?Celiac? My daughter?

[parkersk]

Hello! I have a 3 year old daughter who has always had a problem with bowel movements. She is very irregular - even with Miralax - and her bowel movements smell horrendous. It's not the usual 'poopy smell' that I have ever smelled before. She is not a big eater, although very petite, she seems to be healthy. She does seem to be a overly irritable a good bit of the time - especially when we have a 'poopy episode'. Does this sound like it could be Celiac Disease? I have had some concerns about her for quite awhile and just happened upon some info. on this disease. Even my family has commented on some of her behaviors. The doctors just keep giving her Miralax or telling me to use suppositories, etc. Which is ok if it is only the constipation that is a problem. She does eat a lot of macaroni and cheese. She is such a picky little eater, if she finds something she really likes, that is what we let her have. She also eats alot of pudding, yogurt and cheese. Somebody please tell me what you think????

[aklap]

[backwoodsmama]

I have a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 1/2 year old whom I think are celiacs- they both have had episodes of constipation and diarrhea, and their biggest symptom was not sleeping at night. Had many people tell me they were fine, just needed to cry it out in their cribs, eat more bananas or fewer bananas, etc, but I just felt that something was making them feel sick. They both had bad reactions to wheat, so I wasn't feeding that to them, but it was other sources of gluten (mainly from barley in wheat-free products) that was upsetting their stomachs. The younger also has a soy allergy, which is another common ingredient in wheat-free products. The older one now also has very bad temper tantrums within a few minutes of eating gluten.

I'd say go with your instinct - if you feel something might be wrong, it probably is - you know your kids better than any doctor or specialist ever will!! There is no risk or expense involved in cutting out certain foods and seeing if her symptoms improve, so why not try it? I read a good book on food allergies (can't remember the title or author) but she suggested eating mostly fruits, vegetables and rice for 3-4 days, then gradually adding suspected foods in one at a time. Eat a lot of that food on the day you first introduce it. If it is the offending food, the symptoms should get better when it's absent and then get worse again when it's reintroduced.

Good luck!
_________________
Jen - mom to Fruit Bat, 4, and Danger Monkey, 1 1/2

[maria1223]

both of ur cases sound like C/D my oldest daughter was & still Is on miralax w/ benifiber. but I had her tested blood & colan osc & endo osc. nothing was found. she still has a very foul smelling stool, get's gas so bad that it smells like something crawled up in her & died. They r still saying it is IBS.
good luck at finding out what it is

[Guest]

all it takes is a blood test for whether she has certain antibodies . A pediatric gastro should be seen to see what she thinks. If positive then they can do an endoscopy to confirm

[Muriel]

In response to your three year old, some of this sounds familiar. My daughter 4 1/2 years old was just diagnosed yesterday with Celiac disease. Like your daughter she is picky, petite, she has become intolerable with attitude,temper tantrums(not just at home -at preschool, her friends home, crying, can't seem to control herself half the time) I can't say she has been constipated, but often complains of pain from gas in her sides which typically is relieved a short time later with a bowel movement. I'm doing research to find out what to feed her etc. You can simply have a blood test done and this will show her levels to see if she does have this disease. I had gotten a blood test done because I thought she had Lymes disease, but in fact it was this!