4 Year Old Hair-Color Change,pain, Diarrhea/const.

[bzmomsara]

My 4 year old has had almost constant stomach pain for 6 months now. He says it hurts all day but not at night.

His symptoms are:

Stomach pain

Mixture diarrhea/constipation (usually a very soft stool- not always very liquid)and occasionally constipated

"Itchy" teeth - this is his description. Gums are pale - (maybe anemic?)

Orange patch on the crown of the head - I always assumed this was just the way his hair grew but it seems to be getting bigger?? He is normally light blond.

His growth hasn't dropped off particularly but, by the same token, his sister was always 90% height and he is 50-75% (may just be different body types)

Sometimes fatty-looking pale/yellowish stool.

Allergy/ itchy eyes sometimes.

We did remove lactose from the diet and though this improved the degree his pain somewhat (and I don't ask if he is in pain; he tells me), he usually has stomach pain.

Anything sound familiar? I am especially interested in the weirder things like the hair and gums.

[momof2peanutz]

My son also has the itching gums (bottom front) and itching, red eyes. He has me rub his eyes b/c they itch so much. He is 3 yrs old.

I think I may have celiac and my son, we believe, has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), as he is not fully verbal and has some 'foggiheadedness'.

We have him on a Gluten-free Casein-free diet (gluten-free, casein or dairy-free) and it helps him immensely. He cannot have either one or he is screaming and behavioral for weeks.

Also, he used to have the fatty yellowish stool.

He drinks "shakes" we make in the blender with raw almond butter, rice milk and sheep's milk yogurt. These help him, as almonds help "bind you up" a little bit.

I am going to cut him off of OJ and any sweet stuff (agave, coconut milk ice cream) for a couple weeks to see if that gets rid of the yeast in his digestive tract. (I believe that is what the smelly stools are a product of.) I notice it happens when he drinks the juice.

[mommida]

Ask for a refferal to a pediatric gastroenterologist. Yes. What you have described can be symptoms of Celiac.

The "teeth itching" and pale gums sounds like anemia to me. Watch out for pica. It is the impulse to eat NON food items because of the iron defiency. Especially crunchy stuff! Ice chewing. I couldn't help[ myself when I was pregnant and chewed ice like it was going out of style. Cracked dental fillings in my mouth. When my daughter was young (about 2) and just diagnosed, she would chew food and spit it out. Ped gastro said that was a sign of pica too. The ped gastro thinks the average finger prick iron level test at "well baby/yearly physicals" is a joke.