If Not Celiac Then What?

[jenny-ann]

My sweet little girl always has diarrhea. Allergy tests negative. Celiac tests (DNA included) negative. I think our next step is to see a nutritionist with her food/poop journal. Can you suggest anything else I could be overlooking?

TIA,

Jenn

[Pac]

What else did you check beside food alergies and celiac? Infection, parasites, other digestive problems? Did you check for allergies in both IgE and IgG? Did the celiac test include anti-gliadin antibodies?

Was she treated with antibiotics? - Antibiotics can eliminate some strains of gut bugs or trigger off problems with overgrowth of otherwise harmless gut bugs, which in turn can lead to food intolerances (not mediated by immune system, ie won't show on any test).

Did you try elimination diet? That's usually the next step when tests don't show anything.

Good luck.

[jenny-ann]

Pac,

We did a stool culture. I don't know the answer to the IgE/IgG allergy question. I will review the labs myself next time we see the doctor. She did have a course of antibiotics in December. It made her poop pure water. Blech! She has been on a couple of different probiotics since then. We have eliminated wheat. We are now eliminating milk. We've never had any preservatives/dyes/etc. to worry about.

Thanks for the input. If you have any more please let me know! Brainstorming from others is what I am here for...

[macocha]

fructose malabsorption? a lot of folks have different reactions (poop-wise).

it is diagnosed through a hydrogen breath test. when they did my daughters, they also found that she had an infection in her intestine, which I guess you can only find out about through that test too.

[T.H.]

I'd second the fructose malabsorption as a possibility. We've been checking into that recently. Sue Sheperd in Australia is a good resource on the most recent information about that on the web right now (this condition is very new; the test for it has only existed for 2 years now! So many docs don't know a lot about it yet). There's also a gazillion different intolerances you could add to that.

I tested negative to a lot of allergens that we have since found out give me a terrible case of the runs. The food/poop journal you mentioned was the way we figured it out. Adding 'mood' to that journal can be helpful, too. Many parents I've talked to noticed their children responding to certain foods with mood problems a day or two after the food was eaten. That can be a sign of poor absorption of Tryptophan, which can be caused by gut issues, even when there isn't a case of the runs to cue us in that something is wrong.

Oh also...what type of allergy tests did they do, prick test or blood test? If they did prick tests, I would push for blood tests if you can't find an answer. I can't tell you how many people I know who had negative prick tests for foods, who had positive blood tests when they persuaded their doctors to do them - I'd be one of them. :-)

Hmmm, wracking my brain here! Ah, something else! I'm sure you've been carefully watching dairy and gluten - those are always the big two mentioned for intolerance, yeah? Corn might be another one to look at. We had to eliminate that for my son, and I was stunned how much it is in. Baking powder, powdered sugar, iodized salt - it all has corn contamination. Because this substance isn't one of the major allergens, the labeling laws on it aren't as stringent, so it can be hard to track down. But that also means it's easy to have that stuff every day and never even realize it.

Good luck, I hope you find the answer for your little one soon!

My sweet little girl always has diarrhea. Allergy tests negative. Celiac tests (DNA included) negative. I think our next step is to see a nutritionist with her food/poop journal. Can you suggest anything else I could be overlooking?

TIA,

Jenn

[LJ-Mom]

We're in the same boat. Just got back all the celiac and allergy test and they were negative. Still gluten free, as it seems to make my son a much more wonderful person.

Had one week of nice solid poops, now we're back to the same old.

There seems to be so much that it could be, but our doctor is very skeptical about taking things out of his diet. As long as he's healthy he thinks we should give it time. (though I'm still can't bear to give wheat, and don't think I'll add it back)

[GFinDC]

Pac,

We did a stool culture. I don't know the answer to the IgE/IgG allergy question. I will review the labs myself next time we see the doctor. She did have a course of antibiotics in December. It made her poop pure water. Blech! She has been on a couple of different probiotics since then. We have eliminated wheat. We are now eliminating milk. We've never had any preservatives/dyes/etc. to worry about.

Thanks for the input. If you have any more please let me know! Brainstorming from others is what I am here for...

Eliminating wheat is good, but if you suspect celiac or gluten intolerance you need to remove rye, barley and oats also. Soy is another bad one for food intolerances. If you google "top 8 allergen" you should find some lists of the common food allergens. Might be a good starting point for things to eliminate.

[macocha]

Jenny,

try this at home and see if you see any improvement. if there is a fructose issue and the child has a infection in his/her gut - it might not work...

but, get rid of apples, pears, grapes, etc in her daily diet. stick with berry fruits or bananas as the glucose content is higher than the fructose content.

avoid spaghetti sauce and anything with tomatos. fructose is higher.

do not drink any juice but white grape juice (I know - a pain), but you could use the crystal light powder (not the pre-mixed liquid though as that has HFCS in it)

the only yogurt I have found w/o fructose in it is tillamook. stay away from choc milk unless you buy darigold and it says no HFCS in it.

Pasta noodles are a great source of 100% glucose, so use that with a bit of butter and cheese if you all have regular pasta.

do not use splenda or any other artificial sweetner. if you need sugar to sprinkle on berries or whatnot, you could use sucrose which is 50/50 fruc/gluc but dextrose is the best bet - it is 100% glucose.

label read even cookies and such - you do not want hfcs in there. most breads have it in them if you eat bread, but it isn't a significant amt. I found that country oven brand does not hfcs and she can have that.

you can pm me if you need any other info or email me. I don't mind answering. daughter was diagnosed with this and I had to learn a whole bunch. it took 2 years of pain and misery to get to this point.