The Handsome Little Man In My Avatar

[plantime]

My grandson, who is now 13 months old, has had diarrhea for almost a month. Lately, it is that familiar pasty yellow. Now, he also developed a blistery rash on his privates. His doctor is looking allergy testing. His momma made sure to tell his doctor that I have celiac, but I'm not sure how any tests for that would turn out. I did explain to his momma that his tests for celiac will probably come back negative, simply because there might not be enough damage for a positive yet. She is considering just trying him on the glutenfree diet, she doesn't like him being sick, nor does she like changing horrible diapers. She said his rash scares her, and it is hurting him. She knows that I will help her, though, so she's not afraid of the diet. She sees me eating all kinds of things, so she knows that he will have lots to eat, too. He does have 9 teeth, and is able to eat meat if it is cut up for him, so that won't be a problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions for him and his momma? His daddy, my son, will go along with anything that makes his son healthy.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Oh, he IS adorable!

I think a gluten-free diet is very easy to manage. It can be tough if a child is used to eating tons and tons of crackers, though.

The place to start is for momma to write a list of everything he eats and drinks--and how much--in a day. Then we take the list and make suggestions for modifying it!

[AndreaB]

My youngest is almost 13 months. I don't have any words of wisdom. He's going to be raised gluten free as well. He only has 3 teeth (2 more are starting to come in) so he hasn't ventured much into anything but the pureed baby food. We are just starting to give him soft foods to feed himself but haven't done much.

[Cheri A]

He is precious!! It's great that you will be able to help her too!

[wonkabar]

Now, he also developed a blistery rash on his privates. His doctor is looking allergy testing.

What a cutie!! I know the diaper rash all too well!! My little guy had a blistering, bleeding diaper rash for nearly two years; it was awful. I felt so badly for him. Anyway, the *only* thing that helped it to heal was an ointment called Triple Paste. If you do a search here on the forum, you should come up with a link. I posted all of it's info in that link.

[plantime]

Thank you, Kristy. I read your thread on the Triple Paste (boy, I just love the way the search feature works!), so I will talk to my pharmacist Monday about getting some. I just love that little boy to bits, and I hate to see his bottom, front and back, so sore. It does look like a burn, with lots of blisters on his little sac.

Thanks for the tip on the diet diary. His daycare will have to be talked to. If they can't do the gluten-free diet, then I will gladly babysit. For free, and I will provide his food, even! Any excuse to hug that bag of joy!

[Lisa]

Dessa:

When I was sick, with the yucky yellow stools, it also was accompanied by a GREAT deal of acid. This may explain the rash around his privates, especially if he is still in diapers. I would suggest that his mom check into celiac, or do an elimination diet.

But, I do hope that he feels better soon.

Lisa

[Guest nini]

feel free to have his momma e-mail at nisla@comcast.net me if she has any questions about kid friendly snacks and dealing with daycare... too tired tonight... my daughter made her debut performance in the Nutcracker with the Georgia Ballet today and boy am I tired...

I do remember those horrible bloody raw rashes, I used a mixture of vaseline and a yeast infection cream... slathered on quite liberally... changing her diaper used to scare me it was so bad, and she would just scream...

[jerseyangel]

Hi Dessa,

I'm so sorry that the little one is going through all of this. We've watched him grow in your avatars, and he really is just so cute

I think trying him on the gluten-free diet is a great idea. Having you there as a coach will make it so much easier for them. We'll help in any way we can.

I had the same experience as Lisa with the yellow stools when I was at my sickest. I believe they are that color because the food is going through the system so fast, that the normal course of events never takes place. Everything is rushed through. It does make for a lot of acid, and it's bad enough for an adult, but a for a child in diapers--so much worse.

You may want to think about dairy too--just a thought, as you get into this.

[plantime]

When I talked to my son about it tonight, he almost cried. He so wants for his son to not have allergies and celiac to deal with. Like all good parents, he wants the best of everything for his son, especially love and health. Thank you, everyone. I know where I can tell Haden's momma to look for advice!

[Kibbie]

My grandson, who is now 13 months old, has had diarrhea for almost a month. Lately, it is that familiar pasty yellow. Now, he also developed a blistery rash on his privates. His doctor is looking allergy testing. His momma made sure to tell his doctor that I have celiac, but I'm not sure how any tests for that would turn out. I did explain to his momma that his tests for celiac will probably come back negative, simply because there might not be enough damage for a positive yet. She is considering just trying him on the glutenfree diet, she doesn't like him being sick, nor does she like changing horrible diapers. She said his rash scares her, and it is hurting him. She knows that I will help her, though, so she's not afraid of the diet. She sees me eating all kinds of things, so she knows that he will have lots to eat, too. He does have 9 teeth, and is able to eat meat if it is cut up for him, so that won't be a problem.

Does anyone have any suggestions for him and his momma? His daddy, my son, will go along with anything that makes his son healthy.

MY daughter had a sever bought with a blistery diaper rash that just wouldn't go away about 3 months before she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. (It did go away before the diagnosis but she had more sever symptoms by then)

Looking back both my pediatrician and I believe that was the first sign of Celiac Disease, we just didn't know because she is the first in our family to be diagnosed!

Anyhow My daughter really only showed what the GI dr calls "official" signs of celiac for a month maybe a month and a half and there was obvious damage to her intestine as well as a super high 73 on her TtG.

My neice started showing symptoms a month ago and my sister's Pedi told her to try the gluten free diet. If it worked she would consider that confirmation of CEliac since my daughter has it.... if not she needed to bring her in for testing.

I can say that really this diet is actually fairly easy (at least for me who loves to cook and bake) and my daughter has responded really well to it I'd say she's back to her 110%! And that was just 3 days after being gluten-free

[Juliet]

He is a cutie, and I understand completely your concern, as well as his parents. When we first found out our son had Celiac disease a year ago, it was devastating for me thinking of all the things he would miss out. But after the initial sadness, I was glad to see my son finally be healthy and playful again. And I read Dana Korn's book whose intro was written by her son who was also diagnosed with Celiac Disease I believe before he turned two. He wrote that he didn't know what it was like to have Celiac Disease, he was just himself. At least when kids are really young, they'll never know any different and the adjustment won't be as difficult - it's just a little more work for the parents at first. Already there's so much more food available in just the past year thanks to the new labelling law (people changing ingredients now that they have to list wheat); and because the drug companies are now realizing how many people have this, within the next ten years there will probably be a pill that Celiacs can take to at a minimum help them with cross contamination if not even allow them to eat a piece of regular bread once in awhile. And the younger they're diagnosed and on a gluten-free diet, the better their chances are of not getting other autoimmune diseases like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. It's never a happy time when you first realize your child has a chronic, possibly life threatening disease, but once you see how much worse it can be, and how much easier it is already to cope with it, and how much healthier, happier, and stronger your child is, it becomes quite a bit easier to accept.

It's great to see he has parents who are concerned enough about their child to actually accept the fact that this could be a problem. It's amazing to me how so many people related to others with celiac disease seem to shrug off their own risk and that of their children even when they exhibit classic symptoms. Good luck to all of you.

[Guest mesasmom]

My son, who is now just over 2 years old, started showing symptoms right around the one year old mark and much in the same way as your grandson. (My son had a lot of other symptoms as well but the intestinal symptoms began right around a year.) I had the testing done on my son....the celiac panel blood test and EGD, both came back not showing any signs of celiac. I am waiting for insurance approval for the Prometheus Lab tests, but have had my son on a gluten free diet since Feb '06 and he is doing amazingly well. The diarrhea stopped and he is actually gaining weight again. When he does get "glutened" he gets the same blistering rash you are talking about. I am really trying to work on potty training to try and avoid it. But...I would agree that a gluten free diet would work wonders. And if they are not concerned with the diagnosis on paper, the testing is too much to put a little one through to get inconclusive results after all is said and done. Also, I know that I feel gratefull that we found it so young in my son because it made the gluten free diet a much easier transition than I imagine it would've been when he was older and used to eating different food. Good luck!!!

Amanda

[TygerCubs]

Poor little guy!!

I have a daughter the same age! I suspect that I and my older daughter have Celiac but we haven't been tested yet. I decided that since my 1 year old doesn't need wheat there was no reason for me to even introduce it, I'll just challenge her when she gets older or that is the plan anyway.

Another thing, I know mine is getting in a set of molars and sometimes they get that nasty rash when teething, so if not Celiac, maybe its just teething? The docs say teething doesnt cause it but mine always get it with new teeth and other people say the same.

I hope he feels better soon!

Marie

[plantime]

I am so angry at my husband! When he called the other day, I told him that Haden is showing classic signs of celiac. My husband actually told me to start saving money for Haden's funeral, since now he is doomed! I about went berserk! There is no reason whatsoever to believe that our grandson will be anything but healthy on a glutenfree diet! In all fact, it is like Juliet said: "And the younger they're diagnosed and on a gluten-free diet, the better their chances are of not getting other autoimmune diseases like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis." People who don't have celiac seem to think that without wheat, a body will starve to death. Makes me wanna just slap 'em with a 2x4!

Marie, Haden does get teething rash, but it looks nothing like this. This rash looks identical to all of the pictures of dermatitis herpetiformis on the web. He also has the classic yellow stools. Milk was the first intolerance test the doc ran, and it was negative. Even without milk, his stools were bad.

Haden's health has not yet been severely impacted by this. Last night, he was sassing and harrassing me beyond belief! He covered the tv remote sensor with one thumb, and used his other thumb to push the buttons on the tv. When I hollered at him, he just grinned and kept doing it. I stomped my foot at him, which made him turn around and stomp both of his feet at me. We kept it up until he laughed so hard he fell on his bottom. Oh, he was in a very good mood yesterday!! Just made my day perfect >sigh<

[jerseyangel]

Dessa,

I'm sorry about what your husband said. I don't know him or what would make him say such a thing, but that could not be further from the truth.

If the baby does have Celiac, catching it now and making him 100% gluten-free will save him from ever developing the other illnesses and problems that can occur with untreated Celiac. Just look at all of "our" kids here on the board--thriving and doing everything the other kids do (except eat gluten). He is going to be just fine!

I know that you already know this, but I just wanted you to know that I felt bad that you had to hear something like that.

[Guest nini]

that is a terrible thing for him to say... I don't know what to say to people that say idiotic things like that other than, NO, you are wrong... with early diagnosis and early treatment via the gluten-free diet, he has a much better chance of living a long happy healthy life than without it, and a much better chance than the average kid surviving on the typical American diet of fast food and sugar... too much junk food out there and too many overweight kids... Look at my daughter, she's been gluten-free for 3 years and is healthier than most kids that her pediatrician sees... now that's sad that the rest of the kids have that many health issues.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Obviously, the man is in total denial.

People like that need an official note or conversation with the doctor before they will believe it. They never believe moms or grandmas--I think it is a form of looking down on women.

[plantime]

Friday, Dec 22, at 9 a.m. central time, Haden will see his doctor about his rash and diarrhea. His doc wants to test for allergies, so his mommy is going to ask him about the celiac. I just want everyone to try him on the diet for 6 weeks, and see if there is any improvement. Several people (me included!) will be calling her in the afternoon to see what the doc said.

[plantime]

The doc said the rash is a yeast/fungus rash, caused by the contents of his diarrhea. We are now using a medicine twice a day to see if it clears up. The diarrhea is still happening, though, and the doc wants a diet log kept, telling what he eats and when he has diarrhea. This spring, he will do allergy tests.