Nighttime Soiling (5 year old)

[sh00148]

Just had my daughter diagnosed and am currently awaiting blood test results for my son.

As well as many bowel issues, mostly loose stools with mucus and lots of gassy moments sometimes leading to leaning stool, he has recently soiled himself in his sleep twice.

He has been toilet trained for a long time, but is not waking up with the poo. It’s not just a little, it’s a lot. 
 

We have had to make an appointment re his blood test results next week so will find out if it is coeliac too but I’m just wondering whether anyone else has had this?

Ive read online that it could mean he’s constipated, but he poos all the time and it’s often soft, never hard. 

[Scott Adams]

Since your daughter has celiac disease some studies show that up to 44% of first degree relatives also have it, and it sounds like it is very likely that your house may be going gluten-free soon, mostly anyway, due to your daughter's recent diagnosis. If you are in the UK (since you spell it "coeliac"), you may get subsidies and other health system benefits if your son is also formally diagnosed, however, the situation you describe would be very difficult to deal with, so I would have him go gluten-free ASAP to see if it helps with his symptoms (but be sure to alert his doctor that you are doing this, and why you are doing it). If his test is positive and his symptoms improve on a gluten-free diet, try to get the doctor to diagnose him without a biopsy, otherwise he would need to eat lots of gluten each day for 2 weeks before doing a biopsy.

I hope things improve for him, and let us know how the test results turn out.

[cristiana]

Hi @sh00148

I am so glad that your son is going to have a blood test next week.    If the blood test is that soon, and he has been consuming normal levels of gluten up until now, he should have had enough exposure to gluten to test positive should you decide to stop the gluten immediately, as Scott suggest. 

However, one thing you may wish to change in the short term instead/as well is to stop him consuming dairy products.  If he is a coeliac, he may have become temporarily dairy intolerant.  The tips of the villi, which line the gut and are damaged in coeliacs, produce lactase, an enzyme essential for the digestion of dairy.  If they are damaged it can contribute to diarrhea and gas.  I had this some months after my own coeliac diagnosis, and it improved no end when I gave up dairy for a while.  Once on a gluten free diet they heal, and most coeliacs can return to consuming dairy.

I would have thought that with those bowel issues in a young child what is happening to him is entirely normal.  

 

Edited November 8, 2024 by cristiana

[sh00148]

Thanks. 
So something has come up on his blood tests and I have an appointment to discuss the findings on Monday.

My son has been soya free and dairy free for a while as we did York food testing to check for allergies intolerances.