New and Confused

[hazelleviosa]

Hello! New to this site and message boards in general, I hope I do it right  .  I'm sure you guys probably get so tired of the same questions, but in my lurking I've seen you guys give some good advice, and I'm a little lost in all this. My 15 month old daughter started having loose stools when we started solids, so around 6 months.  Loose as in they were never normal, always degrees of loose, runny, food chunks, sometimes mucus, sometimes bad diaper rashes etc.  Around 12 months I took her off dairy for several weeks, and that made no difference.  A few weeks ago I took her off gluten.  It took almost two weeks, but we had normal stool for the first time in ages.  I got hopeful.  Then she had a small amount of gluten a week ago.  Since then her stools have been back to loose etc.  I was hoping by now things would have been headed back to normal, since she's been off gluten for a little over a week, , but if anything it's getting worse.  In this process I have learned that her great-grandmother had Celiac, not sure if that's a close enough connection for her to have the gene. I'm not aware of anyone else in the family that has it.  I do intend to test her at some point if we continue to have issues, and I understand that I will need to do a gluten challenge before that.  I'm not ready to do it at this point, the last blood draw she had was a scream until you puke trauma thing, not ready to do that to her again.   She has been tested for the standard food and environmental allergies, and those were all negative.  I know gluten issues can cause dairy issues, so is removing dairy my next step? Or is it just taking her this long to get back to regular stools after a small amount of gluten? Or is it something else all together? Too many variables! 

[Ennis-TX]

Not a medical practitioner or anything but my mother would tell me stories that make alot of sense now that we know. Back when I was a baby, they learned quickly I did not stomach most grain based baby food or dairy. She says they had to feed me sorghum porridge, and some kind of special non dairy formula mix with sorghum malt.

There are way to many variables with a young child. It could many many things, I might suggest trying a non dairy yogurt also to get some probiotics perhaps, blend it with some soft pre cooled steamed veggies, try to get a balanced blend if you can.  SOO sorry I wish I knew more about diets for kids that young and could be of more help. For adults I might suggest digestive enzymes but for a child like that I am at a bit of a loss. Try talking to your doctor about the enzyme idea? Something to help get more nutrients out of the food, I know at that young of a age loose stools can cause all kinds of nutrient absorption issues.

[GFinDC]

3 hours ago, hazelleviosa said:

  I know gluten issues can cause dairy issues, so is removing dairy my next step? Or is it just taking her this long to get back to regular stools after a small amount of gluten? Or is it something else all together? Too many variables! 

If you are not going to have her tested now, yes, dairy is a good thing to remove for a while (several months).  Our immune systems don't stop working the minute a germ is killed. They are always active and ready to protect us.  Antibodies will (usually) decline over the course of several weeks to months.  Antibodies are the immune system response to a germ or gluten in the case of celiac disease.  Antibodies are what kills germs and our intestinal cells if we (celiacs) eat gluten.  Healing and recovery from celiac can take 18 months or more.  But children may tend to heal somewhat faster.  Or not, there is no guarantee.

[CeliacMommaX2]

On 5/6/2017 at 3:16 PM, hazelleviosa said:

 In this process I have learned that her great-grandmother had Celiac, not sure if that's a close enough connection for her to have the gene. I'm not aware of anyone else in the family that has it.  

I just wanted to chime in that we have 2 children diagnosed (at ages 3 and 4 1/2) with their great aunt as the closest known celiac.  We now suspect at least another great aunt and maybe grandmother also had/have celiac but don't have confirmed diagnoses.  Remember, that a large number of celiacs (80%?) are undiagnosed as the symptoms vary so drastically.  

Best wishes for your daughter's health!