Another Newbie Looking For Advice :)

[tankgirlwa]

Hello all,

My son is 22 months old. When he stopped nursing at 7 months he could not tolerate regular formula and was switched to soy. He consistantly had constipation, it was horrid and miserable and he was NOT a happy baby. Once we moved to whole foods he flipped to consistant diahrreah. Now at almost two years he is miserable still with the diahrreha up to 6x a day! He seems to have tummy trouble, I can hear it gurgling and he is gassy. It wakes him up at night.

I have recently taken him entirely off dairy after discussing it with his new Doctor.(new because we just moved back to the US after overseas) After two weeks dairy-free there is no change.

I have been avoiding the celiacs issue, mainly because I just don't want it to BE that! LOL

At this point my son is unhappy, Im unhappy for him and I need to find the next way to help.

My question is, MOST people mention constipation as a symptom and not diahrreah. Since my sons most obvious symptom is the diahrreah Im wondering if anyone else has expereienced it as a symptom of celaics? He is not losing weight and in fact is a chubby little guy.

Thank you in advance for your help, always nice to see supportive parents wanting to assist others!

[Dixiebell]

Hi. Sorry to hear you little guy is having problems. There is A LOT of information on here. This lists some symptoms: https://www.celiac.com/articles/1106/1/Celiac-Disease-Symptoms/Page1.html Before you start the gluten free diet go and get blood tests done and a possible endoscopy with biopsy to see what is going on with his tummy.

[scarlett77]

  On 9/20/2010 at 3:01 PM, tankgirlwa said:

Hello all,

My son is 22 months old. When he stopped nursing at 7 months he could not tolerate regular formula and was switched to soy. He consistantly had constipation, it was horrid and miserable and he was NOT a happy baby. Once we moved to whole foods he flipped to consistant diahrreah. Now at almost two years he is miserable still with the diahrreha up to 6x a day! He seems to have tummy trouble, I can hear it gurgling and he is gassy. It wakes him up at night.

I have recently taken him entirely off dairy after discussing it with his new Doctor.(new because we just moved back to the US after overseas) After two weeks dairy-free there is no change.

I have been avoiding the celiacs issue, mainly because I just don't want it to BE that! LOL

At this point my son is unhappy, Im unhappy for him and I need to find the next way to help.

My question is, MOST people mention constipation as a symptom and not diahrreah. Since my sons most obvious symptom is the diahrreah Im wondering if anyone else has expereienced it as a symptom of celaics? He is not losing weight and in fact is a chubby little guy.

Thank you in advance for your help, always nice to see supportive parents wanting to assist others!

To be quite honest I heard the exact opposite that loose stools is more common, but in reality both constipation AND loose stool are symptoms. My son had both, but he was more often constipated because he also has low thyroid which apparently was causing the constipation. I would ask for a Celiac panel as the next step as well as a RAST. Both of those tests are not accurate tests, but at least if something does show up there you know where to go next. Don't eliminate gluten yet until you've done the testing. Poor boy I hope you get some answers soon!

[cassP]

ive always heard people mention "D" as the most common symptom. but i would suffer "C" and other issues with gluten. the "D" mostly came when i was at my worst- and i would drink something with milk.

i agree that you should go get him tested ASAP- while he's still eating gluten. you want the tests to be accurate.

[tankgirlwa]

Thanks for the replies. I am definatly keeping him on his regular diet until we go back to the doctor. This board has been very helpful and I am happy to see that if we do have to go gluten-free that the transition will be made easier with all of the great info.

The Dr. is reluctant to do the test right off, but said after we do the dairy check we would have to do the test next.

I just feel so bad for the little guy since his symptoms seem to be getting worse and worse pretty quickly.

Thanks again!

[cassP]

  On 9/20/2010 at 8:52 PM, tankgirlwa said:

Thanks for the replies. I am definatly keeping him on his regular diet until we go back to the doctor. This board has been very helpful and I am happy to see that if we do have to go gluten-free that the transition will be made easier with all of the great info.

The Dr. is reluctant to do the test right off, but said after we do the dairy check we would have to do the test next.

I just feel so bad for the little guy since his symptoms seem to be getting worse and worse pretty quickly.

Thanks again!

even if he feels a lot better off of dairy-> keep in mind that its very common for lactose & gluten intolerance to be intertwined. often, the lactose intolerance is secondary and a side effect of gluten intolerance. some people heal enough to add dairy back in, and others may not.

[twohokies]

  On 9/20/2010 at 3:01 PM, tankgirlwa said:

Hello all,

My son is 22 months old. When he stopped nursing at 7 months he could not tolerate regular formula and was switched to soy. He consistantly had constipation, it was horrid and miserable and he was NOT a happy baby. Once we moved to whole foods he flipped to consistant diahrreah. Now at almost two years he is miserable still with the diahrreha up to 6x a day! He seems to have tummy trouble, I can hear it gurgling and he is gassy. It wakes him up at night.

I have recently taken him entirely off dairy after discussing it with his new Doctor.(new because we just moved back to the US after overseas) After two weeks dairy-free there is no change.

I have been avoiding the celiacs issue, mainly because I just don't want it to BE that! LOL

At this point my son is unhappy, Im unhappy for him and I need to find the next way to help.

My question is, MOST people mention constipation as a symptom and not diahrreah. Since my sons most obvious symptom is the diahrreah Im wondering if anyone else has expereienced it as a symptom of celaics? He is not losing weight and in fact is a chubby little guy.

Thank you in advance for your help, always nice to see supportive parents wanting to assist others!

The reason we tested my daughter at her 3yo check-up was because of the years of loose stools that would often come with days of liquid stools (I guess a lot of gluten). We took all 3 kids off of dairy when she was 2 but she didn't respond while my middle child did. Our ped suggested running the blood test to rule out celiac disease and my husband about lost it that I agreed. Thank goodness the women's guts won out :-). My 3yo had her biopsy, was officially dx'd with celiac disease, has been gluten-free and is SO improved just in the past 6 weeks. If you have suspicsions, just run the panel. The biggest part of it is your child's pain while being stuck with a needle. Good luck!