Color Of Stools With Children Of Celiac Disease

[celia]

Hi Everyone

I am new to this board. As of last week, our Gastrointerologist is ordering my 2 1/2 year old a biopsy of the small intestine in another 5 days. He has been Failure to Thrive ever since about 9 months. He started out in the 50% percentile and now is in the 5th. He only weighs 24lbs at 2 1/2 years old. His stools have always been a dark green olive color - hardly ever brown. They are semi loose - not watery diarhea - but mushy with no form - outlined with running stools. He has never had an appettite since about 6 months old - basically when I stopped breast feeding and offered him more solid type foods. I have been told and told over by family members that oh he is just a picky eater. But deep down inside I know something is not right. If it is Celiac Disease - at least that is the answer to all these months of why he has not gained a pound and why he will not eat. I have to chase him around, distracting him just to get food down him. Has anyone experienced this constant dark green stool color with their Celiac positive children. And if so - after starting a Glutin free Diet - are the stools more normal per se (brown with form). I feel like a terrible mother not knowing that the color and texture of his bowel movements was an indication of something being wrong. We have been to numerous specialists trying to figure out why he is not growing - but I never stressed enough about the bowel movements he was having. Any replies would greatly be appreciated. Thank you.

Celia

[kejohe]

First things first.... welcome to the board and you are NOT a terrible mother, in fact you are the opposite because you are doing what you can to get your baby better. My son was diagnosed at a year old and is now 3. He had very watery and very, very foul smelling stools, they were light in color and so loose they ran down his legs, or up his back. However, I don't know wht the significance is between dark and light stools, because I think everybody probably processes differently and it has a lot to do with what you are feeding them. For my son, he was eating mostly green veggies and pastas, chicken and so on, but always light colors, hardly any red meats, which can turn the stools very dark, also I think the amount of milk they driink makes a big difference, and my boy drank a ton.

Just out of curosity, if your gastro doc is already ordering a biopsy, does that mean that a blood test already came back positive? If so, I think it's a pretty good bet that he is a celiac.

Take heart, it's not as difficult to make the conversions as it looks, there as some times when you will feel frustrated and frightened, angry and sad. But I'll tell you what, that first time you go in for a check up and the doctor tells you he has gained a few pounds, you will feel like your floating on cloud nine! And it may take a little time, but when the appetite comes back, it will make you so happy to see him eat a full meal. I think that for me, the good times, the triumphs have far out weighed the dissapointments, and it gets a little easier everyday.

[seeking-wholeness]

Celia,

You are a fine mother! I understand your feelings, though, because I've had them myself. I keep reminding myself that it's not my job to clear away the obstacles from my children's path, but rather to make sure they have the resources to get over or around them on their own. It's hard to watch them struggle, though, and with young kids like ours (mine are 3.5 and 1.5 years old) more of the responsibility does end up on our shoulders. It's great that you are willing to accept that responsibility on your son's behalf!

My boys have had stools of all sorts of colors! Both have celiac disease (although we are admittedly self-diagnosed at this time--but I just got our new insurance cards in the mail, so we'll see what the doctor has to say soon!). Before we all went gluten-free, their stools were primarily orangey-brown, bulky, loose, and vile-smelling (like REALLY sharp cheddar cheese!), with occasional bouts of diarrhea that strongly resembled river mud and smelled sweet-and-sour! My older boy has also had some trouble with yellow, frothy stools (but not since we eliminated dairy products from our diet). My younger boy produced green stools one time, and I never did figure out why!

I just looked up "Stools, Green" in The Nursing Mother's Problem Solver, and it suggests that lactose intolerance may cause this problem. Does your son consume dairy products on a regular basis?

I wish you and your son the best of luck with the biopsy, and I hope the results are conclusive!

[DLayman]

Ok.. I have a funny story about the color of poop..hehe

Have to tell it..

The hershey company put out promotional foods around the time the movie The Hulk came out last year.. Well being comic book fans we were drawn in by these items.. so I bought some 'Hulk" pudding and we made some yummy milkshakes with them. Well the next day my son had HULK GREEN poop.. yup.. Hulk poop.. heheh

But seriously.. Having had my son on a gluten-free diet then switched off before testing.. he had diahrea from last June to October. His stools were loose and like that story pretty much took on the color of what he ate.. and had undigested food in them often. We then switched his diet to a gluten-free diet. His stools became firm and formed. And for the most part medium to dark brown.

When we reintrroduced gluten in his diet to prepare for his endoscopy the first four days he had light yellow stools and there was no sleep in our house..

He had his endoscopy, no blood test, the biopsies came back negative, and now we have him on a regular diet.. but toddlers being invairably far superior in common sense than GI docs.. he is refusing most gluten containing foods.

Last year he went from at least 28 pounds down to 24. In the two months we had him on the gluten-free diet he went back to 27 pounds. From December to January21 he lost about 3/4 pounds. We were pushing fatty foods, giving him pediasure and he was getting 1/2 slice of bread a day.

My best advice.. don't be so hard on yourself.. I let my son go from June to August before we took him in to have him checked.. you think oh it will get better.. etc etc.. and there is nothing wrong with that..

And also if a blood test has not been done.. call your doc ahead of the endoscopy and INSIST they draw the blood then.. if possible while he is out for the scope.. kill two birds with one stone.. And relax and wait.. after the scope and blood work put him on a gluten-free diet and see what happens.

(lots of yummy [plain]chocolate breyers ice cream from the black box!!! gluten-free and good for mom too.)

Also a good book.. Kids With Celiac Disease by Danna Korn.

[ROYAL BLUE]

Celia, My son's stools were like that from the day he was born. I kept asking the dr about it. When he was nursing, the DR told me about the foremilk would cause this. then he started loosing weight, vary pale. The dr. ran a test for thyroid problems, it came back positive at 3 months for no apparent reason.

My son is now 6, been gluten-free for 2 months and for the first time ever his bowel movement are what you would call normal.

It took six years to find out what was wrong with him , but we finally did. As soon as I read a list of symptoms on this disease and saw a photo of another celiac child stomach, I instantly knew this is what he has had all along.

By the way, he grew 1/2 an inch in one month. hooray

[Terri-Anne]

Could anyone tell me where I could view a picture of a celiac child's distended tummy? I'd like to compare my guy's big tummy to try to determine for myself whether he just has a typical little kid posture, or maybe a bloated celiac tummy.

thanks

[ROYAL BLUE]

I can't say for sure where I saw the picture of a child with the distended abdomen, I think it was in Shelly Cases', or Danna Korns book.

The way I describe the tummy is like a child in Ethiopia. The Doctors always told me it was just the age he was at, he did not have the stomach muscles yet. I said no, with the way he always was coughing from his asthma, his stomach would get rock hard when coughing.

[emsmom]

My 5 yr old DD has always had green stool I have mentioned this to dr's and they say it does not matter what color there stool is. I don't know if i agree it seems they are green after she has any kind of dairy, but she has had a lactose test and a milk allergy test both were negative. For some reason though she can not handle raw dairy products she gets bad stomach aches and usally vomits and gets green stool so i think it must mean something. we go for our biopsy wednesday good luck to your son.

[emsmom]

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[celia]

Hi Everyone

Just wanted to let you know my son did good with the biopsy on Wednesday. Now I have to wait until Monday for the test results. I just want an answer. Thank you to everyone that replied with the color of stools. You really are a great support group. If the biopsy comes back positive - I know who to turn to for support. Thanks again.

Celia

[KimCrocker]

Chelsea, my 9 year old, went from very dark and sticky to very pale (the color of a file folder comes to mind) and floaty. Celiac can make some really strange things come out of your body. We laugh about it now. Oh yeh, don't forget about the diarhea! Also, I think there are varying degrees of distention. Before we discovered Celiac, I just thought she had a chubby stomach and no back side. It's funny how we now talk about stools the way other people talk about the color of their shoes.

[celia]

Hi Everyone

Well we have the results and the biopsy came back negative for celiac disease. We are very happy over that. But still disappointed that we do not have an answer of why my little one is failure to thrive. We are now going through a 72 hour fecal test to see if there is malabsorption of fat. I just wanted to thank each of you for all your posts regarding this mattter. Im glad I found this forum with such wonderful people who take the time to respond to parents that are going through the initial testing of Celiac Disease. You are all terrrific. Thank you so much for your support.

Celia