Posting for Traffic - DD ill since October

[notbloodybranston]

Please help.

DD is nine, normally eats a good range of foods, swims, trampolines and is usually healthy. She does appear to be on the road to puberty, and is beginning to change shape.

She had a series of throat/chest/ ear infections since October. She was given about three lots of antibiotics and had a fair bit of time off school.

Since November she has been sent home from school a couple of times because she had fainted or gone very pale and felt sick. She feels sick all the time (it's just normal now) and is often a grey colour. One GP thinks she has water in her middle ear which is making her dizzy and has prescribed loratadine and a Nasal spray, as he thinks the water in her ear is caused by an allergy. The other GP just checks her pulse, temp, urine etc which are normal and says he doesn't want her to go through the trauma of a blood test. He thinks it is post viral and will sort itself out.

DD goes to bed propped up on four pillows every night due to nausea. I am now at wits end. She has no energy. I am not usually over anxious (more the school of benign neglect) but lost my mum last June, and seeing DD like this is driving me wild.

I am taking her back tomorrow to GP. Am going to ask for blood test (she is so pale I want to check iron) and perhaps allergy test. Does anyone have any ideas - what would you do???

She does need blood tests to excuse anything serious. Blood test not a big deal with local anaesthetic cream to numb the skin.You sound like a very sensible mum.
It could be post viral particularly as some ear problems cause sickness but I think after all this time, weight loss etc best to check. I'm not convinced that it has anything to do with allergies.
I agree with checking for coeliac disease which can be done with a blood test.

Food intolerance wouldn't cause repeated ENT type infections surely? It probably is just her immunesystem has been knocked sideways and coupled with the stresses the onset of puberty is putting on her body.
But I do think you need to rule out things like Leukaemia which in my DNs case started in a very similar way.

Coeliac/Celiac isn't a food intolerance. It's an autoimmune disease. It can cause all sorts of havoc with many body systems because once of the results of ingesting gluten is malnutrition. It's also one of the most mis-diagnosed conditions (at least here in the US) because it mimics other more common conditions and because people often exhibit inconsistent symptoms. For example, I had a constantly runny nose before I was diagnosed, among other things.

typo; one of the results, not once!

Celiac disease - tests start with a simple blood test, yes can cause repeate infections as it can cause immune system to not work properly, as your body isn't absorbing micro nutrients properly. The symptoms your describing really match up, with everything I have read about it, please demand a test for this.

I will add that Celiac is genetic. If you have other family members either already diagnosed OR a family-wide history of tummy or bowel 'issues' or certain types of cancer (lymphoma or certain intestinal cancers) that may be a strong indicator. Even if not, I'd rule it out, because it can appear in someone where there is no family indicator.

when you have the tests, get them to check vitamin D levels. I am not a doc but I know children who have been mysteriously not well and vit D was low

I 100% agree with everything acrossthepond says PLEASE insist on them testing for coeliac disease, or at least anaemia

My DD is coeliac. The first GP she saw age 2 told us there was nothing wrong with her - she was producing huge amounts of very soft very pale very smelly poo, and having very long afternoon naps. We accepted his word and decided this was going to be normal for her. By the time she was 5 she was slowly wasting away, very very anaemic and ended up hospitalised. She had no energy and was always struggling to fight off ear/chest infections, which we put down to her starting school and mixing with children. She was happy and bright and very academic for her age so we were not too worried that she was not always running round like other kids. Even the fact that her 3 yo sister was the same size as her we explained away, saying she was just tall like her dad when DD1 was short like me. Then the HV said to get her height and weight checked, the GP we saw that time was not happy with where DD was on the centiles and ordered blood tests - we were phoned back the same day and she was admitted to hospital because she was so very very anaemic. They could not believe how "well" she seemed - they were expecting her to be at deaths door. She was just used to feeling crap and it was normal to her . Within 24 hours we had been told they suspected coeliac and she was referred for biopsy. she was so anaemic they made us wait till she had been on iron for 6 weeks AND had a blood transfusion too because they could not risk her having an internal bleed during the biopsy.

Once diagnosed, and on a gluten free diet, she made incredible progress, putting on weight, looking rosy, shooting up. We also then knew that MIL was not an IBS sufferer but coeliac herself - she had never been tested for this, just told for 30+ yrs that it was IBS. Her own father had died from bowel cancer. This too is associated with untreated coeliac disease.

I am as you will see rather passionate about alerting people to the signs and symptoms of coeliac disease which is much more common than people think and very very underdiagnosed.

it may of course NOT be CD but it does need ruling out

My daughter had a similar thing last year from August til the end of September. She had no appetite, no energy, lost weight and slept a lot. It was a terribly worrying time. She had blood tests but they were all clear. We put it down to a really horrible lingering virus. This probably doesn't help you but it is worth doing the blood tests to ease your mind. She has come out the other side now and is back to normal (well as normal as teenagers are). Hope it gets sorted.

My daughter had a similar thing last year from August til the end of September. She had no appetite, no energy, lost weight and slept a lot. It was a terribly worrying time. She had blood tests but they were all clear. We put it down to a really horrible lingering virus. This probably doesn't help you but it is worth doing the blood tests to ease your mind. She has come out the other side now and is back to normal (well as normal as teenagers are). Hope it gets sorted.

I know that coelic is an intestinal biopsy - very small. But I can understand how worried you must be. A blood test is needed and that would flag up any issues.

So sorry to hear about your mum.

Hope it all gets sorted.

Paediatrician here. I would ask your GP to refer to Paeds. She needs a proper work up guided by symptoms and exam, and onwards referral entirely justified by what you describe.

My DS had blood tests when he was 5; apart from going a bit pale and faint he was fine. It certainly didn't traumatise him.

I hope you get an answer soon.

The first test for Celiac is a blood test. Only if that test is positive for antibodies will they do the biopsy. And the biopsy was no big deal, it's done via endoscopy. A pill to relax me, an IV sedative and I was out for a lovely sleep. Woke up feeling fine (REALLY fine there for a few minutes :)) and went home.

Agree ask for referral to paediatricians. Or if GP isn't having it, I know it's not what they're for and it's not ideal, but worst case wait for a bad day and take her to A&E saying this is a chronic thing but today you're worried it's out of control. Fresh eyes sometimes see best and they often run bloods there and then. A colleague had her son bumble along for six months under several GPs until she did this and A&E had it pinned in a few hours.

Ceoliac (and wheat allergy, which you can have on it's own or alongside ceoliac), can affect the inner ear causing dizziness, balance problems and ear infections due to the inflammation caused by the reaction of the body to the wheat protein(s).

I think a test would be a good idea, but remember that "false negatives" are not that unusual. If the test is negative, you might want to consider a month or two on a completely wheat and gluten free diet, and see if her symptoms resolve.

Be warned though, to exclude both gluten and wheat from the diet isn't easy to start with. Gluten free (fine for ceoliac), is not always "wheat free" (wheat allergic people can react to gluten free wheat derived ingredients such as glucose syrup or dextrose).
Although as I said before some coeliac people will also be wheat allergic!

Other pointers that a person may be coeliac are low iron levels and low vit D levels, so it would be worth testing those too.

Your dd has been unwell for months, if your GP won't order up some tests, it's time to get a new GP!

One of my children had something similar sounding, she was a yellow colour, felt sick, ate hardly anything and was very listless and not her usual self, it lasted about six months after a sickness virus. I was concerned, had a stool sample and urine sample checked at drs but nothing was ever found. I wondered about temporary lactose intolerance. It did go eventually, the key was lots of rest rather than the usual activities as well as little bits of good food- but also do get her checked for the things people have mentioned on here especially if she doesn't pick up.

How did you get on with doc

*Raw coconut" medical advice is NOT to exclude wheat/gluten and look for changes in symptoms, because to prove the link between improved health and the change of diet the patient then has to go back ON to gluten to see if the problems recur - and having been weaned off, the symptoms often very much more severe when gluten is reintroduced. Hence "well" coeliacs on a gluten free diet being made very ill by just a few crumbs eaten by accident.
If an adult wants to try going GF, feels better, wants to continue with it and is not bothered about checking diagnosis or getting GF items on prescription, or follow up care such as bone scans etc then that's fine. But this is a child and they need to know what is wrong with her, whether CD or not, so she can get the correct future care. Sometimes having a diagnosis is more important than just trying to stop the symptoms yourself IYSWIM?

A friends daughter was ill for a while and nobody knew why. Turns out she had lead poisoning from sleeping on a bed frame that was painted in lead paint.
Im sure its not but maybe worth thinking about?

tallesttower yes, temporary lactose intolerance after a bad bout of gastric flu is very very common indeed as all the "right" enzymes and bacteria need to be replenished having been flushed out

I have an under active thyroid and often feel very nauseous when I have a cold or a cough. In my head the two seem to be connected... I would insist on a thyroid function test, check iron levels, check for diabetes. Sometimes GPs don't recognise when there is a thyroid problem so if you can, get her blood test results seen by a specialist and describe her symptoms.

Have you thought of an eating disorder? The flushing sounds??

Have you thought of an eating disorder? The flushing sounds??

Have you thought of an eating disorder? The flushing sounds??