15yo dd has lost so much weight, I'm worried

[Ddhealthworry]

As per the title really, she has been feeling sick every time she eats anything sweet for a while now.

She has lost probably about 2-3 stone in the last 3 months (I don't keep scales in the house so not sure exactly).

She is eating, definitely, she isn't making herself sick, I'm 100% sure of that.

Her mood is quite low, she is really pale, the weight loss is very concerning, she feels sick when she eats anything sweet, she has absolutely horrendous periods, but has been on the pill for around 9 months (could this be the reason for the weight loss).

We are waiting for some blood tests to come back next week, but I have stupidly, spent the evening googling and am now terrified.

I'm hoping the test comes back and actually finds something, as mad as it sounds, just so it can be fixed, if it shows up with nothing then where do I go from there? What further tests should I be asking for.

Any help or words of advice or thoughts would be so appreciated.

@DDdhealthworry - I'm glad the information is helpful.

I think keeping a food diary is an excellent idea.

Good points from @CormorantStrikesBack . Since DS2 has had to go GF, I've had to read every label and it's astonishing how many random things contain gluten.

Try to encourage your DD to get as much rest as possible to conserve calories. She probably feels tired anyway, poor girl.

Sound like they are taking things seriously, I'm glad they're investigating.

It's a side note but does she have to be on the pill, OP? I mean, you do need these tests to figure things out but it plays havoc with your body. There are other medications to lighten the flow and offer pain relief that she could be on.

I'm just thinking, if they can't get to the bottom of it, coming off of that might also be another avenue to try.

Any results on your DD yet, OP?

None yet, thank you for asking , it will be around the 5th/6th of February by the time the tests come back apparently, and then she has to have another because she will have been off the omeprozole for 2 weeks by that point.

I've been keeping a food diary, and ordered one of those online allergy testing kits as well, just out of sheer desperation rather than thinking it will actually turn up anything.

Dds symptoms are still exactly the same, so whatever it is, is ongoing still.

I'll update when the results come back anyway, hope this thread can help someone else out at some point too when I eventually find out what's wrong.

That’s good that you are keeping a food diary . Can I suggest that you make it detailed. Eg not just

“ breakfast - fruit yoghurt and toast “ but

8am Muller strawberry corner yoghurt, 2 slices of wholemeal bread , butter and orange Marmalade, peppermint tea

Because if you discover that a food intolerance is part of the issue, you will need enough detail to identify the possible suspects.

You also need to note all the symptoms, the time they started and the severity. And also trip to the loo, her period etc .

Hopefully you are doing this anyway but I thought I’d just mention it.

I actually haven't been keeping a note of when she goes to the loo. I'll grab her a notepad and get her to keep a record of that too. Thanks for the suggestion, I didn't think about that.

She is continuously taking the pill (doctor recommendation) so doesn't have periods at all at the moment.

Just came across this thread. Can you confirm that she has lost 3 stone in as many months?? This is extremely worrying.
What is her weight now ? Is she skinny? Malnourished?
And importantly how concerned is DD?
Cannot understand why the GP has not down a 2wr referral to paediatrics.

If it the pill causing her to feel nauseous and therefore she is not eating - she needs to stop the pill.
IMO it is unlikely she will have periods straight away after such a rapid weight loss

I forgot to say she needs to write down any symptoms and meds that’s she takes and the time.

eg 2pm headache started.
2:20 getting worse so took 2 x 200mg paracetamol tablets
3.00 headache much better
4:15 decaf coffee with milk and sugar, one small Kit Kat

She needs to note everything she eats or drinks except plain water. And any exercise beyond normal everyday life.

and how long she sleeps for and the quality of her sleep.

its really important to note down poos and if they are runny / loose or if she’s constipated. I know this will be embarrassing for her, no teen wants to have to write / talk about this. But it could be an important part of working out how she’s losing all that weight.

without taking careful notes , it’s hard to see what her intake is. If she’s feeling sick all the time she might not be taking in a much energy as she thinks she is.

If you keep a careful diary you might be able to work out possible suspects. For example, you say “ sweet things make her feel sick “. But sweet things covers many MANY suspect ingredients , that’s why you need “ Muller strawberry yoghurt “, as that may contain eg gluten. How is she with sweet things that don’t contain gluten / artificial sweeteners ?

eg plain Greek yoghurt ( with no ingredients except milk ) and strawberries

It would be easy to, for example, conclude that the issue is dairy or strawberries if she’s ill after the muller yoghurt . When it could be one of the many things that are added to highly processed foods.

All of these things might not be relevant in the end. But they might and if not, all she has wasted is a few sheets of paper. And time attending to her own feelings / body is often very useful.

Hopefully she will get a diagnosis soon and get back to full health.

If she's feeling light headed and has low blood pressure, she might need isotonic salts.

Yes she has lost about 3 stone, she has went from 10ish (the upper side of healthy for her height) to 7ish, which falls into the underweight category, she looks thin and drawn .

It's not pill related as this was happening before.

They have referred her for lots of tests, but because it hasn't been narrowed down to any one thing at the moment it's harder to know where to refer her to.

Dd is concerned, her mood is quite low because she's feeling unwell a lot at the moment.

@NotMyFirstChoiceofName she does take paracetamol semi regularly as her ribs hurt a fair amount, so I'll add that to the list well, thank you.

@ThisOldThang I've just ordered some, hopefully that will make some type of difference to the symptoms. Thank you.

Are they testing for any type of cancer or diabetes? @Ddhealthworry

They did the test for diabeties which came back fine.

We are now waiting for a coeliac test, and they are testing for some auto immune conditions of the gut as well. She can't have some tests until she is off the pointless meds the first doctor gave her which is annoying.

She is getting an xray for her ribs hopefully this week, just waiting for an appointment to come up, and is waiting for an abdominal scan as well, which she will need some notice for as she will have to come off the pill for that, I think that one is a 12ish week waiting list.

Cancer hasn't been mentioned at all, but if the next lot of tests come back clear then I'm not really sure where they will go from there.

vit d deficient and anaemia

Her blood tests came back showing neither of these, I was quite surprised she wasn't anemic tbh.

I am worried there is a serious underlying issue.

In my opinion she needs an urgent 2week rule referral to paediatrics. Also to have a CT chest, abdo & pelvis to rule out anything physical.

I have only seen this rapid weight loss in a teenager with an eating disorder but given you think that is unlikely, physical causes have to be investigated first.

There is often delays finding cancers in young people due to clinicians not considering that as a cause for symptoms

In my area a IgA/TTG test for coeliac disease takes 48 hours. So that should be available by now. There is no obvious blood test that needs her to be off omeprazole except if she was to going to have a gastroscopy/biopsy

Do you have any idea how many calories she is eating? 30% weight loss in 3m is extreme. Only very very low calorie diets do that ( 600 calories or less)

Will she eat high calorie foods from proteins and fat based foods rather than carbs eg meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, full fat yogurts etc ?

Has she definitely had her thyroid function checked?

I hope her weight stabilises and things improve soon

What were her ferritin levels? My doctor told me that the official cut off for deficiency is 15, but in reality a lot of women experience anaemia at levels below 40. Think of it as "insufficient" rather than outright deficient.

Also, they don't check for all vitamins and minerals, only a selection. Some, such as the electrolyte minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium, cannot easily be checked with a blood test, because in otherwise healthy people, deficiencies only show when they are very severe.

Long way to say she could probably benefit from a good quality multi-vitamin and mineral.

It sounds like coeliacs (or a similar problem with another trigger food) to me.

I'm so glad you're not writing her off as having an eating disorder just because she's a young girl. Obviously you can never fully rule it out, but so often physical causes are dismissed in young girls and women.

I know a girl who had diarrhoea and severe weight loss. Nobody would listen to her, coeliacs was ruled out, and she was sent to an inpatient eating disorder clinic. She was force fed, and watched at all times, including on the toilet.

She did in fact have coeliacs, but the blood tests over here do not test for all types of antibodies to gluten (at least a few years ago). She didn't have an eating disorder at all, and was put through that traumatizing treatment, while her body was still being harmed from wheat so she was failing to gain weight and still suffering from diarrhoea - which made them even more determined to watch her on the toilet because they refused to believe she wasn't taking laxatives.

She's now healthy and on a gluten free diet.

I've been following your thread since the start and just wanted to mention a couple of things.
Have they tested her ferritin? Common for it to be low with coeliac disease but her other iron tests might still be normal.
And you can still have cancer and have normal bloods. With that amount of sudden weight loss I would be requesting an urgent paediatric referral.

I would want her to have a full body scan. That much weight loss is alarming.

Hopefully it is something easily fixed. 💞

Just a thought, the HbA1c blood test that they usually use to diagnose diabetes doesn’t work on everybody for various reasons. I was diabetic previously and it took while for them to diagnose it because my haemoglobin is different from the norm. Just to be sure could you ask for a blood glucose test if they haven’t done one already?

I am also surprised that she hasn’t been referred urgently. The poor thing. Really hope you get some answers soon.

I would be asking (insisting) on a blood test to check for cancer cells tbh. It's something that needs ruling out that treatment delay could have a huge impact on.

Just adding one thing to the list to investigate – my best friend had these exact symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with MCAS: https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-treatments/related-conditions/mcas

She didn't really have many of the skin or breathing-related conditions, just abdominal pain every time she ate, vomiting, rapid weight loss, low blood pressure and low mood. It took almost a year to be diagnosed.

Poor poor girl. Hope you get some answers soon. Must be so hard for her keeping up with her GCSE work while feeling so ill.