My 12 year old daughter has had 2 long weeks of stomach pain and bathroom issues. There were 3 weeks in between each episode. Pain feels like popping to her, comes and goes after eating and occur in the morning when she wakes. After the stomach pain subsides, she has fatigue with no energy. She has had green stool along with diarrhea off and on. Blood tests revealed no infection and no celiac disease. Help!!
IBS, lactose intolerance, other intolerance, allergies ...
Is she seeing a GI specialist? Keep a log and make an appointment.
I have IBS. irritatable bowl syndrome. Did the doctor mention that possibility? Her symptoms sound similar only my pain is more like cramps, painful cramps, after which I often have diarrhea. Sometimes, I'm constipated. I manage it with diet and reducing stress.
When I was working, I had the cramps often. Not so often now that I"m retired.
All of my medical tests were normal. IBS was diagnosed based on symptoms after the medical tests.
Welcome to mamapedia!
Has her diarrhea been tested?
Has she been tested for pancreatitis?
Green stools are "okay" - I know people are used to brown or black, but green happens too. It's from food dyes usually. If you are concerned about it? Ask the doctor to test it. This would require you to put celophane down on the toilet to capture it. You would need a sterile jar (usually given by the lab) and collect it. It's NOT fun. Had to do this for my son. EEWW...but we got it done and found out what was causing his diarrhea - it was an ugly virus.
Keep a food journal of everything she eats.
Ask for her to be tested for allergies - to include food - and see if she's eating something that is causing this reaction. From my view? If the pain subsides? It's an allergy to a food she ate the night before.
Good luck!
There's just so much that could go wrong with her digestive tract.
I'm not sure gall bladder issues or irritable bowel syndrome would show up in any blood test.
Has the doctor tested a stool sample for parasites?
Keep working with her doctor.
The internet is not your friend when it comes to stuff like this.
First, keep a detailed food log. Be specific. Note times that she eats, what she eats, and how she feels afterwards. I found it easiest to just use a legal pad, one page per day.
You can try eliminating foods, but only eliminate one at a time. Dairy, gluten, and corn are common ones. And the elimination period must last for at least a couple of weeks. Make sure, if you try eliminating dairy, for example, that you learn all the words for dairy (casein, whey, etc. There are dozens, but there are lots of helpful websites). And corn - it's in nearly everything, including some vinegars. But again, there are lots of websites that list all the sources of these foods.
Blood tests for celiac disease often aren't thorough. An intestinal biopsy is more accurate. But if you're considering more testing for celiac disease, don't eliminate gluten prior to testing.
Does she eat anything that is artificially sweetened (diet sodas, "sugar-free" foods or chewing gums, anything with sucralose or aspartame or nutrasweet or sorbitol or erithytol or mannitol)? Those can wreak havoc on the GI system. My daughter is extremely intolerant to sorbitol. Get all that junk out of her system. Even some foods and drinks labelled "sugar free" actually contain artificial sweeteners.
There are simple blood tests for allergies; one blood test is quick and easy and tests for 26 common food allergies. Food allergies don't always present themselves as itching, or hives.
Don't stop trying to find the answers.
Has she seen a GI? Any other specialist? Are you keeping a food journal?
Both my daughters have had stomach viruses that last for 2 weeks. Both times it was the longest 2 weeks of my life!
Chrohns, colitis, diverticulitis, IBS.
Did she had an X-ray? Is she having regular poops (firm) as well or just the diarrhea? My son was suffering from stomach pain and diarrhea and it turned out he had a blockage of impacted poo in his intestine. The diarrhea is all that can get by and so the longer it goes the more painful it gets. It was always worse right after eating. Miralax cleared him out. If this sounds like it could be it ask for an X-ray to confirm.
As a reminder per Mamapedia Guidelines:
Medical questions may be asked, HOWEVER, please know that the first and best source for the answers to all such questions will alway be an appropriate certified professional. Please always consult such a professional in these matters first and foremost. Simply put, Mamapedia does not offer medical advice to our members. Any medical advice you receive on the site is taken at your own risk.
-Moderator
I work with people all the time who have IBS - that can include constipation, diarrhea or a combination (pendulum swings back and forth, if you know what I mean). Chronic inflammation doesn't show up on tests most of the time. Doctors are looking for acute infection and blockages, but may miss a chronic condition. And many chronic conditions don't show up on any tests at all. A number of my colleagues went through this, and they were exhausted from all the food diaries and from scoping out bathrooms in every place they visited (supermarkets, department stores, you name it). I'm sure your daughter is exhausted. Moreover, she's not absorbing nutrition or liquids anywhere nearly as much as she should. You can pursue a medical route which will involves tests/drugs, or you can pursue a nutrition and anti-inflammation approach which is what all my coworkers did when the medical didn't work or had too many side effects. They wanted to do more than treat the symptoms.
Ask the doctor about the possibility that she may have eaten underdone chicken. This happened to a family member of mine. For several months he would get sick, and the doctor figured out that everytime he ate fruit, he had an attack. Evidently underdone chicken and fruit was the problem.
I can't begin to explain that, but the doctor was able to help him.
I 100% agree with AKmom - had the same situation with my GD and after an x-ray we discovered that she was extremely constipated! Like AKmom, some Myralax, lots of water, and high fiber diet cleared it up quick.
I'm assuming you are NOT going to the pediatrician for this? Go to a gastro doc. If that doesn't work find another sort of doc that deals with this part of the body.
If you haven't done so yet, you need to see a Gastro. She might need a CT Scan or colonoscopy or stool studies. Food poisoning and illness eventually go away, Gasto issues (Ulcerative Colitis/Crohn's) won't without antibiotics. Good luck to her - no fun at all to be 12 with tummy troubles!
keep track of what shes eating and drinking. my dh is allergic to onions and everything has them so finding the cause of his pain was a pain took quite a while to eliminate everything that makes his gut hurt and give him diarhea but after we figured it out and he stopped eating the culprits hes been normal.
she is of an age for menstruation its possible she is suffering from some female issues. Have you had her to see a gynecologist? Some diagnosis are better when caught early. Good luck, praying all is well!
Has a doctor mentioned a colonoscopy or ultrasounded the abdomen? That sounds terrible. I hope they can find something to help her. Keeping a food journal may also prove to be helpful and a doctor will probably end up asking you for a record at some point too. Hope it gets better soon
