After procrastinating for way too long, I finally was able to get Sarah in to see the Pediatric Gastroenterologist (from hereto referred as the Pedi GI). This poor kid, in her entire 4 1/2 years of life, has probably had less than 10 solid BM's. I'm not joking. Ask anyone who has babysat her, and had to endure a poopy diaper, it's like liquid. It's practically the consistency of newborn poop. And it goes everywhere. Katie has days where hers are like that, too. But, she also has pretty normal poop, for a 2 year old.
Sarah's been tested for celiac, but her last test was over a year ago, and I knew she was due for one. I've tried limiting the amount of juice she gets, that didn't work. I contemplated putting her on a gluten free diet, just to test it out, but then thought that if she DID get tested for it, that would skew her results. A lot of different scientific names have been thrown my way by the medical people I know: C-diff, celiac, acidophilus, intestinal bacteria.
Needless to say, that trying to potty train a kid who has these types of BM's is not happening. And I want at least 1 kid out of diapers by the end of the year and at the rate we're going, it was looking like it was going to be Katie. Although I think Jeff and our bank account would throw me a party if I got both of them out of diapers by then. But, I'm not going to get ahead of myself.
So, the appointment yesterday wasn't groundbreaking, but at least it was something. He gave me 2 lab orders, one for a blood draw and 4 vials. For poop. And a wooden stick. Not kidding. I have to collect Sarah's poop and put it in 4 different containers. I've done this before, but at the time, she had rotovirus and her poop was the consistency of soggy green alfalfa. (I told you this was going to be TMI) So it was easier to scoop up with a wooden stick. How I'm supposed to do that with liquid, I guess I'll find out.
I'm hoping, praying, BEGGING that some answers will come out of this. This poor kid just wants to poop normally. Or at least she would if she knew any different, since this IS her normal right now.
1 year ago
3 comments:
Oh gosh, we've been doing the loose poop thing for 4 1/2 years also. At least once a month she gets sent home from school because of loose stools. We did all those test, all came back negative, except for a slight allergy to wheat. On the advice of our GI, Kayla's gluten and dairy free, and limited on soy. We also do two probiotics (expensive and not covered by insurance!). We've at least gone from loose to mushy. One day we even had marbles! Whoo hoo! Who knew you could get so excited about poop!
Anyway, good luck tackling the poop issue. I know how frustrating (and not to mention messy!) it is.
My friend's son (I'll give you her email privately if you'd like it) was having the same problem, but they thought it was from the Chemo he was getting for ALL. He was tested for celiac, gluten intollerance etc and the BLOODWORK and tests came back within normal ranges. However, they went a the diets anyway and the liquid nuclear waste stopped happening. A few times over the last couple of months he's gotten A BITE of something...like a hot dog...and they suffer the ramifications for days afterward. But on the (zero gluten) he does pretty well and they have almost semi formed poop!
Ugh, I'm so hoping we don't have to go the GF way, but if it'll help her, I'll do it. I'm wondering, if the bloodwork comes back normal, if I can request a biopsy to confirm, or if they require the bloodwork to imply celiac. I know she issues with her stomach not emptying very quickly but I'm wracking my brain to try and figure out if the two are connected. Thanks for your advice guys. :)
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