Getting Run Around With Gastro

[averyannsmom]

Hi again,

It's us again. 8 month old preemie with chronic diarrhea for 2.5 months and GERD. We started with breastfeeding and then moved thru all the formulas. Currently, she is on elecare for 14 days and it is doing nothing for her...and in fact she is now having some black flecks in her diarrhea. Gastro ordered hemmocult (assume to check for blood in the stool because of the flecks). DD did much better on Alimentum Ready to feed. It wasn't great...she still had mucus and occasional diarrhea or watery stools, but some were nice and thick. I think it must have something to do with Corn. Alimentum RTF is not made with corn syrup solids (i think that means corn starch), but even elecare...they prescription hypoallergenci stuff is made with corn syrup solids....go figure. Anyone else have this problem?

In the meantime, gastro wants us to give DD rice cereal, apples, bananas and other "constipating" foods to try and thicken her stools. I think this is just covering up a symptom of a bigger issue. I will try it for a week, but that is it. If it causes things to be worse, I will stop.

err...I just keep getting the run around. As long as she is gaining weight...they don't really care.

[genicol]

I'm sorry to hear this...but I know how you feel. My daughter's dr. did the same exact thing when she was almost 1. I took her b/c she had d for so long, and all he did was say take her home and put her on the B.R.A.T. diet. Little did I know that she couldn't tolerate the toast! Needless to say, the diet didn't help her, just made her worse. She wasn't real thrilled with eating the toast, but I got her to eat as much as I could because I thought that it was the right thing to do. Since then we have switched dr's, and her new pediatrician was the one that sent us to the GI specialist!

Good luck with everything!

[averyannsmom]

It really worries me because it is the GI specialist who is giving us this advice...trying to constipate her. Hopefully they will take us seriously whne my tests come back. I took a test in "going against the grain" Anything higher than a score of 30 indicates at a minimum a gluten intolerance and possibly celiac..I scored a 79.

Thanks for your encouragement!

I'm sorry to hear this...but I know how you feel. My daughter's dr. did the same exact thing when she was almost 1. I took her b/c she had d for so long, and all he did was say take her home and put her on the B.R.A.T. diet. Little did I know that she couldn't tolerate the toast! Needless to say, the diet didn't help her, just made her worse. She wasn't real thrilled with eating the toast, but I got her to eat as much as I could because I thought that it was the right thing to do. Since then we have switched dr's, and her new pediatrician was the one that sent us to the GI specialist!

Good luck with everything!

[Izak's Mom]

I know how you feel too - my little Izak is going to be ONE tomorrow (eek!) and we've been gluten-free since he was about 8 mos. for exactly the same reason: chronic D. Like gross, explosive, mucous/watery nasty poop. We went to the doc probably 4 times in as many weeks and they did a stool sample for parasites and all that - everything came back fine. I tried taking him off dairy (cheese, yogurt, etc. but not formula - we do regular Similac) with no success, then his ped. suggested taking him off wheat. That did it - after about two weeks, my son actually made a real turd which was a big to-do after having to wash every single stitch of bedding for like a month straight cause of the poop explosions. We never made it to a GI specialist and at this point, I don't think we need it - I don't think he has full blown Celiac because he's a total porkchop...no weight issues here. But he definitely has issues with gluten and this diet has been the best thing since he discovered he could suck on his feet! I would suggest experimenting with her diet to see if eliminating gluten helps (at 8 mos. she probably eats a fair amount of solids?) Izak eats a banana (sometimes 2) just about every day, and rice is definitely a staple food at our house. Apples I find actually make him looser than tighter, so we're careful about having too much fruit - but he has yogurt and cheese just about every day too. Good luck with your detective work...it seems like sometimes that's just what you've got to do when you know something's awry and the docs aren't helping.

[averyannsmom]

She hasn't had a stitch of solids in 1.5 months because we were trying to rule out anything allergenic. And prior to this all happening she was only getting about 2 teasponfuls of baby foods a day because pedi wants her on themost calories (formula) she can get because she is so small from being early (8months, 24.25" and 13.5lbs). At 24 calorie formula she is just keeping up with being at the 25th%tile for a 6 month old (her adjusted age). It all started when I gave her baby oatmeal for one day....the D started and then the mucus. Since then she has had nothing but formula..... Gastro said she can have all the constipating solids she wants....but I know pedi is not going to like that...I will talk to him tomorrow.

Glad Izak is doing better!

K

I know how you feel too - my little Izak is going to be ONE tomorrow (eek!) and we've been gluten-free since he was about 8 mos. for exactly the same reason: chronic D. Like gross, explosive, mucous/watery nasty poop. We went to the doc probably 4 times in as many weeks and they did a stool sample for parasites and all that - everything came back fine. I tried taking him off dairy (cheese, yogurt, etc. but not formula - we do regular Similac) with no success, then his ped. suggested taking him off wheat. That did it - after about two weeks, my son actually made a real turd which was a big to-do after having to wash every single stitch of bedding for like a month straight cause of the poop explosions. We never made it to a GI specialist and at this point, I don't think we need it - I don't think he has full blown Celiac because he's a total porkchop...no weight issues here. But he definitely has issues with gluten and this diet has been the best thing since he discovered he could suck on his feet! I would suggest experimenting with her diet to see if eliminating gluten helps (at 8 mos. she probably eats a fair amount of solids?) Izak eats a banana (sometimes 2) just about every day, and rice is definitely a staple food at our house. Apples I find actually make him looser than tighter, so we're careful about having too much fruit - but he has yogurt and cheese just about every day too. Good luck with your detective work...it seems like sometimes that's just what you've got to do when you know something's awry and the docs aren't helping.