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My 10 year old daughter has been experiencing trouble with ...

Sent to Health Experts May 22 03:48 PM

My 10 year old daughter has been experiencing trouble with bowel control. When she feels the urge to go, she often doesn''t make it to the bathroom in time (i.e. outside at recess, etc.) before actual elimination begins to occur. She does not have diarrhea, but notices "bubbly" (as she calls it) flatulence, also. Naturally this is very distressing for her. She already has some identified food allergies (peanuts and soy). Do you think we need to look at further allergy testing? Thank you.

 

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Female, Age: 10, Washington

Customer (name blocked for privacy)
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May 22 4:35 PM (6 minutes and 56 seconds later)
         
Reply to Victoria's Post: While she may have other concurrent gastrointestinal symptoms, she has not complained of any (I'm sure this could be because of her overriding concern with the bowel issue that all other symptoms seem unnoticeable). Nor has she complained of a fever. Her activity level has not been affected. She says, "mom, I ask permission to use the bathroom as soon as I feel the first sign, and leave right away, but sometimes, it's not soon enough." To note, this usually occurs around her 1pm recess (1.25 hours after lunch).
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May 22 5:44 PM (1 hour and 8 minutes and 12 seconds later)
         
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Hello again,

Based on what you have top me,, the problem is most likely dietary in nature. Manufactured food products often have hidden soy in them, so it is very easy to inadvertently ingest soy even when trying to be careful. Do you pack her lunch or does she eat that served in the cafeteria? If the later, you might control her diet better with lunches you make for her. But she may very well be intolerant of gluten, called celiac disease which is quite common and may run in families. Gluten is found in any product containing wheat, rye or barley or any of their derivatives such as barley malt. It is difficult to have to maintain a gluten free diet.

I think the first best step to getting at the bottom of this problem is consulting with an allergist who can test her for gluten and other dietary sensitivities. In the interim, you might try removing gluten from her diet which means buying special breads, pastas and baked goods of all types and looking at every label carefully. Should the diagnosis turn out to be celiac disease then I strongly recommend you get a referral to a registered dietitian to help guide the way to a gluten free diet, as well as purchase a gluten free cookbook. I sincerely hope this is not the problem.

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May 22 5:54 PM (10 minutes and 29 seconds later)
         
Reply to Victoria's Post: Thank you for that information. How interesting that you bring up the gluten issue. She has already been tested for gluten intolerance (antigliadin blood test, I think?) as well as wheat, rye, barley, dairy, soy, oat food allergies. Her soy allergy came back as "moderate". All other tests were negative. How sensitive is one with a "moderate" result? Is this something I should pursue with her family doctor? It's happened several times. She has not been tested for eggs, so I'm wondering if that should be looked into.
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May 22 7:17 PM (1 hour and 22 minutes and 33 seconds later)
         
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Since these episodes have not occurred consistently on a daily or near daily basis, but the timing seems to be a little more than an hour after she eats when it does occur, it would be reasonable to suspect a relatively "heavy" dose of soy exposure at those particular meals. Try to record the circumstances the next time one of the episodes occurs with regard to timing, food consumed that day, whether there are any other associated symptoms such as a headache or bloating. It could also be dairy and relative lactose intolerance upon unusual consumption, consumption of artificial sweeteners*, egg protein as you suggested and the list goes on and on. The key is to identify a trigger common to each episode which can be more time consuming than one would like to get to the bottom of the problem. The emotional implications for her could outweigh that actually caused by the underlying problem. Consulting her pediatrician for advise is certainly warranted. I did not initially realize how extensively she had been tested for allergies, nor did I understand this happened episodically, but not routinely. With mild to moderate reactivity to an allergen there is often a critical threshold of tolerance, beyond which symptoms are triggered. Things like lactose intolerance can be mitigated with "lactaid" if you know you have that problem.

Also her neurological system may still be maturing in terms of sphincter control that might make her a little more susceptible to loosing control more easily, however, this should have been happening all along with anything that upset her bowels, whether food or viral infection, etc. If the opportunity arose, I would also take a look at her stool when these episodes occur. You might ask her if she notices mucous or white marbling or "stringy stuff hanging off her stools or whether it seems "sticky" (I will leave it to you to try to explain what this would look or feel like). I definitely think you should consult with her pediatrician for advice. He/she may want to run some tests. It is difficult to know the whole story over the internet and without talking to the child. Her pediatrician will be able to put her clinical picture together, better than I.

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Sincerely,

vj

Edited by Victoria on May 22 2008 at 8:34 PM



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