My 1 Year Old Has Mucousy Diarrhea, Could It Be Celiac Disease?

I have mucousy stools and I have Crohns Disease. Also IBS and Colitis have those as markers. I was born with Crohns my brother was born with Colitis and we were both Screamers night and day they always said. Didn't matter what you fed us we screamed. Be it soy, gluten free, breast milk, milk they tried it all we still screamed. We both still suffer from them today.

So don't count out digestive diseases. They are always a possibility but not commonly something they look for.

Wanted to follow up on Anne-Marie F.'s response. Your son could also have severe gluten intolerance and not necessarily Celiac disease. I have severe gluten intolerance, except I have the opposite problem: constipation. I also have casein dairy allergy and severe soy intolerance. I didn't discover my food allergies and intolerance until I was 40 years old. Wish I would have known sooner, because I suspect I've been sick with at least one of the three my entire life.

Your Pediatrician or the gastroenterologist will only test for Celiac disease, because according to allopathic medicine, ONLY Celiac disease is a disorder that they can treat. If you want to know if your son has gluten intolerance--or, indeed, any other food problems--you most likely will need to take him to see a Naturopathic Doctor and have him tested. That's what I ended up having to do when the gastroenterologist told me I didn't have Celiac disease. Well, good news. But I still have severe gluten intolerance and need to be on a gluten-free diet.

Another problem with mucousal problems is a problem with being able to digest fats. Again, a Naturopathic Doctor can test for that and a whole host of other problems as well.

You're being a good mom and looking into all of this. Your son will thank you. The best gift you can give your son is to find out his allergies/intolerances so that his body and immune system aren't adversely affected for life. I know. It's not easy getting the body built back up after one has been so sick. If I'd only known when I was younger I had these problems with food, I could have deleted the problem food area from my diet. Probably wouldn't have been so sickly growing up either.

Good luck. If you want to chat or want the name of the Naturopathic Doctor I use in Madison, WI, contact me.

I would NOT start a gluten free diet until you have done all the testing. It takes a full year on a gluten free diet for the bowels to completely heal. If you do the gluten free for a few weeks and then go right back to a normal diet then it will shock his poor system and could do some harm. (info from our ped GI) My daughter has had all the allergy testing, blood tests, stool tests, etc...(she is 22 months, started testing at 18 months). She was going 10+ days with watery, mucousy stools, not eating, sleeping more, but no other symptoms. On a whim the Dr did a urine sample and we found that she has a chronic UTI problem that was causing the nasty stools. You may ask the Dr to run a urine and stool sample and see if anything come from it. Feel free to message me with any questions. I have been dealing with this since my sweet girl was 6 months old. It took a full year to get a diagnosis.

My son had mucousy diarrhea and was diagnosed with Irritible Bowel Syndrome. We were advised to add more fiber to his diet. We started him on Metamucil 3 times a day and it made a world of difference. He does not get any dairy, not because he's allergic, but because it is hard for him to digest. We had him tested for allergies and ciliac and cystic fibrosis but all were negative. Good luck.

I would definitely get it checked out, with a gastroenterologist. My 2 yr old was just diagnosed with crohns and he had diarrhea, bloody and mucous filled stools. Not to scare you! I do have crohns so it does run in our family, but it doesn't have to. A great place to go is mayo in Rochester. They were amazing and had a diagnosis in 2 days. Good luck!

Celiac is so hard to diagnose properly. The only way to really find out is to eliminate the gluten for a couple weeks and see if there's a difference.

Although I don't have celiac per se, I have tons of food sensitivities and I notice that when I can stay away from gluten and casein that my allergies rarely act up

Good luck!

I don't know anything about food allergies, but I do know a normal cold can cause this. Every time my son has a runny nose, he has poop that looks pretty much the same as what is coming out of his nose. Their tummies can't break it down when they swallow it like ours can. If he doesn't have a runny nose, I would call his doctor to get him looked at.

The test for Celiac's Disease is not pleasant so I would try to eliminate it from his diet and see if it helps before putting him through those awful tests. Trader Joe's has so many products that are Gluten Free, so it really isn't as difficult as it was years ago to stay away from gluten. Read labels carefully because there is gluten in so many things you wouldn't expect. I think right now process of elimination will be so much easier on your little guy then any medical procedure needed to diagnose. Good luck!!

Hi K.. My daughter had mucousy stools that we found were related to cow's milk. We switched to goat's milk and the problem immediately resolved.

On another note, my daughter has been tested for celiac 2 times and both were negative. I would get a definite diagnoses before you try a gluten free diet.

I hope your son feels better soon! It's so hard to see our kids suffering! Hang in there mom!