Can a 9yr develop a lactose/wheat intolerance after a bug?

[whispywhisp]

My 9yr old dd has had diarrhoea since the end of October following a sickness bug - she was rushed into hospital on Monday after collapsing (she'd been sick in the morning) - the hospital are still doing tests (she is home) but tell me she may have developed an intolerance to either lactose or wheat as a result of a virus.

Anyone else heard of this possibility?

BTW my other dd was lactose intolerant from birth until the age of 2yrs old. She is now a fit and healthy 4yr old.

It is quite common, esp in small children, to be temporarily intolerant to milk (dunno which part)following a tummy bug (esp if severe).

Can last anything from a couple of weeks to several months. The advice is (I believe) to avoid milk for a few weeks, then try re-introducing slowly (tsp at first), stopping if intolerance re-asserts itself.

Probiotics are often useful to help re-establish gut flora - Tatt has posted about this in the past. Dunno about wheat, though

Thanks wb.

lactose intolerance is common after illness and can last months. Wheat intolerance can cause dairy intolerance. Sensible to test for both but I'd start the probiotics anyway if she was mine.

If you avoid dairy she may be OK with wheat. If you are told to reintroduce dairy start with cheese or live yoghurt, both less likely to cause problems than milk.

Hopefully this is just "temporary" but if not you may want to ask about lactase. My family have had good results with that.

Hi tatt and thanks.

My dd2 was lactose intolerant from birth up until she was 2yrs old so I've a rough idea what to cut out and which labels to check!

I've managed to get some dairy free bits for her to try - she's enjoying the alpro yogs and dairy free cakes. She's very good with her diet anyway and loves fruit and veg so it shouldn't be too difficult to keep her well fed.

I've been advised by her consultant to cut out dairy for now and if that doesn't work to re-introduce dairy and to cut out wheat - by which time she'll have an appointment to see him so I can discuss what we've found with him. She hasn't had any milk, yoghurts, cheese or butter today and did a normal 'number twos' today so fingers crossed.....she's also on medication to calm her tummy down (anti-spasmadic tablets?) so hopefully with the two new ideas combined she'll get better. I really hope so. x

Is one of the tests for Coeliac Disease? It's a lot more common than people think and the symptoms can begin very unexpectedly.

The hospital mentioned CD when we were down there on Monday but judging by her symptons they ruled it out. I'll look into it. Thank you. x

Whispywhisp:

Was your dd on strong antibiotics during or after her stay in hospital? Antibiotics can have peculiar side effects by changing the balance of bacteria in the gut.

If so, then it should pass once you've got that balance back again.

If there is a wheat problem, the no.2 is unlikely to clear up until wheat is cut out and the problem will reappear quite quickly - within a day or so - as soon as wheat is re-introduced. If no.2 has cleared up without removing wheat, that's a good sign. CD is not a lot of fun at all.

tbh I know nothing about CD. I do remember vaguely the drs at the hosp mentioning it, in conversation, on Monday night when she was in and being examined etc but I'm ignorant and need to read up about it.

She's not been on any anti-biotics for some time - the last lot was probably well over a year ago when she had an ear infection.

She's already saying her tummy doesn't hurt as much and she certainly looks a lot more with it today with lots more energy. I'm trying to find a balance of giving her nutritious fresh food along with the dairy free stuff - she's a good eater anyway and will try anything new. The hosp told me not to overdo it with fruit and veg, especially veg, which is fine but I need to get something decent in her at some point! She's been living off rubbish all week!

They can test for CD, they can't test for wheat intolerance. Read up on it (reasonable website below) but if symptoms are improving when being just dairy free chances are it's just an imbalance of gut bacteria. It can take months to put right or just weeks.

www.nutrition.org.uk/home.asp?siteId=43&sectionId=852&parentSection=403&which=undefined

whispy, if they mentioned CD, make sure you follow it up by asking them if they did run the test. Many people who have CD are also lactose intolerant until they have been gluten free for some time and their villi have healed, so it is possible to feel some relief just by going lactose free. The important thing is to make sure they run the CD blood test before eliminating gluten from her diet. Hopefully, if they considered it a possibility they will have already taken the necessary blood sample.

Hope your DD is feeling better soon.

Ah well if the CD test is via a blood test they won't have tested for it. They tried to get some fluids into her intravenously (sp?) but they couldn't get any veins - they tried inside both elbows and on both hands. This is probably when they mentioned CD. Her veins had sunk because she was so poorly. So as an immediate course of action we managed to get fluids into her via mouth and the blood test was forgotten about.

She is feeling better today and certainly looks a lot better. She'd normally be curling up and going to sleep by mid afternoon but she's quite bright and lively. This is day two of no dairy and she isn't complaining that her tummy hurts (around the belly button area). Last time I asked her she said it was still painful but no where near as bad as it has been. She's not had any diarrhoea since Monday so I'm hoping the tablets she's taking combined with a new diet will help that side of things and hopefully resolve it.

This is a whole new subject for me. It's very interesting! DD2 was lactose intolerant from birth until she was 2yrs old. I've never heard of someone becoming intolerant especially a child of 9 who has been otherwise perfectly normal throughout her young life!

I went milk/soya free whilst breast feeding an allergic baby. I found when I started eating dairy again it would give me really horrible stomach pains and an upset stomach. Get some LACTASE drops for her from the GP, you need lactAse to digest lactOse, I think.