Potty Problems...am I Nuts?!?

[Celena]

hi there all!

Have any of you experienced a fully potty trained child begin having 'accidents'?? everyone thinks i am crazy to think it could be gluten related but...what do you all think? heres the story:

DD will be 3 in Dec and we had a little trouble getting her potty trained but once she was trained (this past spring) she never had any accidents at all. then 6 months later she is having accidents. AND we have her back on G now because we are hoping for a definitive answer/dx in the hopes of finding out if her allergies include gluten or not. AND even weirder, i was thinking back to when we had trouble potty training. it was so frustrating because she would go on the potty and then have an accident 10 minutes later. you just never knew when she was going to go. i listened to everyone and chalked it up to her not being ready. so anyway...she was on G then. we hadnt gone gluten-free yet! and her elimination diet coincided (at least loosely) w becoming potty trained...i hadnt even made that connection b4. and now w her back on G for about 2 weeks she has had 3 pee accidents (2 during day and 1 at night) and 2 BM accidents in the last 5 days.

so am i just blaming EVERYTHING on gluten (everyone thinks i am nuts) or what?

Celena

[Ridgewalker]

I can tell you without any doubt whatsoever that having accidents CAN be gluten related! In fact, that is the number one main symptom that made me suspect Celiac in my older son, Lucas. He would have poopy accidents anywhere from 2 to 6 or 7 times a day, up to age 6 1/2! It was horrible, absolutely miserable, we tried everything to get him to stop. Often he would tell us he didn't know he had to go.

After my mom was dx'ed with Celiac and I did some research, I realized that Lucas had several symptoms of Celiac. When he went gluten-free in May, all symptoms resolved within a few weeks, and the accidents completely stopped. The only time he has accidents now is if he gets glutened.

Now similar symptoms are showing up in my younger son. We've put him on a gluten-free diet as well. He's been on it for two weeks, and we've already seen a lot of improvement, although the first week was hell. The accidents increased to 10 or 12 per day, even in the middle of the night, and there was even a couple bouts of vomitting. I think this was sort of a toxic dumping process, similar to when a smoker quits smoking-- they cough worse for awhile before they get better.

Anyway-- everyone who knows us was amazed and thrilled with the change in Lucas. After having multiple accidents per day for years (even at Kindergarten a few times ) he NEVER has accidents anymore, unless he is glutened.

[Celena]

thanks for the input! what other symptoms did ur DSs have that went away? did the accidents include pee? and was the poop D? because it isnt right now w DD so i find that odd. if it was D then i would expect accidents but w a pretty solid stool...?

i just dont know what to think. DD vomited last night at about 6 pm and then again at about 1:30 am. what was strange was that the food was not digested at all even at 1:30, which was almost 11 hours after she had eaten it. so i dont know if this is G related or just a bug. but i dont ever remember vomiting undigested food 10 hours after eating it.

thanks again so much for sharing your experiences

[Celena]

Ridgewalker,

i just noticed ur signature which says u suspect bipolar w DS2. do u still think so even off G? since putting DD back on G i was thinking bipolar as a possibility but i am thinking it is prob the G.

[Ridgewalker]

thanks for the input! what other symptoms did ur DSs have that went away? did the accidents include pee? and was the poop D? because it isnt right now w DD so i find that odd. if it was D then i would expect accidents but w a pretty solid stool...?

i just dont know what to think. DD vomited last night at about 6 pm and then again at about 1:30 am. what was strange was that the food was not digested at all even at 1:30, which was almost 11 hours after she had eaten it. so i dont know if this is G related or just a bug. but i dont ever remember vomiting undigested food 10 hours after eating it.

thanks again so much for sharing your experiences

The daytime accidents were rarely ever pee, BUT Lucas was a chronic bed wetter before going gluten-free! That also resolved after going gluten-free. He still has the occasional bed wetting, but it's very rare now, and is almost always connected to a glutening. Now, again, same thing is going on with my younger son, Ezra. He was wetting the bed every night- I would have to go in and change him, change the bed, and then sometimes he'd wet it again before morning! Now he's been gluten-free for two weeks, and hasn't wet the bed in 5 days!

Your instinct is NOT wrong, her problems could absolutely be attributed to reintroducing gluten.

To answer another question, no, Luke's accidents were almost NEVER diarrhea. This does make things more confusing at first- but the more reading you do, you'll see that many Celiacs do not have chronic diarrhea. If you're ready to get gross, I'll give you a description of my kids pre-gluten-free poop Very sticky, very foul smelling, pasty in texture, sometimes sandy. But you have to take that with a grain of salt, because I have seen every description of poop imaginable on this board. It's all possible.

And yes, I have read many people here describe seeing undigested pieces of food in their poop or vomit.

Other symptoms that went away-

- Dark circles under his eyes, constantly seeming tired.

- His appetite has improved

- Improved temperament and mood

- After catching every virus that came near him, and fighting with sinus infections, ear infections, bronchitis, pink eye strep, etc... He has not caught a single virus or developed a single infection since going gluten-free! I'm not saying that a gluten-free diet makes you invincible, put it's pretty apparent to me that gluten was impairing his ability to defend against illness!

All of those symptoms are relating to my older son- we're still in the early stages with Ezra, still observing changes and improvements.

[Virgie]

Hi! In our experience I would say YES! My daughter is 13 and before her Celiac dx she had some accidents because it came so quickly and was so watery that she just couldn't make it to the bathroom in time. Very embarrassing for a girl that age. That was one reason I knew something had to be very wrong with her.

Best to you.

Virginia

hi there all!

Have any of you experienced a fully potty trained child begin having 'accidents'?? everyone thinks i am crazy to think it could be gluten related but...what do you all think? heres the story:

DD will be 3 in Dec and we had a little trouble getting her potty trained but once she was trained (this past spring) she never had any accidents at all. then 6 months later she is having accidents. AND we have her back on G now because we are hoping for a definitive answer/dx in the hopes of finding out if her allergies include gluten or not. AND even weirder, i was thinking back to when we had trouble potty training. it was so frustrating because she would go on the potty and then have an accident 10 minutes later. you just never knew when she was going to go. i listened to everyone and chalked it up to her not being ready. so anyway...she was on G then. we hadnt gone gluten-free yet! and her elimination diet coincided (at least loosely) w becoming potty trained...i hadnt even made that connection b4. and now w her back on G for about 2 weeks she has had 3 pee accidents (2 during day and 1 at night) and 2 BM accidents in the last 5 days.

so am i just blaming EVERYTHING on gluten (everyone thinks i am nuts) or what?

Celena

[PlaLo]

i just dont know what to think. DD vomited last night at about 6 pm and then again at about 1:30 am. what was strange was that the food was not digested at all even at 1:30, which was almost 11 hours after she had eaten it. so i dont know if this is G related or just a bug. but i dont ever remember vomiting undigested food 10 hours after eating it.

thanks again so much for sharing your experiences

Celena, I saw your post and just had to respond. Don't sweat the potty training until DD is gluten-free. It's not worth the hassle for either of you really because it's tough to control BM's in general if gluten is in the diet of a celiac. The discouragement and disappointment of a child, having accident, that really is trying to potty train can be more of a setback when they are gluten-free and you try to close the process of training.

As for the vomiting.... you may look to cut out Lactose in DD's diet. It's not going to affect the dx planned ahead and may relieve some of the more overt "symptoms" of celiac disease. You may or may not know that lactose intolerance is a significant side affect of those with progressed celiac. It's temporary, usually, but can be really bad to the point of vomiting after just a few sips of milk. My 24 month old was vomiting almost religiously after any milk or yogurt was digested when on gluten diet. Once I switched to Lactaid milk and no yogurt he stopped vomiting. He's 3yrs. now (gluten-free for over a year) and just starting to be able to digest lactose without major belly aches and gas.

Good luck and get that Dx soon as you can. Sounds like DD is pretty progressed if you're seeing undigested food in the vomit. My guess is she's probably anemic and malnourished no matter what you feed her. Hang in there and she'll snap back quick, ready to potty train again for good.

Oh, and get used to those that don't know what Celiac is and how gluten affects the body of a celiac to continue to think you're crazy and fanatical. Our close family members continue to struggle with the fundamentals of it all. Don't let them MAKE you think you're nuts because you aren't. It's your child and you care.

Since Celiac is an auto-immune disorder, while on a gluten diet the immune system is in overdrive to combat the gluten. Not much left over to fight off everything else our little ones come in contact with everyday. Not to mention the wear on the body it takes just fighting something you eat. As sad as it sounds, gluten really is poison to the body. So until gluten-free is a reality it's a chance anything could be "just a bug", but I strongly affirm what Ridgewater is saying about the change after gluten-free. My son didn't even get a sniffle the first winter gluten-free, only 4 months after Dx. Quite a contrast from the first 2 years of his life.

[Ridgewalker]

Ridgewalker,

i just noticed ur signature which says u suspect bipolar w DS2. do u still think so even off G? since putting DD back on G i was thinking bipolar as a possibility but i am thinking it is prob the G.

Whoops, sorry I somehow missed this post.

I am still not sure about the Bipolar disorder for Ezra. It never would have occurred to me at all, had our doc not suggested it as a possibility. It was a major shock to me. For right now, I'm reserving my opinion. Based on the reading I've done, I don't feel certain in my gut whether he's bipolar or not.

He's been gluten-free for two weeks now, though, and we've already seen some real improvement in his behavior and moods/temperament. This is very encouraging. Our doc was very supportive of trying the gluten-free diet. She agreed that even if it's not Celiac, many many children with behavior disorders (as well as developmental disorders) see improvement on a gluten-free diet.

I took him back to the doc again today, and we talked about it a little more. She noted how extremely difficult it is to diagnose bipolar children. She was approving of my decision to continue the gluten-free diet, and also suggested putting him on an Omega 3 supplement. She wants me to keep doing research on pediatric bipolar, and we are going to stay right on top of this.

I flat out refuse to medicate him for this unless it is 100% absolutely necessary- and we're not at all there yet.

For more on Ezra's story, and some great responses and support from other board members, see my thread: Open Original Shared Link

[Celena]

first, sorry for not posting sooner. we went and stayed a night at gramama's (she lives in a town about an hour from where we live) and then it was Halloween of course (hope everyone's went well and you all managed to stay away from G).

now, a big THANKS to everyone for your replies it is so helpful to hear such similar stories from so many of you. DD1 didnt have an accident yesterday . but she didnt have a BM either so.... no more vomiting episodes since the first one. so maybe it was a bug or something.

family all seems to think it is discipline/stress related . so frustrating

DD1's behaviour has settled down so much since i took out oats and limited gluten to earlier in the day that now i am wondering....please see my other post "confusing symptoms..." and tell me what you think.

Ridgewalker--thanks! and i totally agree w you about medicating. especially now that i see the MAJOR behaviour difference from DD1 depending on her diet. makes me wonder how many kids could be NOT medicated if their diets were changed. good luck an many prayers for DSs

PlaLo--thanks! DD is lactose free right now. but you make a good point about becoming intolerant to other foods because that is definitely both DDs. they cant seem to each much of anything w out getting symptoms....even when they are gluten-free. glad to hear it is getting better w your DC...thanks for the hope Re your comments about family: you mean it doesnt get any better after dx?? i thought that people would 'get it' then. and yes i remember before we did elimination diet in the spring, DD was sick ALL the time...ear infections, fevers, etc. i hadnt thought about the connection to autoimmune...makes so much sense!

Virginia i am sorry to hear that about your daughter. how awful for her. thanks for the post and wishes