My daughter (age 8) has had tummy pains and sinus/allergy problems most of her life but they have been mild to moderate and easily dealt with by taking medications such as claritin or benedryl. Her stomach issues I never figured out but just when I'd start to worry it would pass. About two months ago the tummy problem (severe pain) came back along with a very severe sore throat and mucus/post nasal drip. There is no fever or maybe a slight fever most of the time. The stomach pain comes and goes often throughout the day and the sore throat is constant. She's been to the Dr. 8 times in the past six weeks. We've tried different medications for allergies with no relief of throat issues. The mucus in her throat isn't always there.. it's either tons of post nasal rip or it's dry and itchy. Her stomache pain is a mystery. It doesn't seem to be related to any foods she is eating. They did an allergy scan which came back normal. The took x rays of her tummy and they said her colon was full and she was constipated.
I thought it was strange that she was constipated when she poops once or twice a day and it's of a normal size and consistency. The dr. had her take some laxative until her stool was clear which we did. This did not solve the tummy pain at all. They recently x rayd her again and said she still has stool in her colon. How is this possible when her stool was clear like water. There was a slight tinge of pink from blood which the dr. assured me was just from a small tear due to skin irritation.
My kid is in pain 90% of the time. It's breaking my heart. She can't go to school most days. I have no idea what to do. I don't know what could be causing this pain both in her stomach and her throat. Oh, one more thing.. she says her tummy gurgles and moves around a lot and she also has very very tight muscles in her shoulders and neck, might be related, might not.
Please help!
Get a referral for a pediatric G.I.(gastroenterologist). It could be a lot of things including celiac disease.
Take her to some specialist--and ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) and an gastroenterologist. She should not be in that much pain for that long. And blood in the stool is not good.
I live in chronic pain and for a child that young it is unacceptable.
Special blessings for her.
I would get a second opinion. What bothers me here is that blood in her stool doesn't concern your doctor. This is a red flag with any person not just children. Take her to a different doctor. There will be some diagnostic testing that she may find uncomfortable but if there is a blockage or something then that will cost more problems for her and eventually..it will need surgery if they cannot remove it. SO, get that second opinion and don't let them mess with her anymore until another doctor is seen. It could be any number of problems and laxatives can make it so the muscles change so she won't be able to control them as well in that area. Definitely go to another doctor, and another one until someone helps this kid!
Not sure I am giving the right advice, since my son had a similar but not the exact same problem! My son had stomach pain for almost a year, and was constipated pretty much all the time. We went through all kinds of doctors, specialists, etc... Finally my mom-in-law was watching Oprah and saw that some kids with intolerances have these issues. (Intolerances are different from actually food allergies!) We went to the children's hospital in Tacoma and had a breath-a-lizer test. It tested for the amount of carbon dioxide being exhaled after consuming various ingredients. It indicated problems with diary and fructose (2 of the ingredients that are in just about everything now-a-days!) Once we started to limit these items (especially the high fructose corn syrup), he got better. Good luck, don't give up, and keep searching!
Hi C. - It clearly sounds like there are some other issues going on with your daughter. Ok, some questions that maybe you have already explored and maybe some you have not. Are all of these procedures done from one Dr or through specialists too? Has she been seen by an ENT for the mucus/post nasal drip? If so have they reviewed to see if she has sinus trouble too? Might need a CT scan to truly tell. That dripping into her stomach could aggravate it (granted she could have something else going on too). For her allergy testing, was it done by a regular Dr or an allergy specialist? I have allergies and my regular Dr basically did not do much but I went to a specialist & what a difference. Have you been keeping a journal of your daughter's pain, eating, sleeping, pooping habits? It is time consuming but this journal can offer incite for the doctors. For recording her pain level ask her to judge 0-10 with 10 being the most painful ever (think broken bones, childbirth - no pain meds, etc), that will then help you record more accurately where her pain levels are.
I would also ask for a referral to a Children's Hospital for a complete work-up. Request copies of everything (documents, x-rays, notes, etc) so you can have these as well as your journal when you go to specialist. For her tight muscles it very well could be related as she is tensing up & her body does not know how to relax. One thought is to see a Naprapath (like a chiropractor, but they are more gentle) and maybe see about seeing a massage therapist - not at some fancy spa but ask around for a good one, then call and see if they are willing to work with kids.
My heart goes out to you & your daughter and praying that you will get some answers soon! God Bless
If her doctor could not figure out what's going on in the last six weeks and 8 times he has seen her, it's time to get either a referral or a second opinion. When you do go to either a specialist or a different pediatrician, ask your original doctor to give you the x-rays and any labs that were done so the next physician can review any progression of her condition.
I am not saying you need to leave your current provider for good, but sometimes a fresh eye and mind can come up with a better diagnosis.
Good luck.
Hi C.,
I recommend seeking a gastroenterologist. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroenterology)
A few years ago, a neighbors little girl had the same thing (called a blocked colon). They recommended prune, apple, orange and other 100% fruit juices. Also oatmeal , wholegrain breads, fresh fruit. Her's cleared up after about a week or so.
A natural remedy is found in your health food store. Get psyllium husk (not metamucil), put a teaspoon of the husk into a cup of juice (yes it is gritty), but works well.
For allergies try Locally Made Honey! Works Great & tastes pretty good too!
Sore throats; weak tea with honey & lemon, works well.
Good luck~
C.
Along with the suggestions of testing for celiacs and getting a second opinion, have you tried an elimination diet for her? There may be a number of things that she is allergic to that could be causing the problems. (I have a friend whose adult children have multiple allergies like wheat, nuts, dairy, eggs, etc.) You can also consider seeing a naturopath and a nutritionist.
Oh my heart goes out to you. It must be so hard to see your daughter suffer so and not know how to help her. I think western doctors would have a hard time diagnosing her and therefore treating her becuase she probably doesn't fall under any specific disease name. Hence they only can prescribe drugs that surpress the individual symptoms. The beauty of natural medicines such as Naturopathic or Chinese Medicine is that the symptoms are the disease. They don't have to be named or catagorised according to western medicine boxes to come up with effective treatment.
Instead they figure out the root cause, which is usually responsible for seemingly unrelated symptoms, and treat accordingly. That's why its referred to as holistic medicine. I think going to a Naturopathic Doctor is a good idea, but I am biased towards Chinese Medicine as I am studying it. If my daughter was in this situation, and I lived in Portland, I would absolutely take her to see Dr Zhang. If I didn't have this option, I also wouldn't know what to do! I am currently interning with him and he sees patients at our school clinic, the National College of Natural Medicine, www.ncnm.edu Dr Zhang was a pediatricin for 17 years in China before coming here to teach. Over there he was an MD and Chinese Medicine Doctor, but in the US they are only licensed to practice Chinese Medicine. He doesn't do acupuncture on children, he does acupressure and tui na (a chinese form of massage) and he would teach you how to do both of these at home, as well as prescribing herbs and giving dietary advice. The cost is $65 for 1st visit, $55 for follow ups on an observation shift (Dr Zhang is in charge, students observe) or $65 for 1st, $45 for follow ups on intern shifts (student interns perform treatments, Dr Zhang supervises). I would recommed the observation shift to get enough question answer time with Dr Zhang. Insurance is accepted if it covers acupuncture (even if it is not actually performed, the doctors time is compensated). Herbs usually cost $20-30, usually on the lower end for kids as they get simpler formulas. I really really would recommend seeing him, whatever else you do. If Western medical intervention is also required or wanted for peace of mind, Chinese Medicine works really well at supporting the body in any healing process, as well as compensating for any ill effects that drugs may induce. The school clinic number is ###-###-#### and is on SW Corbett, close to down town.
BTW, this is not a plug! I don't get paid to intern, rather I pay alot to learn from these docs :) I just want more people in Portland to know about the amazing resources and options they have in this town. Our school recruits very experienced Doctors of Chinese Medicine from China, and you can see them at a fraction of their worth because it is a teaching clinic. The school also runs several community clinics for low income families on a sliding scale.
There's alot of talk about better access to more efficient health care. Chinese Medicine is the most cost effective, and effective, sensible approach to health and disease I've come across. I'm not saying its a stand alone answer, but based on the symptoms you give, I'm certain that your daughter would benefit.
All the best,
Helen
I would take her to a different dr for a second oppinion. Something is not right if your daughter is taht miserable.
On a side note, I too get a tummy ache when I have bad sinus drainage. I think its the mucus mixing with bile. But it sounds like your daughter is having issues with her colon.
Best of Luck to you!!
Hi C.,
I know how this is. You need to go to a naturopathic doctor - one who will do natural things with her such as test for food allergies, chemicals (yes, household chemicals cause a lot of allergies and asthma). They can get her straightened out within probably a month or so if what she has is what I am guessing she has.
There are two doctors that I could refer you to depending on where you live.
I have gone the alternative route most of my life because the medical doctors had no answers for me but the naturopaths did.
N.
SAH Mom,Nana and Wellness Coach
I am so sorry! I have no idea what it could be but I wanted to say, if this dr won't listen, take her to another and another and another until someone will listen and really work to figure it out!
If you are concerned that something more is wrong, then something probably is! Trust your instincts and don't lt anyone tell you that it's nothing!
Sometimes mommies know better than drs!
you might want to check out if she has ciliac disease, i know someone that has it and didn't know that she had it until she was 16, because of the age thing. Just look it up on the internet to find out more about it, i did some research on it and its really interesting.
Has she eaten some sort of battery when she was younger?
I m sorry to hear about your daughter, i hope she will get better.
~ j
OUr daughter has had the same problem with stomach pain. We battled it for 9 months. We tried the wheat/gluten free diet. We took her off of dairy. We did the laxative stuff. Still nothing worked. I could not buy in to the stool in the intestines after 3 months. The next step according to the DR was exploratory surgery. This made me very uncomfortable since my daughter was barely 2. One day I was at the chiropractor for myself and we were chatting about life. I mentioned my daughters problems. He said bring her in and lets see what we see. after 3 adjustments she was pain free. Finally was able to sleep through the night. If you are in the Tacoma Area please let me know as my chiropractor is fantastic with children. I wish you the best.
We just went through a similar experience with my four year old. After the Xray showed constipation, we took the Miralax for a week until it became diarrhea, but she was still in pain. They did an ultrasound and everything came back okay. We went back to the doctor and he felt her stomach and thought that the constipation was gone.
He mentioned that she did have a lot of gurgling and noise in her intestines and suggested that the Miralax had made them gassy. He told us to go off the Miralax for 4-5 days, start giving her a pro-biotic supplement (like acidolphus) in adult strenght - breaking it up into her food. Then he wanted us to start taking the Miralax again for a couple of weeks at a much smaller dose.
(Our original dose of Miralax was one capful, twice a day. Now we are on two teaspoons once a day.)
Things seem to have resolved themselves. We have a lot of trouble with nasal allergies too, but they didn't seem connected to the tummy issues in our case. I hope your daughter is better soon!
Dear C.,
I am so terribly sorry to hear about your little girl. I empathize, both my girls have had similar GI/nasal drip/phlegmy issues for a long time. We did all sorts of allergy tests, but they were all inconclusive. Initally, we made a lot of progress by eliminating certain foods and that really helped. The first major food issue was anything with dairy in it, later we learned that our older daughter, age 4 now, could not tolerate wheat. The dairy-free and wheat-free diet really helped for a while, but then she got very sick again - high-fever for weeks, tummy aches, diarrhea, irritablility; and simlutaneously, my younger daugther who always had back runny nose and phlegm that disappeared once we excluded dairy, started getting phlegmy again. This time it turned out that it was soy! They were drinking soy milk and I was making bread with soy flour:(.
We were living abroad at the time, and we ended up visiting a pediatric immunologist/alergist in at a research hospital New Jersey where my parents live and she diagnosed them with a gastrointestinal condition that mimics food allergies called Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES). I don't think this is necessarily what your daughter has (unlikely in face as it is quite rare), but it does sound like she is having GI/food issues. Have you visited a specialist? GI or allergerist? If your little girl has something rare (yet totaly treatable!) like mine, maybe it's worth seeing a specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital? We had visited a regular allergist and he had never even heard opf their condition, even though he was highly respected with years of experience. Our present doc is a super specialist who is an amazing diagnostician, I would recommend her, but she IS in NJ and I suspect there are wonderful specialists here, too.
I just moved to Seattle, have never posted on mamasource before, but if you would like to call me, I would be happy to tlak to you and share what I have learned through our painful adventure. Not sure how to send you a private message, but it you can send me one, I'll send you my number.
All the best,
O.
I also agree that you should see a new doc, for a fresh perspective...a gastroenterologist who works with kids.
Since she has so many symptoms going on all at once, you may also want to seriously consider non-Western medicine. Massage therapy (you can get referrals to therapists who work with insurance) might help her relax a bit. Naturopaths work in a medical manner to look at symptoms and make diagnoses, then try to first go a more diet/lifestyle approach to treat symptoms before using medicine. TCM (trad. chinese medicine) practitioners will treat the symptoms with herbal tinctures, acupuncture, etc.
I've used Non-Western medicine in conjunction with my regular doctors to treat issues. Many people think they need to be exclusive of one another, but that's not the case.
Definitely get her talking about things too, she's probably very stressed out by her discomfort/pain and as we all know, stress can manifest itself by creating pain!
Get her to a different doctor. You sound very concerned that this problem is not getting better, so try a different doctor, preferably a doctor that specializes and/or will schedule a colonoscopy and endoscopy for your daughter to find out what the real problem is. You might also talk to the doctor about the possibility that your daughter has something like celiac disease.
My first thought was Celiac's disease. Look into that, and get her in to see a specialist in gastroenterology soon!
I am curious about her diet. Gluten sensitive? What have you checked into in regards to what she eats? I wasn't diagnosed until I was 27 and life is sooooo much better now. I see others (Diana D) has written much about it... I think gluten is the culprit for many issues for people. A great resource: http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com/
It does sound like a combination of treatments might work well for your daughter. A chiropractor or massasge therapist that can work on the belly and a naturopathic
physician that would order a stool sample and blood work for the food sensitivies. Then you would know all the foods you need to go off for the elimanation diet. I know that my neck and shoulder muscles get tight if I have wheat a few days in a row. I beleive that in Chinese Medicine, there is a link between digestion and neck pain. Once I went off wheat and dairy, no more chiropractor. There can also be pain in the belly from inflamation, due to a food sensitivity, like wheat. (doesn't have to mean Celiac, althought a good idea to rule out before you stop eating wheat or other gluten products. I hope it gets resolved soon.
To me it sounds like either a milk or wheat allergy. I have had a blood test with a naturopathic doctor in Portland, it is called the FOODStats test. I took it with Suzanne Scopes, ND who is on NE 28th Ave. in Portland. Anyhow, it shows you if you have a delayed or an immediate allergy to 99 different foods. I would HIGHLY recommend this. She may have not an immediate allergy, but a delayed one. I myself suffered from stomach pain most of my childhood. I didn't really know why, and I am glad I finally found out. It is worth a try. Good luck!
