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Confused by GI



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amother


 

Post Sat, Oct 25 2014, 11:14 pm
I've been concerned about my son's (almost 4) GI health so I've been taking him to a GI.

Initially it was because of seeming "car sickness"--but that didn't see quite the diagnosis, b/c we had tried all the recommendations for car sickness, but didn't seem to be helping. My son was drinking a lot of milk from a sippy cup.

Dr. Recommended cutting down on milk--we did, no change.

Next visit, I mention that I noticed these like "sour burps" and how sometimes I noticed that my son seemed uncomfortable maybe it's reflux? Dr. prescribed zantac.--That helped.

Now his stomach has been so inconsistent and when he has to go he gets NUTS and irritable--normal stool, hard stool, runny stool, diarrhea, Dr recommended still cutting milk back further. We have, but still no major progress.

I notice that sometimes after he has juice--which isn't really that frequently, we don't always have it in the house, (and he takes a little 4 oz juice box to school, but that's it) his stools will be liquid and NOXIOUS smelling.
So far, the Dr's only response was "so don't give him juice".

I know that it doesn't really have nutritional value, and it's not much better than soda, but it's a little variety in his liquid intake. What would make his stomach SO off b/c of a cup of juice? Has anyone else had this?
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yogabird




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Oct 25 2014, 11:23 pm
Have you ruled out immune colitis/IBD/Crohn's colitis? Those are often triggered by certain foods.
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kb




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Oct 25 2014, 11:27 pm
Quite frankly? it doesn't seem like the doctor is taking you seriously. I'd find a different doctor.
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Ashrei




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 12:08 am
Whether the GI takes you seriously or not, if you're not seeing results, I'd take him to a better GI. Maybe ECHO or Refuah Resources can recommend someone excellent. Although I have no experience with GI related stuff per se, thank you Hashem for one medical thing I don't have experience with!, I'd expect them to do SOME kind of diagnostics (an x ray or ultrasound at least)... Just a brainstorm, I hope you find the right shidduch. And btw, good for you trusting your gut and pursuing this.

(PS Maybe a trip to the allergist too? Also an ENT could diagnose reflux...)
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newmommy22




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 12:17 am
Could be any one of numerous gastro conditions. If its not getting better I would demand that my son have an endoscopy and probably look for a new gi.
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chani8




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 3:24 am
In answer to your question about the juice, you bet it can cause all kinds of issues. But let's back up. All that milk wasn't good, either. And then, the doctor made everything worse by the zantac. Cut the milk, cut the juice, cut the zantac.

Give water. Really. Just give water in his sippy cup. And stop giving him so much liquids. All those liquids probably caused the initial reflux.
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freidasima




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 3:47 am
Get a new doctor and limit to water for a while. A lot is trial and error.
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Jewishmofm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 5:30 am
Keep an instant and outs diary. Write whathe drinks/ foods go in and what stools, behaviors come out. Minimum two weeks. Take that on the road with you string with your pediatrician. Ped usually had best overall view of health, and is in best position to suggest next steps like seeing a different GI, an allergist, etc.
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Jewishmofm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 5:33 am
Also, make sure all your specialists ate pediatric GI and so forth. It males a huge difference.
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amother


 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 9:18 am
OP here, Thanks everyone for the responses. This is a pediatric GI who came highly recommended and takes our insurance-- tricky combination to top, but I do feel that he has been brushing me off a little chalking everything up to "parenting" and not looking for other issues.

I KNOW that all the milk wasn't good for him, but I couldn't get him to eat and when eating, I was seeing behaviors that I wasn't thrilled with. I suspected that my son was relying on milk b/c he felt so uncomfortable with the reflux that he wasn't eating the food. As far as I could tell, as a parent, the reflux had been an issue for a LONG time--he had reflux as an infant.

Mind you that the most recent trip finally drilled into my son that he's been drinking too much and now he's cut back significantly.

I try to be sensible with my kids' diets. I don't think it's realistic to tell kids--no milk and no juice ever. The biggest frustration we would have is that he would vomit--almost out of the blue in the car, we tried "no eating" and "no drinking", "only water" or "only juice" in the car--b/c of long (unavoidable) car trips we would have to allow something. We couldn't discern much of a patter, the Zantac has made a world of difference. Hasn't had an episode in the car since.

Also the puzzling thing with the juice is that it doesn't happen ALL the time, I just notice a higher correlation. He told us that if things are still not improving to touch base with him b4 next follow-up
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bnm




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Oct 26 2014, 10:41 am
juice is BAD for reflux. My kid had a 24 hour ph probe in the hospital and part of the test was giving apple juice at 2 set times so they can see how his stomach reacts to acid.... the machine jumped from 7.2 to 4. something.... avoid juices.

was he having stomach issues before the Zantac?
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amother


 

Post Wed, Oct 29 2014, 11:59 pm
OP here, yes he was having stomach issues before the zantac. The zantac seemed to help more than hurt. He hasn't really been in the car since stopping the zantac--I'm almost too nervous to try.

I would say "no juice" but it doesn't always seem to irritate his stomach, and he likes it, so it's hard to never give it to him--and it's not given often enough to explain away his issues..

The main indicator of his stomach problems is that when he's having an episode he GOES NUTS! He becomes SO WILD and out of control and it's been like this since he was a toddler. We'd always say when our normally docile and pleasant child would just be out of control that "He must be working on a dirty diaper" --but its not always hard, soft, etc. it varies from time to time from formed stools to noxious soup. Tonight he started jumping on the bed and rolling around the bed and eventually fell on the floor giving himself a good bump on the forehead. He doesn't even realize the connection and can't verbalize that his tummy hurts or what the feeling is. Right after I changed him I noticed a much calmer child. It has complicated toilet training--he almost never goes to the bathroom for #2, even though he got fairly consistent with #1
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chani8




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Oct 30 2014, 2:18 am
I've been through so much myself with stomach issues, OP, that I really understand how your little boy is feeling. As far as his behavior, it's well known that there is a brain-gut connection, so it makes sense to me that he gets wild around poop time.

Stopping the zantac is a good thing. Zantac lowers stomach acid. However, a person's stomach needs those acids to digest their food properly. They've now figured out that low stomach acid is the root cause of many digestive problems. One of the potential problems is an increase in bad bacteria in the gut.

Since your child is having such a hard time, I recommend you read up on the GAPS diet, and the SCD diet. It's good information. Both diets were pretty much created for children, the goal being to heal their guts, which can change their lives. Researching those, you'll realize you're not alone, and you'll get some good ideas of diet changes that really help.
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