Sick Baby: Please Tell Me If This Is Familiar To You?

[chelsea429]

Hi all, I'm a newbe and I really appreciate your time in reading this and/or responding with your own situation.

Sorry, some of this might be too graphic, but I need help:)

My son Jack is 20 months. For the past months (really since I can remember back) he has been having diarhea 2+ times a day. It's a brick orange color, terrible smell, and has lots of undigested food. He also has very rough skin on his thighs and arms that won't respond to lotions of any sort. He has constant red diaper rash that sometimes bleeds. He is sick all the time with colds, ear infections, 2 bouts of pneaumonia, runny nose, coughs, fevers, etc. His cheeks are permanantly red and his nose is a strange orange color. He is of good height and weight, but his stomach is huge, almost like a frog belly. He has made his milestones, however each one was a little late. He gets up frequently in the night as well and screams. He also wants to eat all day long, huge amounts, and is almost pannicky about food.

The doctor diagnosed him with "toddler diarhea" but I'm not sure if there is more to his little story.

Right now I try and feed him mostly all natural, 50% organic, whole foods. He gets treats about once a week like pizza and ice cream, but for the most part he loves all food.

Any thoughts ideas/similar experiences?Thank you in advance!

[srall]

That must be so stressful!

My daughter is almost 8, and I just changed her diet this past October. She never in her life had regular BMs. But she really started going downhill this past summer. Constant diarrhea, stomach pain all the time, sick every other week...and by sick I mean: Strep, high fevers that lasted days, INFLUENZA, sore throats all the time. My bright child was put in remedial classes at the beginning of the school year. This made no sense because in kindergarten and 1st grade she was in the top groups for reading. Taking that child off of gluten, dairy and the final puzzle piece was CORN...big puzzle piece I might add, has been life changing. People who have no idea about her diet change make comments about her change in behavior and appearance. Oh...I failed to mention the high anxiety that almost kept her from leaving the house...at age 7.

Changing up your toddler's diet is worth a try. It's certainly not going to hurt anything as long as you continue to feed him a whole foods diet. Good luck.

eta: Also a lot of rashes that cleared too

[MacieMay]

I agree with the previous post. It couldn't hurt to change his diet.

I would ask your pedi to run a celiac panel before you take him off the gluten. It's a blood test. They tend to be unreliable in children under 5 but there are some kids whose tests come back positive.

My daughter is two, she had a lot of the same kind of symptoms that you are describing. They started when she started on baby food but got really bad once we introduced cows milk. It took a while to figure out what was going on. Her tests came back negative for Celiac but we did an elimantion diet and gluten and dairy turned out to be the culprit. GI diagnosed her with a gluten-intolerance and a lactose intolerance. We have been gluten free since Sept. She is so much better.

I hope this helps

Good luck!

[Kimmik95]

It certainly sounds like some sort of food allergy or intolerance to me. My son didn't really have alot of the classic celiac disease issues - but he did eat like a horse and never gain weight. For younger kids (Chris was diagnosed at 6), malnutrition and the overeating thing seem to be pretty common for celiac disease. I would request the bloodtest and if those come back positive, then the biopsy. If that comes back positive, you know. If not, then you can always start eliminating foods until you come to something that works.

My kids are 3 & 6 and I try to go as organic as possible with them. I'm due in about 2 weeks with a baby with Down Syndrome and because her brother is diagnosed celiac disease, we're just going to go gluten-free with her.

Hi all, I'm a newbe and I really appreciate your time in reading this and/or responding with your own situation.

Sorry, some of this might be too graphic, but I need help:)

My son Jack is 20 months. For the past months (really since I can remember back) he has been having diarhea 2+ times a day. It's a brick orange color, terrible smell, and has lots of undigested food. He also has very rough skin on his thighs and arms that won't respond to lotions of any sort. He has constant red diaper rash that sometimes bleeds. He is sick all the time with colds, ear infections, 2 bouts of pneaumonia, runny nose, coughs, fevers, etc. His cheeks are permanantly red and his nose is a strange orange color. He is of good height and weight, but his stomach is huge, almost like a frog belly. He has made his milestones, however each one was a little late. He gets up frequently in the night as well and screams. He also wants to eat all day long, huge amounts, and is almost pannicky about food.

The doctor diagnosed him with "toddler diarhea" but I'm not sure if there is more to his little story.

Right now I try and feed him mostly all natural, 50% organic, whole foods. He gets treats about once a week like pizza and ice cream, but for the most part he loves all food.

Any thoughts ideas/similar experiences?Thank you in advance!

[newmom07]

Sounds exactly like my son, who is 21 mos and seriously is it strange how similar our posts are except for the poop color (we go orange-yellow). We took him gluten-free 3 weeks ago and then switched him to lactaid. He is a different child - and he has gained 1.5 lbs in 3 weeks. He hasn't been sick since - even though his brother was - he is so happy. His blood tests are negative, we're puzzled but so relieved for the quick turn around.