Constant Diarrhea

[tenecwalker]

Both of my kids are having pooping issues.
Ryan has had soft stool his entire life (4 years old). They have never been formed. I always just expected that they would firm up later. He also has always pooped multiple times per day. First I thought it was eating too much fruit, then I figured once he was potty trained. Now, he has been potty trained over a year, doesn't eat an excessive amount of fruit and it is no longer just soft, but actual diarrhea. He has almost completed a 2 week no dairy trial and it hasn't helped. Next step is stool testing to make sure he doesn't have any bacteria, but we expect it to come back fine. Then we are supposed to see a GI.

Luke's (15 months) pooping was fairly normal until we introduced milk at almost a year old. His wasn't ever firm, but at less than a year old and on a combo of solids and breastmilk I wasn't expecting it to be. He pooped generally once a day, occasionally skipping a day. My milk supply started dwindling due to pregnancy so we introduced milk around 11 months. He started having diarrhea 8-10x per day including throughout the night. We took out all sources of dairy and he scaled back to going about 3-5 times per day, but consistency wise it varies from pea soup to mashed potatoes. His stool test came back normal. He has a GI appointment at the end of April (I'm hoping to get Ryan in at the same time). He has weaned since 13 months.

Any idea what this could be?

[kjbrown92]

Dairy is A food intolerance but by no means the ONLY food intolerance. Your children could both be reacting to any food (and not necessarily the same one). And if it's dairy AND something else, you might get some improvement, most likely not, if there are still more culprits. Constant diarrhea is definitely a problem. You may get lucky and get a good GI who is familiar with food intolerances. Have they had celiac testing? If you're going to get tested for it, you need to do it before you pull gluten out of their diet.

My new idea is to take the top 4 culprits out (dairy, soy, gluten, corn) and see if it gets better (vs. a top-8 allergen ED or a TED).

[tenecwalker]

Thanks. I know that there are many more things they may be intolerant of. I just don't even know where to start. I've heard the GI is a fairly good one, so hopefully she will have some ideas. I just like feeling knowledgeable so I know that they are getting fully looked over and not just blown off. They have had no testing so far (other than Luke's stool testing). The pediatrician wanted them to go to a specialist rather than her starting testing, so the GI could do what she thought was needed. They have not had celiac testing. I'm guessing that is one of the tests the GI will want. Their dad has type 1 diabetes and I have read that celiac is common in diabetics (although his test was negative). I thought about celiac, but it seems like there would be more symptoms than just diarrhea?

Thank you for the top 4 idea. That seems like a good idea. Although, I should probably wait now that I actually have a GI appointment. I've been trying to get this looked in to since December.

[kjbrown92]

I have a friend with 2 kids who both have type 1. They were both tested for celiac because it's carried on the same gene as type 1 (the endo they go to tests all the kids for celiac because of this). They both had celiac, and were both asymptomatic.

[Chinese Pistache]

Diabetes and celiac are on the same gene, so I'd def. look at that. Like Kathy said, any food intolerance can cause those problems. My dd turned out to be allergic to corn. I finally got allergy testing when her bms went from mushy to constant diarrhea. She was also small for her age (from malabsorption) and had eczema.

[tanyalynn]

For us, squishy poop, and pooping more frequently, were signs of gluten intolerance. I really don't think my daughter has celiac, there is nothing that seems potentially similar/often occurring together in my husband's family health history, but it was clear, when I removed gluten, that she's intolerant. That said, we have to do more work to make formed, brown poop, we need lots of probiotic-rich foods (we do it mostly with kimchee and sour pickles, both shockingly easy to make at home).

For us, I haven't felt the need for testing, removing gluten cleared up so many little things that this is clearly worthwhile (subtle stuff--dark circles under her eyes got much lighter, her sleep got better, she started napping again after a year of not napping, and her tonsils got smaller).

My daughter still has more of a tendency to get diarrhea if she's sick or stressed/out of sorts, much more so if I haven't been making enough kimchee.

Also, re: testing, the little I've read suggests that while stool testing for antibodies isn't as well-regarded as blood tests (maybe just because it's newer?) it shows a higher % of people producing antibodies to gluten, and it seems to identify a higher proportion of celiacs (I didn't get into the details there, I assume they biopsied people to determine celiac status). With a family history of type 1, I'd probably eliminate gluten now. The stool test should be accurate for a year after gluten elimination, but the blood test needs current consumption I think. Anyway, short form: you may want to explore all the different types of testing to see which, if any, you want to pursue.

[tenecwalker]

Thanks everyone. It does sound like celiac is a possibility. I didn't know it was on the same gene as type 1. I just figured I would see more signs.

[momofmine]

How has their growth been? Have they been growing despite the loose stools?

[tenecwalker]

Ryan grew quickly until 6 months (19lbs). He then only gained a few ounces from 6-15 months. He went down to the 3%. He steadily started growing and was in the 25% until this year he was 50% at 36lbs. He looks to be a normal size for his age. Not really any extra fat, but not skinny either.

Luke also grew quickly until 6 months and then slowed significantly, but was still in the 50% at 15 months at almost 24lbs. I actually expected him to be higher percentile wise, because he looks very chubby. He has a "buddha belly".

They both eat nonstop though. They eat more than I do at most meals and are constantly snacking. It is like they can't get enough food.

[momofmine]

That was my older son too. He had the most voracious appetite. He had a lot of symptoms of what I thought seemed like celiac as a baby, though he had never eaten gluten himself, but I did and he was nursing. His stools just got increasingly looser and looser until they literally ran out of his diaper, he also slowed down in his growth and I just felt that something was not right. I took out gluten and sugar, and a few other things (we had already eliminated dairy when he was an infant). It helped some, but then he still had symptoms sometimes, and ultimately we wound up doing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for three years, which helped tremendously. Then when he was four we slowly introduced things back into his diet, but over time, he began to have symptoms again. Then he had some abx that completely messed with his gut, and things were worse again. He was not gaining weight and had even begun to lose weight. So in December we started the SCD again and he has gained EIGHT pounds in two and a half months!

His appetite has normalized quite a bit too. He still had a big appetite, but like you said, before, he was CONSTANTLY hungry, and could eat more than my husband at a meal, and I think it was because he was not absorbing what he needed from his food, so his body was compensating by taking more food in.

[momofmine]

And he did have a blood test for celiac, which was neg, but he had only been consuming gluten for about 6 weeks. If I were to do it over again, I probably wouldn't go down that route we did with all the GI tests.

[tenecwalker]

Thanks for the insight. I will have to look into the different diets you mentioned. I'm just diving in to this allergy/gi stuff and I have a lot to read about.

[momofmine]

SCD was the original celiac diet, and a lot of people are helped by it whose symptoms don't completely resolve on a gluten-free diet. There are several threads around here on it, and several websites. The book is called Breaking the Vicious Cycle.