Toddler, chronic diarrhea, no weight loss....????

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When my son was a toddler he had constant diahreah, stomache cramps and gas pains...A friend of mine phoned her pediatrician and he said to take him off all apple related drinks and foods. Within 2 days he was having normal bowel movements, he is now 24 years old and if he has apple juice he will have the same reaction he did as a toddler. He is now having the same problems with his son.

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My son is 22 months old. I only remember changing a very few formed stools. His stools are usually loose with lots of mucus and a strange odor. It is almost like rotting sugar or other carbohydrates. He has been tested for giardia, c.diff, crytposporidosis, reducing substances (a sign of malabsorption syndromes), and most recently, Cystic Fibrosis and Celiac Disease. All of these tests came back normal or negative for that disease, disorder, syndrome, etc. Eliminating wheat didn't seem to help. I started eliminating milk from his diet two days ago and his stools went from loose to liquid. He often wakes up at night crying with bowel sounds so loud I can hear them without a stethoscope. He often wakes with severe gas, belching, etc. He had pretty bad reflux until he was about 7 months old. He was on Prevacid and Reglan. Our pediatrician told us the next step was to see the GI specialist. Hmmm... I am feeling that we will get more of the same- they won't know any more than I do about what is going on. There is a strong family history of IBS and I am worried that is the "diagnosis" he will end up with and there will be nothing I can do to help.

heathnjoy · Newbie Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

My 2 1/2 year old son also started having unformed stool for about a year now. The Dr. did some blood test for celiacs and also a stool culture. They tried to eliminate dairy for a week or so but no difference. My son also has constant ear infections and we noticed that when he was on the antibiotic his stools would actually get normal. I thought this may be something that would lead the Dr. to solve the mistery but instead it's something that doesn't make sense to them. The Gastroenterologist thinks perhaps he could have a bacteria overgrowth in his small intestine so he's having my son do a daily dose of probiotics. So far there really hasn't been much of a change.

3 boys mama · Newbie Joined: 03 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

My 23 month old son has been having diarrhea for about 6-8 months now. He often acts like his tummy cramps right before he has a bowel movement. We have already done several stool cultures and nothing is showing up. My husband has severe food allergies and I tried eliminating certain foods as well as milk to see if things got better, with no success. We saw a ped. GI doc two days ago who is currently doing some blood tests for celiac ect... we are doing some more extensive stool testing also. If all of this comes back negative we are back to square one, I dont want anything to be wrong with my child but at the same time it would be a relief to get a diagnosis. He has had the diarrhea so bad at one point that he went up to 15 times a day and got a huge sore along with a rash on his bottom, it was heart breaking. I will try to update if 2 weeks when we go back for results of the testing.

heathnjoy · Newbie Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

As I mentioned in my last posting no doctors seemed to be able to figure out why for the last 10 months my son was only having soft stools. The soft stools seemed to become formed when he was on anti-biotics. The GI Dr. had him do Pro-biotics and after 6 weeks I still wasn't seeing much change. I then did some more searching on my own and saw some study regarding IBS with Toddlers and using white grape juice. I've since switched him to only drink white grape juice instead of any other juice and after a 1wk and a half his stools are starting to be normal. It seems to me that it must be helping. I haven't changed anything else diet wise. I had found some article that explains how other juices (apple, pear) have sorbital that is hard to digest and white grape juice is really easy to digest. I hope it will work for some of you too.

Yael907 · Newbie Joined: 07 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

It was a relief to read all these posts and see that we are not alone! We are adopting our 2 1/2 year old through the foster care system and know very little of his family history. He has had diarrhea since we got him one year ago. I only remember a handful of solid stools. He gets 5 to 10 stools a day which range from soft to watery. His stomach is normal in the mornings and distented as the day progresses. We have done all the allergy testing, stool tests and blood test out there. All test were normal except for bloodwork showing high level of inflamation. He does not act like he is hurting except for the occasional diaper rash. The peds GI doctor wants to do a barium test for bacterial overgrowth and a scope test next. It all seems so invasive and he so HATES doctors now. We have put him on strict food elimination diets with no relief. Lactobacillicus supplements help a lot, but are not a cure. Antibiotics make it all worse. He has a history of prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol, eczema, repitory problems, and developmental delays. But all that is in his history. He is caught up, normal looking, healthy and happy except for the diarrhea. Like others posting, I worry about the potty trainig. Will try the sugar eliminating again after reading the positive results that had. Thanks, good luck, and keep posting!

Karljam · Newbie Joined: 23 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

Our friends have a toddler who has been having chronic diarrhea for over a year now. She has been to 3 different doctors who have cleared her of all food allergies and viruses, but on a recent visit, my wife noticed that there was an almost empty tube of kids toothpaste containing fluoride. Sounds harmless, right? But after a bit of research, we found that acute fluoride poisoning (yes, it IS a poison) can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and even death in extreme cases. Fluoride is in between lead and arsenic on the poison scale. It also stays in the body. Kids, when they brush, usually swallow quite a bit of toothpaste, and don't spit it out as they should.

At any rate, it's something to look into. If your child uses toothpaste with fluoride or ingests fluoride, that could be causing their diarrhea and be making them sick.

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i son had diarrhia since he was born he is now 2 and ahalf we found out it was food allergies milk, beef, soy , corn and he can't tolerate preaty much all foods he can only eat 10 food . he many lives on similac alimentuim. which now he is doing good with normal poops most of the time

swilliams · Newbie Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 1

I am in the same situation as some of you. My 3 year old has never had a formed stool. He will have atleast 1-2 very bulky loose stools a day and 1-2 loose but a very small amount loose stools a day as well.

I began to become worried when he was about 18 months and that is when the dr visits began. At first it was recommended that he gets more fiber. O.K. tried that, then we cut out all juice and no improvement. I suspected it was a food sensitivity and tried elimination diets. No help and very difficult. I tried probiotics and a wheat, dairy, egg free diet. no help.

I then put him through all of the tests including biops, no real diagnosis. That was a year ago and there has been little improvement.

Potty training is on hold but for how long? If all of us has gone through this, and I'm sure there are more, than why is it such a mystery to Dr's?

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my son has been through the same thing along with projectile vomiting. He gets juicy stuff in his throat, tummy ache feels crummy. He vomits and has diarrhea (sometimes at same time) then feels better. Lots of specialist and tests. New family doc says cut out acids and caffienne. No orange juice or chocolate donuts his favorite breakfast, and we really started watching what he eats. No spicy foods. If we watch his diet (which is pretty bland now) he feels much better his stool are never formed but he is growing and feeling better.

Toddler, chronic diarrhea, no weight loss....????

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