Sand-like Or Grainy Stools

[e&j0304]

I know that Ella's stools used to be like this (pre gluten-free diet), so maybe this is just my kids, but can it be due to gluten? I have the feeling that ds got into something because he has been having diarrhea again for days. It is also very sandy or grainy in consistency and it is making his little bottom RAW. He is miserable.

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with their children. There is not much I could find online about it.

Thanks for any info you all can provide!

[Lymetoo]

I know that Ella's stools used to be like this (pre gluten-free diet), so maybe this is just my kids, but can it be due to gluten? I have the feeling that ds got into something because he has been having diarrhea again for days. It is also very sandy or grainy in consistency and it is making his little bottom RAW. He is miserable.

I was just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with their children. There is not much I could find online about it.

Thanks for any info you all can provide!

I think mine were that way. Not sure what you're describing. Mine sort of "fell apart" in the toilet sometimes. Very strange looking.

[e&j0304]

My kids' stools almost look like they literally ate sand from a sandbox. It is very hard to get off their skin with baby wipes.

We don't have a sandbox and they have not been around one, so I know that's not what it is.

No doctor that we have brought this up with has been able to help us.

Just wondering if anyone on here had experienced it.

Thanks for your help!

[e&j0304]

ok. I've just spent almost an hour looking online for information about sandy or grainy stools and have found pretty much NOTHING!!!

Maybe my kiddos are just weird. I do have to get a new prescription diaper rash cream for ds though. His little bottom is now bleeding from the diarrhea. I've never seen a diaper rash this bad before and I feel so badly for him.

[evie]

ok. I've just spent almost an hour looking online for information about sandy or grainy stools and have found pretty much NOTHING!!!

Maybe my kiddos are just weird. I do have to get a new prescription diaper rash cream for ds though. His little bottom is now bleeding from the diarrhea. I've never seen a diaper rash this bad before and I feel so badly for him.

When I felt I had been glutened, had D, I also felt like my stools had acid in them. Left me very sore!! Was rather painful, that was when I tried to drink extra water. Is your child celiac? I know it is hard to keep them from eating all gluten free if others want to give them a treat. Hope for a better day for you and family. evie

[Nantzie]

Both my kids have had this where it's nearly impossible to get all the little tiny things off them. You pretty much have to pick each one off. (Neither of my kids are gluten-free, but we're getting them tested through Enterolab as we can afford it.)

I have done searches on it too, and have found other people asking about it, but no answers. I've seen it described as grainy, seedy, sandy or cornmeal-like. Somehow it wouldn't be so disturbing if it wasn't so hard to get it off their little bottoms.

With my son, I've noticed that it happens when he gets dairy, with the raw rash going with it. Dairy intolerance can be a symptom of celiac.

Nancy

[Nantzie]

Well, I consulted the experts. I just sent off an email to Enterolab. If anyone would have noticed a connection between celiac and grainy stools, it would be Dr. Fine.

I'll post the email when I get a response.

Nancy

[e&j0304]

Thank you, Nancy! I will be looking for your post with the answer. I really want to get to the bottom of this for him!

Sometimes I do wonder about dairy, but he eats yogurt and cheese with no problem. He seems to have a hard time with cow's milk though and usually drinks soy.

Again, thanks for your help!

Evie,

My kids are both gluten free although they may or may not have celiac. My dd was tested through enterolab and was positive for gluten intolerance. My ds had celiac testing and it was negative. However, once on the gluten-free diet his "toddler diarrhea" cleared up and he was much healthier. We think he got glutened and that is why he is having diarrhea again right now.

[momothree]

Hi there. I've posted about this exact problem with my little girl (now 21 months old) and didn't really get anywhere with it. I'm so glad to see it come up again and I am literally on the edge of my seat to find out what comes back from the Enterolab doc. Both of my older kids (12 and 10yrs) have been recently diagnosed, but when I had my babe's blood work done it came back with some bizarre number like -2 or something like that. Now I know that she is too young to get an accurate diagnosis from blood work. However, I have had her on the gluten-free diet like her sibs for about 2 months now and we have definitely noticed a difference. She didn't really have a problem with D, but was alternating between constipation and kind of mucky poops that were full of sand-like particles. I had nothing but shrugged shoulders and blank stares from the med. community where I live and had almost given up on the answer. Now, they are mostly solid, sometimes a little soft, but NEVER sandy anymore. I can't wait to see if this is common with celiac, then, with both of her sibs having it--I will pretty much have my answer too. THANKS!

[mle-ii]

I found this, though it's for too much iron and in pregnant women.

Can I get too much iron?

There is a condition in which the liver gets overloaded with iron, but this is extremely rare in healthy reproductive-age women. The most common iron-related problem in pregnancy is that taking two or three 325 mg iron supplements a day can cause abdominal cramping, dark green and grainy stools, and constipation. The body only can absorb the equivalent of two supplements at most, so taking any more is not helpful--and very hard on the digestive system. Even the small amount of iron in a prenatal vitamin can cause some women to become constipated; conversely, some actually get diarrhea from iron.

Open Original Shared Link

[Nantzie]

I got an email from Enterolab customer service saying that Phyllis (the nurse there) is on vacation, and will be returning next week. They are saving my email so that she can respond to it when she gets back.

Nancy

[e&j0304]

Nancy,

Thanks so much for following up on that. I am really looking forward to hearing what they have to say. I appreciate that you took the time to e-mail them!

Thanks again,

Shannon

[Nancym]

I googled this yesterday and found a reference to babies being breastfed sometimes have grainy poo.

[Nantzie]

I do remember that about breastfeeding now that you mention it. I see that your son is 1 year Shannon. Are you still breastfeeding? My son is 2.5 and hasn't been breastfed in a long time. There doesn't seem to be a real obvious pattern of grainy stools that comes up in discussion here, so I'm leaning toward dairy maybe. But then, dairy can cause problems in early celiac too. I'm hoping Enterolab has seen a pattern of one sort or another with this grainyness.

Nancy

[e&j0304]

Nancy,

No, my son is no longer breastfed. We stopped right at a year old and he will be 2 in November. My daughter also had this symptom before going gluten free when she was between the ages of 2-3.

I hope we find some answers. It sure is weird!

Thanks again,

Shannon

[momothree]

My daughters BM's were perfectly normal until she was about 9 or 10 months old. I was still breastfeeding, but she started solids at about 6.5 months. After we stopped breastfeeding, at about a year, the grainy poops continued. She still drinks plenty of milk, but after going gluten-free things improved considerably.

[azmom3]

ok. I've just spent almost an hour looking online for information about sandy or grainy stools and have found pretty much NOTHING!!!

Maybe my kiddos are just weird. I do have to get a new prescription diaper rash cream for ds though. His little bottom is now bleeding from the diarrhea. I've never seen a diaper rash this bad before and I feel so badly for him.

My daughter had a diahrea episode when she was about 6 months old that lasted about a week with probably 30-50 times per day. It was awful! She was drinking great to make up for it and never got too dehydrated, but her whole bottom area was completely raw and bleeding. The doctor recommended (whenever possible) to let her be naked. Now that's not very realistic with a baby and people's schedules, but when I had the time, I would put her on a blanket with a pad and just let her play naked, clean everything up and start again. It was messy and time-consuming, but at least I saved on all the diapers and got her cleaned up before the diahrrea sat for a while and did more damage. Also, I'm sure they told you this already, but whenever possible, rinse him off as opposed to wiping him and either let him airdry or dry with a hairdryer on a low setting. When I'd be out some where, I'd rinse a baby wipe off really good before using it on her and then just pat it clean the best I could. Good luck to you and your little guy...it's not fun for either one of you.

[Nantzie]

Here's the response I got from Enterolab:

Dear Nancy, Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer to your question yet. It could be an inability to fully digest grains in general due to an immature digestive system. I'm sorry I am unable to give you more information at this time, but I will try to broach the subject with Dr. Fine when he is back in town. Perhaps he will have a more learned answer for us. Sincerely, Phyllis Zermeno, RN, BSN Clinical Manager

And, azmom, I remember one of my kids having a bad rash, and it was amazing how much keeping a diaper off helped, especially combined with a little bit of sunlight.

Well, I'll keep everybody posted if I hear anything new from Dr. Fine.

Nancy

[AndreaB]

I've noticed my son's stool is grainy like sand too. He's almost 4 and not potty trained yet, unfortunately. I always ask him if he's been playing in the sand, eating sand. We are gluten free now for almost 2 months, but still dairy light. None of us is intolerant to dairy but I haven't had allergy testing done on the kids. I'm mildly allergic. His vitamins are vegan since we just came off a vegan diet in April and they have 10 mg of iron. He's not eating much meat yet so I wasn't too worried about it. They don't always have them every day, but I'll have to pay attention to vitamin consumption and grainy stool. I was also curious about that. Don't know about my daughter since she is potty trained.

[e&j0304]

Thanks for posting that response.

For now, Jack's diarrhea has cleared up and he is doing great. His stools are normal, not grainy and his diaper rash is pretty much healed although you can still see where it was bleeding because it's still kind of red there.

I hope all of our little ones stay healthy for a long, long time!!

Shannon

[Nantzie]

That's great that he's doing better. Crossing fingers that he keeps healing.

Ya know, the actual sand-eating thing was never a factor for me. So I'm sure that's not it, at least in my case. I had such bad pain that I wasn't able to take my kids to the park (or anywhere else for that matter...). My husband built a sandbox in our back yard, but didn't put a cover on it (which I told him to of course...). Within a week, it was the favorite hangout of all the neighborhood cats. BLECH. I think my kids played in it twice before that happened.

Nancy

[KayJay]

Just wondering if anyone ever found out the cause for the grainy stools. Maddie has had them this week and the only new thing she has had the last few weeks is Milk and Dora the explore cereal. I was changing her grainy sandy diaper the other day and I was reminded of this thread so I thought I would check it.

[Nantzie]

You know, I never did hear anything back on this from Enterolab.

My son hasn't had the grainyness in a long while. He's been gluten-free for a few weeks now, and I don't know how long it has been since he had milk. I'm thinking maybe it's a dairy thing? Like maybe it's little curds? (I know, ick..)

Nancy

[Ursa Major]

A new member named Elvi tried posting, but hit the 'report' button instead. This is what she said:

I too have a 12 month old who has been pooping very grainy soft stools. right now he is being tested for celiac, the blood work came back normal but he had an upper endoscopy where they took biospy's to test for celiac and other possible diseases. he has been diagnosed with failure to thrive. doctors really feel that their is something wrong, I don't..well I hope not : (

I always noticed that his stools were very bulky, smelly and soft but it's only a few months ago that doctors got concerned....he used to have 5-6 BM but recently that has minimized and sometimes gets constipated but it's ususally very soft.....the grainy stools just started recently, his bottom is so red and raw like, i try to wash it and not use wipes and always put loads of zincofax, hope it makes him feel better....anyone else with these symptoms. please help

elvi

[bettyalready]

For the past week, my 2 1/2 year old son has been having grainy/sandy type stools about 10 times per day. I know this subject is old, but I'm glad I found it. I can tell when he's having a bowel movement because he crosses his legs together and gets really distressed. This stool is apparently very acidic because his bottom is very red and raw. I've been very liberal with the Desitin and that part is better, but it still obviously bothers him. Constipation is not a problem for him at all. It's hard to know what to feed him. A) He's 2 and He's autistic, which seems to make him all the more picky about what he touches. He's always had some wheat, but even less dairy. He drinks rice milk and sometimes soy milk.