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

I can see it has been awhile since anyone has posted on this but I am desperate. My son is almost 19 months old. He has had loose stool since the day he was born. We took him off Milk after we have tried Soymilk, Lactose free Milk and Almond Milk, we do not give him Juice only Crystal Light, water and Pedia Light. He has a very strict diet and doesn't eat anything citrus, greasy or with too much sugar. He always seems hungry but is in his 97% in height and weight I have bugged the doctors for a year now and they finally ran a panel of tests. They tested him for Ciliac-Negative, Food Allergies- Negative, Seasonal Allergies- Negative, Pet Allergies- Negative, They then took some more blood and found that his red blood platelets were high, they didn't know why. They took his blood again a month later and it was even higher, still no answers. The Pediatrician sent us to a Hematologist and his blood work came back normal.... I am officially lost, confused and hurt that I see my son deal with this everyday with no relief in sight. As of right now we have an appointment tomorrow with a GI doctor. I have no idea what to expect. I want some kind of answers because in my heart I know my son is in pain and as his Momma I can't do anything about it. I think about it all the time, I know there has to be answers out there somewhere. If anybody has any information please share it with me.

Thank you & GOD BLESS
Ramona
***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed **
Please read our Terms of Use

Dear Kinzkidz,

I hope you found out what was going on with your child.I have an 18 month old who has had diahrrea now for 4 months.NO ONE can tell me whats wrong.It all started out with the fact that he had a rash on his face when he was about a month old,so I switched his formula about three times in 2 months nothing was working.Then a friend told me to switch to soy milk within a week his skin completely cleared up.I was so exited.Then when he was about a year old I tried to put milk in his soy and the rash kinda came back,I quickly took him off of dairy.Then a few months later he got diahrrea he got it in January it is now March,and nothing has changed.We have taken him to his pediatrician who recommended doing blood work to check for food allergies(not allergic to milk,eggs,or wheat) and then to a gastroenterologist who recomended we take him off of juice (apple juice we just started giving that to him that week) because JD's belly was destended.At first he thought that JD had a parasite but no parasite.Then he did a sweat test to check to see if JD had Chrones disease,no chrones,thank-god.Then JD had a colonoscopy and a endoscopy they took a biopsy of his intestine but again nothing.Because of the diahrrea JD has gotten TWO yeast infections (yes boys get them to,crazy) we are at the end of our rope,and just so sad for JD.DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THIS COULD BE!DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ANSWERS?

Our 2 1/2 year old had the same problems!  Loose stools to diahrrea, low appetite, stomach pain, and then psycho-social difficulties due to his discomfort (on the hyper and aggressive side).  After even evaluations at a Children's Hospital (not helpful and costly), we found help in a holistic doctor.  She found he responded well to a supplemental treatment for parasites.  Apparently in one study 70% of toddlers in a play group had Giardia.  Giardia is VERY difficult to test for.  Stool tests are often done repeatedly and found negative.  Even when my daughter had it several years ago, with blood in her stool, two stool tests later, it did not show up.  Again, it took our holistic (Chiropracter, Physical Therapist, Nutritionist, Muscle Testing) doctor to help us treat her!  Also, DO's (traditional doctors of Osteopathy) who do the traditial cranial sacral type adjustment, have also helped get our kids stomachs stronger.  Good luck!  Such a hard thing!

We still have not found what is wrong with J.J., although things were bette rfor a few months he has only gotten worse. We went to see the Gastro and they only found that he has sugar in his stool, in which they told me to take him off all milk products. This doesn't make sense to me be i'm no doctor. Unfortunatly his doctor is in Japan helping his family recover so I have not heard from him in awhile. Hopefully I hear something soon. All I ask is that ya'll don't ever give up finding out what is wrong with your children, the doctors always blow it off but be adament and KEEP YOUR FAITH.

Reading this makes me feel not soooo alone.  My husband and I have been dealing with the exact same issue since my daughter was born (Jan 2009)From her first poop I knew someting was wrong.... she has had diarrhea since and has never pooped solid, NEVER!!!  She is now 2 1/2 and has been seen by many doctors and nothing... we have no answers.  As an infant Emma had blood in her stool and after numerous formula's we switched to Alimentum, but that didn't help her diarrhea.  After 2 gastro's who knew nothing and said it would work it self out, she was seen by the Chief of Pediatric Gastro at a renouned chidrens hospital.  We were told she has IBS and an extreme underdeveloped digestive system..... we used adult suppositiories 3 times a day for about 4 months.  Although her 24-7 screaming and crying in pain had stopped, the diarrhea and rashes never did.  We finally went back to square one and switched our pediatricians.  The new pediatrician, who I adore, ordered an entire blood work-up.  Emma was tested for Chrones, Cyliac, milk and soy allergies, protein allergies... amongst other things and everything came out negative (which is wonderful), but as her mother I know something is wrong.  She pees on the potty but I can't fully potty train b/c I honestly do not even think she has control of her bowels or when she is pooping.... and it is always diarrhea.  Whatever she eats comes out the same way it went down her throat (chewed), it is def. not digested by any means.  Last night she got a severe diaper rash (out of the blue) and for the first time she actually told me "Mommy, I hurt".... my heart broke.  I know some of these posts have been a few years ago, hoping that someone found and answer!!!  

my son is 21 months old. i am so glad i found this. my child is going thru it. he has 4-6 diarreah filled diapers everyday. its awful and it makes me very frustrated. i know something isnt right and dont know what to do. his bowels have never even attepted to get hard no matter what foods i have tried. i have adjust meals and so on, and nothing. i am at a loss and feel beaten lately.

We still have not found anything significant. We went and seen the Gastro again with no luck, they only tell me it's normal...NORMAL!... My son use to be in 90% for his weight and heigth and now he is 50% in height and weight... Thats what they call normal. I am frustrated and back to square one

I have been through the exact same issue now with 2 kids. My current 17 mo old has yet to have a normal bowel movement. With my first child we did all sorts of testing and eliminated everything possible from his diet and all it did was make our life extremely restricted and he was very skinny. I finally gave up and fed him whatever he wanted and by age 2 he was all better. He is now a healthy 5 year old. With my current 17 mo old, the problem seems worse. At least once a week, sometimes more, he has a diaper that explodes all over his crib in the morning. We typically have 3-5 extremely messy diapers per day - so poopy that the diaper cannot contain it. The only thing that seems to make it much worse is corn & nuts, so we avoid those. He is showing no signs of improvement yet. I am so glad to hear that I am not alone in this! It is truly exhausting to change so many diapers each day, and a huge problem when you try to leave the house! Neither of my kids had abdominal pains. My 17 mo old is very healthy & gaining weight beautifully. The only thing that the DR has come up with is a possible inability to digest sugars. We are vegetarians, so the sugars in all the fruits & veggies we eat could be the problem. The DR has suggested waiting it out, as she has seen this before & it usually improves after age 2. She suggested focusing on the fact that in all other ways he is perfectly healthy, and to do our best to deal with the diapers one day at a time! I'm am holding onto hope that we will see improvement as he gets closer to 2. Has anyone else seen improvement with age?

Gosh, my son's now 3 and we're just coming out of the difficulties.  For us, it has improved with age; I've heard that from others too!  We treated Giardia and kept a restrictive diet (dairy free, gluten free), and kept him on children's probiotics.  Others are impacted by corn, nuts, mom's coffee in breastmilk, eggs, etc).  The pain stopped about 6 months ago and (at 2 1/2) and he finally slept through the night.  Stomach rashes, hyperactivity and loose stools continued.  We recently did EMDR (a trauma therapy) to help him unload leftover anger about being helpless for 2 years with stomach pain!  What's interesting, is that I think the EMDR addressed his sympathetic nervous system arousal; an overactive sympathetic nervous system can cause stools to move through so fast they are undigested and loose or diarrhea.  The day of the EMDR, his hyperactivity was gone; one week after, and his stools are solidifying.  There are so many great ways to healing.  Keep looking at all of your options.  Seems to me the holistic community is much better at addressing these problems than mainstream docs.  Hang in there guys!

Hi there, I have read about so many desperate parents dealing with chronic toddler diarrhea. It is not okay for the medical profession to brush this off as something kids will grow out of. I have been so stressed looking for solutions over the last year. My son is 2 and I don't remember him ever having consistent solid stools. We have tried various food restrictions, he has had numerous stool samples examined, blood tests and finally a gastroscopy where they took 3 biopsies. Still with no significant results. HOWEVER, it was someone on this forum that mentioned the inability for some toddlers to digest certain sugars in fruits. Well I have done loads of reading over the last couple of weeks and I am pretty sure my son has a "fructose malabsorption digestive disorder". Often it is thought this is due to drinking too much fruit juice, however we don't give juice to the kids, but they are big fruit eaters. This is quite a complicated situation to manage initially until you understand the relationship between fructose and glucose and it's absorption in the small and large intestine. Unfortunately fructose is not just in fruit, but many many foods. I have taken him totally off fruit and anything that states it contains fructose in higher quantity to glucose and we have seen a significant change. My son previously had runny/watery/sometimes explosive bowel movements 95% of the time. Since dramatically reducing the fructose in his diet, he now has runny/unformed bowel motions only 30% of the time. This is after 2 weeks of diet change. I am hoping for an even better improvement after I meet with a dietician next week who has experience with fructose malabsorption. So thank you sooo much to all the parents on this forum for sharing their stories. It has definitely lead me to a solution and I hope that other parents find solutions. Don't give up searching for answers, collective knowledge is a powerful thing. Thanks again. Mel

My 20 month old son had a history of constant wet, irritating bowel movements. We tried soy milk, rick milk, lactose free milk, no wheat, no meat, no fruit, etc. What worked for us: removing all APPLE products (including juice) from his diet. This stopped the explosive, wet, acidic bowel movements in about 2 weeks. Next, I put PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTS in his milk. I used a brand called FloraBaby that I got at the organic market, but I'm sure any other brand would work just as well. This contained both bifidobacteria and lactobacillus cultures. Apparently all the antibiotics he took when he was a baby for ear infections ruined his digestive process. The bifidobacteria - beneficial bacteria babies receive during the birth process from the mother - is highly susceptible to destruction by antibiotics. Anyway, he is all better now! Within two days, his bowel movements became totally normal. No more diaper rash, no more yeast infections, no more discomfort. I promised myself if I found something that worked, I would pass on our solution - so there you go!

hi,

my daughter is 22months pld now and has just recently developed lose motions .. its been 7 days now .. her diet is good as im giving her plenty of water, rice and rice water antibiotic and Econorm.. after a lot of suggestions, today i decided not to give her any kind of milk or milk products.i am just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best tomorrow morning....

Hey my 20 month old daughter is doing the same thing i've tired everything i think its milk!

My son is now 3 and it's been awhile since I updated but as of now we are doing great, Soymilk only and it is good for kids with loose stools. He recently underwent surgery to have his adenoids and tonsils removed because he was loosing oxygen. I am so thankful that he can finally be a healthy boy. I don't know how to describe the feeling of being helpless but I am sure some of you know the feeling. I will say one thing... DO NOT GIVE UP!!!!! Fight until you figure it out. JJ cis not allowed any milk or juice. I give him Soymilk and crystal light... He loves it!

Did you ever find the answer this sounds just like our story?
Thanks