Undiagnosed 20 Month Old On gluten-free Diet - Bowel Issues

[Ollie's Mom]

OK so this is about my son's poop. Sorry if tmi but we all know it's a popular subject here...

I self diagnosed and have been gluten-free for about 3 years. Shortly after starting solids, we noticed my LO was having really awful, pale, stinky and grainy BM's. He was also pooping really frequently and got horrible bleeding rashes and sores on his butt. No matter how often we changed him. If we left him without his diaper on, we saw he'd poop every half hour or so.

The daycare he's in has a gluten-free option (food is catered). We signed him up and his poops and rashes got better immediately ( well, within a week or so).

He then transferred from the infant room, where he was fed in a high chair,to the toddler room where the kids sit side by side at the table to eat. Our little guy is a big eater and he'll steal food...

So over the past several months, since he switchedto the toddler room, he has started getting nasty poos again. Not as bad as before he went on the gluten-free diet but still pretty loose and very very foul smelling. He'll have 3 or 4 bm's a day. And sometimes his bum gets quite red.

We've asked the caregivers if it's possible he's grabbing the other kids' food and ingesting gluten. But they get all defensive and swear up and down that's impossible because they are always watching him(hmmmm yeah, right ).

Anyway - I'm looking for advice. If you were me would you suspect gluten is the likely culprit here? His bm's are clearly abnormal ( the caregivers make comments about them all the time). Or would you suspect something else? And if so what should I be on the lookout for?

He loves to eat and is growing like a weed (30 lbs at 20 mos) so this isn't stunting his growth. But he just isn't *right* if you know what i mean.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thx

[rosetapper23]

He may be getting cross-contamination from the toys that other children have touched...or even from the table surface. Also, he may be experiencing additional food sensitivities. You might try eliminating dairy, soy, and oats to see if any of these foods are causing his problems. These are the common trouble foods for people with celiac, but he may have a food sensitivity that is uniquely his.

[Ollie's Mom]

Thanks for the input.

He doesn't eat oats but deffo he has dairy and soy. He never had issues with them before (when in the infant room at daycare) but anything's possible. Things do crop up over time. I'm just not sure if the catering company can accommodate such a restrictive diet. And daycare policy says I can't bring food in for him. Ugh. But I'll investigate what the catering co can do.

He does eat a lot of fruit (bananas, oranges, apples,strwaberries, etc. ) we were afraid those may have been contributing to his poop issues but a few weeks after cutting those way back we're still having the nasty poops.

*le sigh* who knew I'd spend so much time wishing for my son to have "normal" bm's ... lol

[Mom2J112903]

My son has *never* had a normal bm. When he eats gluten, things are BAD, but *all* food causes problems for him.

If your son has a dietary need, either the daycare has to provide safe food or you will bring in what is safe for him. When it comes to a child's health, there should never be any agruments about their diets.

[Ollie's Mom]

Well after having him home with us over the long weekend, eating strictly gluten-free foods prepared by me, we were down to two normal looking and smelling bm's today. This has happened over other long weekends. But two day weekends don't seem to be enough time for him to get back to normal.

I guess he must b getting cc'd somehow. Friday he had 5 bm's. And they were huge and stinky.

Don't know how to get the daycare to take this seriously without a diagnosis. My gp won't take me seriously. So there's little hope daycare will.

[beebs]

Not sure how seriously anyone takes these things without an official diag - or even a diag- I found out yesterday that my son was playing with playdoh at school! WTF!

[Mom2J112903]

Not sure how seriously anyone takes these things without an official diag - or even a diag- I found out yesterday that my son was playing with playdoh at school! WTF!

My son can play with playdough and be just fine. Now if he would eat it, that is a different story.

[clare89]

my son is just going through all the test at the moment and a very strict gluton, wheat, soya, dairy, eggs free diet and well im having similar problem that the school want even set up a meeting with us about his school dinners till they had letter from gp, gp want write letter as results from test aint back and this diet is just precaution given from consultants from hospital and gp has not recieved notes from this.so i have to take pack lunch in for him but they start moaning as he isnt getting all food groups as most of his lunch is fruit and veg any ideas wat i can give him