Need Advice On Youngest Daughter

[confused]

Ok my youngest daughter will be 4 in june and she is still not potty trained. Well ever since she was a bb she has had loose stools, i dont think i have seen many full bm's from her. It is hard to tell when they are not going in the potty. But today she had an very explosive one and its green and undigsted food in there, which has happened before.

A couple of months ago i had talked to the ped about all the kids and at the time she didnt want to tes any of them but wanted me to do elimination diets and keep track of everything, well i was so sick at the time i never did, 1, cause i was so sick and 2. not even sure were to start.

But now im determined to figure this out so these are the options running threw my mind.

1. ask the dr again to test her

2. do enterolab testing

3. see if i can do food allergy test on her ( it might not even be gluten)

4. try her on the gluten-free/cf diet and see how she does which would be hard with the other kids

what do you all think i should do. She is small for her age, but she was a preemie. She does have the round tummy and no butt. I guess i know in my heart she is celiac i just so afraid to find out for sure. Its hard enough with an 14 yr old stepson that wont follow the diet at all.

paula

[gfpaperdoll]

I feel for you, the stepson issue is not an easy one.

Can you muster up the resolve to take the whole house gluten-free? Are you gluten-free?, seems like I remember that you are.

I would test your daughter thru Enterolab, if you can afford that. Then I would take her gluten-free whatever the results. You should see an immediate improvement in her health. Yep, the swollen tummy flat butt is a telling sign...

[crittermom]

Paula

First I would revisit the idea of testing the kids with your ped not only the celiac panel but for HLA genes as well. Here is what we have experienced...

I have been dealing with the green bm's with undigested food for months with my ds. The GI told me that green stools are considered normal.... I don't buy it. Michael was having 4-6 bm's per day, ALWAYS green and always had undigested food, even potato, crackers, and bread were showing up. We had a celiac panel done (my 5 yo daughter is dx celiac) and recently did the biopsy and an upper GI and small bowel barium Xray. All came up negative. After we got the negatives, we weren't convinced, so I started a food journal. I fed him as normal for a week. I recorded everything he ate and drank, his bm's (consistency, color, contents...) and his moods. He continued with the green bm's with undigested food, extremely sensitive and cranky. One week later we removed gluten from his diet and voila within 48 hours his bm's were completely normal, brown, solid, no food and his mood dratically improved. Then as a test, and for the purpose of the journal, we gave him pizza crust which he loves. Next day, bm's were large, numerous and green with undigested food and mucus present and he was crazy cranky. We put him back on gluten-free the very next meal. After about 24 hours he was back to normal and has been normal since. He is gluten free for 1 week since the crust. We have a GI visit on March 7th, we are going to give him gluten again one last time, to make sure it wasn't a fluke and for the sake of showing the doctor and then that is that.

The journal is not as daunting as it seems. I keep a small spiral notebook on the kitchen counter with a pen on it and record what he eats and drinks after every meal and snack. Try taking out gluten first, see how she reacts. If there is no reaction then take out dairy. If she responds to dairy, add gluten back in and see if there is a relapse. If there is take away gluten again and see if things get better again. If they don't try taking away another major allergen, if there is no response try something else and add one back in if there is a positive response. Work your way slowly through. If your stepson is positive dx celiac, gluten may be the culprit so I would start with that first. Make sure you only do one thing at a time and during the challenge don't give her something new she hasn't eaten before. I treat it like they are infants again and you are trying things for the first time. If she is a good eater and will eat meat fruit and veggies, you can try cutting all major allergens and adding one at a time back in and see what the reaction is. That may be a little more difficult though, I know Michael like's what he likes. I bought gluten-free substitutes for his favorites before we started so he didn't feel deprived. He eats many things gluten-free because of my daughter so our biggies were his crackers and graham crackers.

I diagnosed Michael's dairy and soy allergy when he was a baby this same way. I was breastfeeding and wrote down what I ate and his reactions. I noticed that cheese and milk always caused a problem. When I took him to an actual allergist, I was right on the mark. Now if they are intolerances and not allergies an allergist wouldn't help as it wouldn't trigger a histamine reaction but there would be a dietary response. It really puts things in black and white for you and makes it easier to see tendencies instead of trying to keep track in your mind. For me it also helps me feel that I am doing something to try to help him instead of just taking the doctors word for it while my little man is obviously having issues. It helps me feel a little more in control which helps me to be a better mom. (this is also my personality as I am a TOTAL list maker! Anyway you may see something that you may not have noticed before. Would you be testing and keeping a journal on all of your kids or just her? Try not to feel overwhelmed.

I hope your little lady is feeling better soon. Good luck with your son I hope he starts to cooperate! Take care and feel free to pm me about the green poop, I have become well versed in all the shades!

[confused]

I feel for you, the stepson issue is not an easy one.

Can you muster up the resolve to take the whole house gluten-free? Are you gluten-free?, seems like I remember that you are.

I would test your daughter thru Enterolab, if you can afford that. Then I would take her gluten-free whatever the results. You should see an immediate improvement in her health. Yep, the swollen tummy flat butt is a telling sign...

Yes i am gluten free. We have tried to make the home gluten free but we keep gong back to our old ways of having gluten in the house for the kids.

I was worried maybe she wasnt on the growth chart so i weighed and measured her and is in the normal range, but she still looks tiny to me.

paula

[confused]

Paula

First I would revisit the idea of testing the kids with your ped not only the celiac panel but for HLA genes as well. Here is what we have experienced...

I have been dealing with the green bm's with undigested food for months with my ds. The GI told me that green stools are considered normal.... I don't buy it. Michael was having 4-6 bm's per day, ALWAYS green and always had undigested food, even potato, crackers, and bread were showing up. We had a celiac panel done (my 5 yo daughter is dx celiac) and recently did the biopsy and an upper GI and small bowel barium Xray. All came up negative. After we got the negatives, we weren't convinced, so I started a food journal. I fed him as normal for a week. I recorded everything he ate and drank, his bm's (consistency, color, contents...) and his moods. He continued with the green bm's with undigested food, extremely sensitive and cranky. One week later we removed gluten from his diet and voila within 48 hours his bm's were completely normal, brown, solid, no food and his mood dratically improved. Then as a test, and for the purpose of the journal, we gave him pizza crust which he loves. Next day, bm's were large, numerous and green with undigested food and mucus present and he was crazy cranky. We put him back on gluten-free the very next meal. After about 24 hours he was back to normal and has been normal since. He is gluten free for 1 week since the crust. We have a GI visit on March 7th, we are going to give him gluten again one last time, to make sure it wasn't a fluke and for the sake of showing the doctor and then that is that.

The journal is not as daunting as it seems. I keep a small spiral notebook on the kitchen counter with a pen on it and record what he eats and drinks after every meal and snack. Try taking out gluten first, see how she reacts. If there is no reaction then take out dairy. If she responds to dairy, add gluten back in and see if there is a relapse. If there is take away gluten again and see if things get better again. If they don't try taking away another major allergen, if there is no response try something else and add one back in if there is a positive response. Work your way slowly through. If your stepson is positive dx celiac, gluten may be the culprit so I would start with that first. Make sure you only do one thing at a time and during the challenge don't give her something new she hasn't eaten before. I treat it like they are infants again and you are trying things for the first time. If she is a good eater and will eat meat fruit and veggies, you can try cutting all major allergens and adding one at a time back in and see what the reaction is. That may be a little more difficult though, I know Michael like's what he likes. I bought gluten-free substitutes for his favorites before we started so he didn't feel deprived. He eats many things gluten-free because of my daughter so our biggies were his crackers and graham crackers.

I diagnosed Michael's dairy and soy allergy when he was a baby this same way. I was breastfeeding and wrote down what I ate and his reactions. I noticed that cheese and milk always caused a problem. When I took him to an actual allergist, I was right on the mark. Now if they are intolerances and not allergies an allergist wouldn't help as it wouldn't trigger a histamine reaction but there would be a dietary response. It really puts things in black and white for you and makes it easier to see tendencies instead of trying to keep track in your mind. For me it also helps me feel that I am doing something to try to help him instead of just taking the doctors word for it while my little man is obviously having issues. It helps me feel a little more in control which helps me to be a better mom. (this is also my personality as I am a TOTAL list maker! Anyway you may see something that you may not have noticed before. Would you be testing and keeping a journal on all of your kids or just her? Try not to feel overwhelmed.

I hope your little lady is feeling better soon. Good luck with your son I hope he starts to cooperate! Take care and feel free to pm me about the green poop, I have become well versed in all the shades!

hank you for all that information. Of all my kids she would be the easiest to go gluten free, she loves my rice cakes and almond butter and loves fruit and veggies. I would say she is already like 80 percent gluten free, but this weekend she had pizza at an pizza party and then she had an kids cruisine on sunday, so i know these added to her lovely poop yesterday.

My hubby was lactose intolerant when he was little and she did have a bowel of cereal yesterday, so it could go either way. So like you said it would be best to try both of those first and see how she goes.

She is a pretty mellow 3 yr old, well as mellow as 3 yr olds can be. But she does have her moments were she will get mad and there is nothing to get her happy again for awhile.

Im thinking i should keep an journal on all of them, i think it would be best to do the 4 little ones at the same time, then i can take all the reports to the dr. She is a very good doctor, so i know she would help me if i had the journals in hand.

I dont think my stepson will ever adhere to the diet, ill give an incident. We went to the pizza party banguet on saturday, they had pizza and pop and during the whole veremony he just had water with me, well the minute i left and his dads back was turned, he went and got 2 pieces of pizza and went and ate them in the car, of course hubby found olives and bell peppers on the seat and he denied it, then he came home and ate 2 cupcakes. All weekend he was tripping over things and running into walls and cussing me out and his bags under his eyes keep getting worse and worse and he cant figure it out. So im just sitting back and waiting for him to hit that brick wall, and i know he will soon. I have gluten free snacks in the house and he will not touch them. To him its like an control thing, its like he thinks cause he is 14 he can do what he wants and eat what he wants. I got tired of fighting with him all the time, cause everything i have tried does not work with him. So now i have to try tough love and wait for him to hit that brick wall. Which beleive me is the hardest thing i have ever had to to do with him (but his counselor agrees with me) so that helps some of my guilt.