farts

Sometimes the farts contain clear mucus

Unexplained short height for his age - he is on the 30th percentile for height but both parents and sister are tall

Has a lot of tantrums

 

Other than that he is an alert, smart and active kid

 

He had a blood test for celiac as well as an endoscopy which ruled out celiac.

Today he had a colonoscopy that didn't show anything unusual. 

 

We cut out lactose out of his diet for 3 weeks and that didnt help.

 

I suspect that it might be a gluten/wheat intolerance but the Dr's don't support that and are continuing on their fishing trip to try and pinpoint the cause of his symptoms.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms and cutting out wheat solved the problems ?

 

He is a very fussy eater and his usual meals are

 

breakfast

cornflakes + milk

 

mid morning snack

bread roll with humus

apple

 

lunch/dinner

shnitzel

pasta + cheese

french toast

chicken and rice

potato, beans and cheese

spaghetti bolognaise

 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[stri8ed]

If you suspect it may be a food sensitivity, there is a very simple way to find out. Try an Open Original Shared Link for a few weeks, and see how your son responds. If the symptoms subside, then its clearly a food triggering them.

[GFinDC]

Yes, those kind  of symptoms resolved in me.  Along with many others.  Not everybody tests well for gluten intolerance.  It would be good if you knew what blood antibodie tests they did and what the results were.  There is also a possibility of NCGI (non-celiac gluten intolerance).  Which is actually more common that celiac disease.  Right now there are no tests for NCGI though.  What you can do is trial the gluten-free diet and see what happens.  The gluten-free diet requires avoidance primarily.  No eating wheat, rye, barley or oats.  Some people do fine with oats, others don't.

 

Instead of the regular breads and cookies and such like, look for items marked gluten-free.  And try to get him to eat mostly whole foods that are cooked at home.  Should be easy! (joke)

 

I advise avoiding soy also during the elimination trial.  Many of us react badly to soy.  It's one of the top 8 allergens.

[salexander421]

Yes, if they've already tested for celiac then I would definitely do a gluten free trial. If after a couple weeks you don't see any changes I would also suggest taking all dairy out and see how that goes.

[salexander421]

Could also be yeast overgrowth.

[Juliebove]

Drs. don't always believe in food intolerances.  And although my daughter's symptoms are not those, her gastroenterologist does believe that she has a food intolerance or allergy that we haven't yet ferreted out.  Her case was different though and we think that we found the problem.  Wasn't that at all and doesn't relate here but I did post of it elsewhere here so won't get into that now.

 

What we have done was to go to a Naturopath and have blood tests done.  Not all Naturopaths do this and not all believe in such testing.  And some say the testing isn't all that valid.  But it was a big help for us!  The testing is super expensive though and I don't have thousands of dollars to lay out.  My mom paid for our previous testing but her money is gone now so...  We opted for hair testing this last time.  That showed that my daughter is intolerant to a lot less than she was and I am intolerant to a lot more than I knew!  In both cases there were herbs and spices that we can't have.  And for me?  Mint!  Who would have known.  But changing toothpaste and not eating any mint did resolve some problems I had that I never would have related to it.

 

The last Naturopath we saw said we should get retested every three years and I do intend to do that.  I did not find the hair testing to be overly expensive and I added in the test for vitamin/mineral deficiencies as well.  That test is controversial and some here don't believe in it.  It did seem to help us though.

 

I don't know what country you are in but if you want to start the elimination diet, try eliminating wheat first.  So no more roll unless you can find gluten free ones.  Switch to pasta made of rice.  Get a gluten free flour such as rice or a mix for the Shnitzel.  See if you can find Ian's French Toast Sticks.  They're gluten-free.  If you can't find gluten-free bread or rolls that he likes, you could try a rice cake (not all are gluten-free), corn tortillas or some kind of chips for the hummus.  Daughter even likes it with sliced apples or raw veggies.

 

Beware of cross contamination.  I'm sure there's a thread or area somewhere here.  Might involve buying a few new things, especially for preparing the pasta so that he isn't ingesting old gluten that's lurking around.  And even a minute amount could make him sick if that's the problem.

 

Have him stick to the diet for at least two weeks.  For my daughter we had a big melt down at the two week mark.  She became very sick and cranky, perhaps she was detoxing and then?  I got a new kid.  One who wasn't sick all the time.

 

If gluten isn't the issue, the next most likely culprits would probably be eggs or dairy.  And not just lactose but all dairy.  No yogurt, no cheese, no milk, nothing like that.  Could also be a problem with meat.  I can't have chicken, lamb, fish or shellfish.  Daughter can't have lamb either.