My 4-year Old's Symptoms - Need Advice

[GraceE]

Hello there! I have several postings myself out there about my own suspected celiac/gluten intolerance. I'm also curious about my 4 year old daughter. She's struggled from the day she came into this world with massive reflux as an infant and continuous constipation. She STILL has constipation. Recently she was complaining multiple times a day that her tummy hurt. No diahrea (sp?) or vomiting, though. I took her to the dr. a few months ago and they think the tummy ache complaints are from all the constipation, which could be true. She's been off and on Miralax for years. She also complains pretty frequenty of headaches.

I've tried to stress the importance of only telling me that her tummy hurts if it really does...you know how kids can get in those habits of saying stuff like that. She's definitely not underweight - she's actually always been in aobut the 90th percentile for weight at 75th for height. She wants to eat all the time!! I swear the kid eats more than me! She has a big belly but I've always attributed it to just her big appetite. It's not hard, but just big! I have to buy her clothes a size too big just to make room for her gut!

It just hit me the other day, with all of my GI issues, diagnosed severe IBS and my personal suspicions of celiac or gluten intolerance that maybe this is her problem too?

She's never been a really active child...gets pretty worn out quickly. She was also a late crawler (1 year old) and didn't walk until she was 18 months. But academically she's wonderful - ahead of her age.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I love her pediatrician but I'm afraid she'll brush it off again. She thinks the constipation is just a fact of life and probably a result of what 4 year olds like to eat. But this has been going on since day one. And I really try to limit sweets and as much unhealthy food as I can. She probably only poops twice a week. And when she does it's a bowl full!!

Last thing....she doesn't get sick very often. Just this nagging complaint of headache and tummy ache. Plus the constipation.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[Jestgar]

Just try her gluten free. If it makes a difference you'll have one more piece of ammo for the ped.

[dionnek]

That sounds a lot like my daughter (who is just 2 1/2 now). She had vomitting/acid reflux from the time she was born until about 1 year old, when we finally went to a new dr. who put her on acid reflux meds and that helped, but since the age of 18 months she's had constipation (now on Mirilax too which helps). Anyway, when I was dx recently I had her genetically tested and she has one of the genes. Her ped now says the enamel on her teeth is wearing away, so he wants to do the blood test. I would suggest getting your daughter genetically tested (we used Enterolab - insurance did not pay) and if she has the gene, then you should probably either get her blood tested or just do the diet. But, if you are going to do the diet yoiu will not be able to get her blood tested without going back on gluten. It's not that easy to just do the diet, especially for a toddler who is probably in school or about to go to school - you would have to make sure she doesn't get any cross contamination at school, etc., but that is a personal decision. Lots of people don't bother with the tests and just try the diet, but you have to be strict for it to work (and it might take awhile - took me 7 plus months before I noticed a difference and I'm still not 100% by any means!). Good luck!

[GraceE]

That sounds a lot like my daughter (who is just 2 1/2 now). She had vomitting/acid reflux from the time she was born until about 1 year old, when we finally went to a new dr. who put her on acid reflux meds and that helped, but since the age of 18 months she's had constipation (now on Mirilax too which helps). Anyway, when I was dx recently I had her genetically tested and she has one of the genes. Her ped now says the enamel on her teeth is wearing away, so he wants to do the blood test. I would suggest getting your daughter genetically tested (we used Enterolab - insurance did not pay) and if she has the gene, then you should probably either get her blood tested or just do the diet. But, if you are going to do the diet yoiu will not be able to get her blood tested without going back on gluten. It's not that easy to just do the diet, especially for a toddler who is probably in school or about to go to school - you would have to make sure she doesn't get any cross contamination at school, etc., but that is a personal decision. Lots of people don't bother with the tests and just try the diet, but you have to be strict for it to work (and it might take awhile - took me 7 plus months before I noticed a difference and I'm still not 100% by any means!). Good luck!

Thank you for the advice! I have a quick question about Enterolab. I've heard a lot of controversy out there about that. I've also hear that about 99% of doctors don't consider those results accurate. Any thoughts on that? Thanks!

[Nic]

Hi, I had the same problem wilth my son who is now 6. He would projectile vomit as an infant and nearly hit people across the room . Then as he approached 1 year the constipation started. It has never stopped. By 4 they put him on Miralax daily which he still takes everyday. Later that year he was diagnosed Celiac and he has been gluten free ever since. I would like to say that the constipation went away quickly but it did not. He still suffer terribly even on the Miralax and just went through a colonoscopy to determine why he is in constant discomfort and why he cannot poop even soft poop without a struggle. He even had to struggle to poop during the "cleaning out" for the colonoscopy, it was all water, and still he had to struggle. They believe they saw signs of another food intolerance while in there but we are still waiting for the biopsy results. I am telling you this because my old ped. GI kept saying Jacob was just constipated and we need to get him on a better pooping schedule but that does not seem to be it. We now face another possible intolerance and all the while I have been waiting for his symptoms to go away. I would suggest once your child is gluten free for 6 months, if you don't see significant improvement, then look farther. Hopefully the constipation will just go away with the gluten free diet.

Nicole

[Suzie-GFfamily]

My daughter (now age 6) had a lot of reflux as a baby and constipation that started sometime about age 1 and didn't stop. I would mention her constipation (plus the bumpy skin on her legs) at her annual check-ups and asked whether it could be a food intolerance... I suspected that maybe it was dairy.

Last year I read about celiac disease- I actually didn't think that my daughter had it at first because she had "mild" complaints and some of the symptoms I read about sounded "severe". My mom was really sick last year- and I first suspected that my mom was celiac. Turns out she was- plus me and my daughter and my son.

When I asked my daughter's doctor to do a blood test she seemed surprised, but luckily ordered the test. My daughter's TTG levels were exceptionally high. She does have celiac disease.

Suzie

[dionnek]

I have heard that a lot of dr's don't recognize Enterolab, but I did a lot of asking around and the only 2 labs I found that would do the genetic testing was Enterolab and Kimball, and Enterolab was a little cheaper (for just the genetic - I didn't get any other tests done). I didn't really care if a dr. accepted it or not b/c I just wanted to know for my own piece of mind (to know if I had to worry about it at all in the future or not). I think dr's just don't like what they don't know