4.5yo with tummy aches

[sunnygir1]

My dd complains that her stomach hurts fairly frequently.  I'm worried about it, but not sure what to try first.

Symptoms:

She generally has normal stools, although there has been some occasional diarrhea -- I think it has been because of illness, though.  She often complains that her tummy hurts when she has to poop and feels better after.

She also often says it hurts when she's eating or after eating or before eating.  I don't know how to distinguish if some of it is hunger, over-eating, etc.

She will get a tummy ache if she drinks too much juice or eats too much of something sweet -- part of this is that if she has a beverage that isn't water she will just drink the whole thing right away, so I think there is a physical aspect to this particular pain.  She will also eat too much of something sweet if I let her.  We don't do a ton of sweets or juice, but I bake some and we do birthday dessert and stuff.  I have just started giving her very small portions and that seems to help.

She often complains of a tummy ache at bedtime, which could be her not wanting to go to bed.

She is also still a very heavy wetter every night at 4.5yo.

Treatment:

I give her green clay in water for tummy aches and sometimes Swedish Bitters.

I have, at times given her digestive enzymes regularly, but I don't think they help.

She takes a probiotic 2x a day and fish oil daily.

Diet:

She is gluten-free and always has been.  Eating wheat definitely gives her a stomach ache.

I have recently begun to suspect dairy, so I took her off cow dairy.  I still do allow some goat/sheep cheese and yogurt.  She has never drunk cow milk.

She is a great eater, enjoying many fruits and vegetables, beans and lentils, rice, etc.  I think her diet is excellent.

So, I don't know what to do next.  I don't think it is normal for her to have abdominal pain or discomfort that frequently (I'd say it happens almost daily and sometimes more than once a day).  Now that I'm writing this I am starting to think I should take her to our family doc to rule out anything he might be able to find physically.  She hasn't been to see him in probably 8 months.  Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[mamaupupup]

Hi there,

I'm sorry there haven't been comments to your post yet.  I don't have much to offer other than you seem very on top of it!!!  I have a 5 yo who has similar complaints and was just diagnosed Celiac Disease.  You have been GF, so that is a great start.

My daughter is very competitive and pretty intense, so I often think my daughter has stress related symptoms.  She does unwind by reading (flipping through books), listening to stories (ours and on tape), and drawing.  This helps her a lot. 

I personally went through a phase where I was eating lots of apples and I'd have intense stomach aches from the acidity.  Also, I do not do well with sugar (although I crave it). 

How is your daughter now?

[sunnygir1]

Thank you for your response.  Dd is doing better with tummy complaints.  I think some of it was a bug, maybe.  It seems clear now that if I give her dairy she gets tummy aches within a day or so.  So, I think we're going gluten and cow dairy free for now.

[redheather]

Hi, I'm curious to hear more about her seemingly steady improvement?

My almost-3yo daughter has been complaining of stomach aches since having stomach flu over a month ago. We've been giving her children's probiotics since, and they seem to help some, especially with the occasional loose stools. For a month before that she'd been sick with every respiratory virus coming down the pike at her small preschool, and despite many assurances that this is normal and good, I can no longer ignore the stomach piece. This past week it's escalated to very stinky farts ("SBD's") no matter what she eats or doesn't eat. We've always kept gluten, dairy, eggs, and sugar to scant quantities, but not 100% out (like two pieces of cheese per week). We'd already eliminated tree nuts and peanuts a while ago, and never eat soy, so it's all incredibly bewildering. Her dad's an acupuncturist and he's stumped too. She won't take any herbs, which is our usual way of handling illness. We still nurse and while I adhere closely to her needs, I eat a couple foods she doesn't (like grass-fed beef, and fish).

We have a doctor appt this week but I'm not confident they'll come up with much.

Anyone?

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by redheather 

Hi, I'm curious to hear more about her seemingly steady improvement?

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this.  I hope your appointment went well -- if you already had it.

I think maybe sometimes their little digestive systems just take a while to recover from illness.  I suspect that is a big part (if not all) of what was going on with my dd.  Last year my kids were in daycare and sick from November through May with all kinds of things.  Great for immune system building, I guess.

Anyway, I gave dd probiotics three times a day.  I also started mixing them up -- I give them a xylitol sweetened chewable 2x a day, and then for her third dose i was giving her a powdered probiotic and some bifidus I still had from ds mixed in water.  I was very careful with sweets (including fruit and juice) because too much sweet consistently gave her a tummy ache.

Now, months later, she can handle some fresh juice or a home made cookie without complaining that her tummy hurts.  She did have a couple visits to the toilet that she said hurt the other day, but really, I think it just may have been a little bug or something she was fighting off.  I've also kept her off the cow dairy, because that seems to help too.  I have let her eat something with butter in it once or twice without any problems, but I'm not adding it back in to her diet at this point.

All that said, if your lo has a food sensitivity or allergy, eating that food once or twice a week may well be enough to cause constant or intermittent tummy troubles.  My sister is gluten free.  If she eats it, she ends up with terrible stomach aches.  It doesn't happen every time; she can get away with it once in a while, but if she were to eat it a couple times a week, she would get periodic stomach aches.

We are not super strict with gluten like some are.  We do not use separate utensils for cooking with gluten (which my husband does) or anything like that.  We occasionally get french fries or something that may not be gluten free at a restaurant, etc.  Same with dairy.  I just keep our exposure to a bare minimum, but don't freak out about it.  That works for us (but we aren't really allergic).

Hope that helps, feel free to question me further and I will do my best to clarify ; )

[redheather]

Thanks for that! My gal's doing better too, sort of miraculously- so maybe it was just the long process of clearing out a bug. Luckily her doc appt went well and they're referring us out for allergy testing, so that's looking hopeful. It's also nice to hear about the duration of your dd's "inoculation period"! That gives me some hope that we just have to stick through it. I'll let you know how the tests come out, once we get them. I had hoped to keep it like you do, where certain foods are minimal but not stressed about, but for now we'll see what turns up on paper and go from there.