need advice from moms of kids with many not-serious issues

the world's best mom

Sun, Dec 27 2009, 3:19 pm

I'm trying to think of a diagnosis to give your son that nobody has mentioned yet. I think we've covered most of the important ones.
Sorry guys, I find it hard to believe that you can all diagnose him when you've never seen the kid and you've just read a couple of paragraphs about him.
Having kids with issues similar to some of these, I agree you need to find an excellent doctor who will try to find the right diagnosis. I switched pediatricians when my old one refused to believe that dd was intolerant of dairy. She ahd chronic ear ionfections and punctured ear drums until I took her off dairy. Then her ears became 100% clear. Like magic. And the doctor insisted that it was highly unlikely that dairy has anything to do with it. I switched to another doctor who agreed with me completely and told me that many kids who are intolerant of milk are also intolerant of soy. Indeed, we had to take her off of soy milk a couple of weeks later. Now this pediatrician thinks my ds may have celiac disease. We should be getting test results tomorrow.
Only a parent or a good doctor can really guess at what his problems are. Not strangers on imamother. If you want to take him off of gluten, go ahead. Just make sure you have a good doctor who you trust to help you along. And it would probably be wonderful to try homeopathic stuff. If I had money, I would probably do it too.

rainbow

Sun, Dec 27 2009, 3:33 pm

Like I said previously, often dairy and gluten go hand in hand, though not always. And soy as well. And in older kids who've had more exposure, thyroid can be affected as well. And long-term untreated thyroid actually results in diabetes. Wish I had the time to explain the science behind it, but maybe google can help out.

gold21

Sun, Dec 27 2009, 8:03 pm

thanks all! I am thinking about everyone's comments. Re: diabetes, I thought of that one, and had his sugar tested, and it was good. the thirst is, as rydys said, from adenoids being incredibly large and him doing a lot of mouth breathing. he drinks probably three 8 oz bottles during a 12 hour night, just for reference. Its just so frustrating, and its comforting to know others are also dealing with "issue kids" such as bnm, ra mom, worlds best mom. I suspect a lot of the not-serious "issue kids" are allergic kids. I think the most frustrating of all is seeing unhelpful specialists, and that my pediatrician isnt proactive. BTW I remembered that I actually already saw 4 ENTs, not 3, which is what I said earlier. 1 out of 4 was a good diagnostician. Crazy. And allergists, forget about it. ra mom, I wil bli neder try to contact the allergist you mentioned. Also, is it normal that my pediatricians office (abberbock group) is not on top of my sons issues? they never brought up that he breathes noisily or what am I doing about his eczema, etc. Though if I bring up a concern, they are nice and seem pretty knowledgeable.

momtomany

Mon, Dec 28 2009, 11:42 am

is your son able to breathe through his nose?

if not or if its very hard for him, you definitely want to get his adenoids removed.
my son was a mouth breather with large adenoids and tonsils. when he became unable to breathe through his nose we decided it was time to get them out, and its been great since then.

it did take while though to get the right diagnosis.
I started off with the hearing screen from school coming back saying he has poor movement of the tympannic membrame. noone could tell me what that meant. then came the coughing at night, and the runny nose, again noone had any advice for me. my doc said to give him benadryl to see if its an allergy and it will get better, it didnt. I asked about asma. it wasnt. we got a hearing test. it was normal.
I took him to an allergist and he has no allergies. I finally insisted upon a referral to an ENT, who told me to give him antibiotics for a non existent ear infection.
I went to another ENT who finally asked for an xray, and was able to tell me everything was caused by his adenoids. after refusing to give him steroids to try to make the adenoids smaller (very low success rate, so why take the chance with steroids) and refusing to give him antibiotics for none existent ear infections (maybe it will reduce the fluid... why would antibiotic reduce fluid if the fluid is not infected???)
we agreed to get the surgery.
and like I wrote, I really happy we did.

allergypro

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 5:54 pm

I would love to know which pediatrician is specialized in dealing with allergies. my dd is almost 4 and the first 3 years of her life we saw 3 pediatricians (dif. practices), allergist, chardiologist, neuro;ogist, pulmonary specialist. they all basically sent me 2 someone else and I felt like I was going around in circles. we finally thought we were getting somewere with the pul;monologist when he found that she had a terrible sinus infection and put her onto medicine for 6 weeks. after that she was fine for about 2-3 months. then the cycles started again- she would be up at night crying for a few nights, and then suddenly develope a cough- went to the ped, nothing, a day or two later fever, again went to ped. again virus(a fancy word for "iu dont know") within the week we were in the er with pnemonia or other lung infections. a little over a year ago we found a chiropracter kineesiologist who basically told me that the reasson all this was happening was because I had a c-section. she then told me to bring her a bunch of dif types of food and she muscle tested for allergies. dd was allergic to practically everything. we continued going to her for almost a year and stopped because I didnt really believe in her, and because shes an hour and a half away from my house. dd was fine for about 6 months, and then I had a long talk with my ped. who suggested that I slowly start putting her back on stuff. we did blood allergy testing to make sure no allergies, and started. she is currently off milk, gluten, soy, nuts,and sesame. my ped. feels that she can go back on these things cuz one has nothing to do with another, and I was just begining to agree with her, but now dd is sick again!!!!! were going for a chest xray 2morrow!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tina bp

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 11:30 pm

did you ever hear about the allergy testing method with the b-com machine? its been imported from israel just a few years ago. my son is on a gf diet. regular allergy testing showed no allergies. the G.I. tested for celiac and results were inconclusive. b-com machine showed gluten intolerance. he's b"h doing much better and im glad I made the change.

gold21

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 11:40 pm

wow so I guess im not the only one that dealt with unknowledgeable specialists. its insane how unqualified some doctors are. its not the medical knowledge thats necessarily lacking, but the brains and common sense to put 2 and 2 together to make 4, to figure things out even if they are not fitting exactly all the criteria for a condition or issue. My son can breathe thru his nose BH, but additionally he mouth breathes, since he is not able to get everything in thru his nose. I see no reason to wait to take them out until things get worse chas vesholom, as adenoids do gradually get bigger until the age of 5. It just took forever to get the right diagnosis.

ra_mom

Tue, Dec 29 2009, 11:46 pm

Gold, children with (unknown) allergies are always being thrown from doctor to doctor Sad

There is still a lot of unknowns about allergies and the related issues that come along with them, and our children Nebach suffer and suffer!
[My daughter didn't start sleeping through the night until she was 2.5 years old... (she was still waking up 6-8 per night when she had just turned 2.5) she was off the growth charts for 2! years... had no appetite... terrible upset stomach issues... chronic strept... and we're still feeling around in the dark with many of these issues.]
So hugs to all of our suffering children, and to the suffering moms as well!
And may Hashem send our children Yeshuos and Refuos!

my3boyz

Mon, Feb 22 2010, 11:26 pm

Hi!

I have a son, Baruch hashem, almost recovered from behavioral (autism related???) issues. We did a lot to get him to where he is today & defenitely it was exhausting & frustrating to coordinate all his therapies, appointments, etc.

I found it necessary every once in a while to pay the most important therapists he had to get together for a meeting, that I attended, to make sure everyone was on the same page. Also, I made sure I educated myself as much as possible - all the people involved with our son had to share the same views - if not we looked for others. It was hard - but oh so worth the effort!

Also, I am a nutritionist, I would consider testing him for gluten sensitivity. Check this out! www.enterolab.com. May he have a refuah shelema!