To ask about poo?

[CrohnicallyFarting]

I'm not a poo troll, honest!

But I'm a bit worried about DD. She's 16 months old and her poo always has undigested food in. Not just things like sweetcorn and raisins, but also carrots, sweet potato, fish etc. She also seems to suffer a lot with stomach pains, she will wake at night and pull her knees up, or curl up on her front (I know that doesn't sound like much, but we have a video monitor and when you watch her she just seems to be in pain). If you rub her tummy at these times it's hard to the touch and DH said last night he could feel her stomach churning. Sometimes she lets out a good trump and that's enough that she can get back to sleep. Other nights she will stay awake for a couple of hours till she's exhausted (as are we!) before falling back to sleep. This isn't every night, but maybe once a week or so.

Is this normal for a baby her age, or should I be concerned that there's something else going on? I have Crohn's and I'm petrified that she's inherited it or a related condition.

Yes she has no teeth

Oh pain not usual

You may want to get the pain looked at

Hi. Have you taken her to the G.P? I'd do that if I was you. It's not the "undigested food" that would concern me (in isolation), it would be that and all the other symptoms. Sorry that I cannot give any other advice, but in this case, i think that this advice will be the best.
Good luck!

Dd (15months) poo sometimes has a fair bit of undigested food in it.
Is the pain/wind worse after certain foods?

She may have ibs

Normal at that age to have recognisable vegetable matter in the stools.

Yes it is normal. It taked 12 hours for food to pass through a toddlers digestive system whereas it takes an adult 24 hrs so it's completely normal :)

I've spoken to the HV but only briefly (at a drop in, so only had time to mention the poo). I was hoping to see the HV again today but she was off ill. To be honest the penny has only just dropped that these night time episodes are related to stomach pain, we thought it was teething or similar, it's only been the last few times that we've noticed the hard stomach, then today she has had diarrhoea after an episode last night.

I haven't noticed the pain happening after certain foods, except I have cut out tomatoes as they give her instant horrendous nappy rash (as in blisters and peeling skin).

And daft as it sounds, I don't want to take her to the doctors unless I'm sure that there is something wrong. It seems that every time I go to the doctors for something I am dismissed and have to fight to get it recognised, so if they say it's nothing to worry about I won't believe them!

why don't you ask on the children's healthboard, or a baby board.How is this an AIBU?

GP definitely .Tomatoes are part of the deadly nightshade family, if she can't tolerate those then potatoe could be an issue too . GP and dietitian referral sounds a good plan , far safer than wildly cutting food groups out of her diet without a solid plan.

You're right, it does sound daft that you feel the need to be sure something's wrong before you go to the GP. Go to the GP as that's what they are there for. They'd rather see you and tell you all is well than not see you because you aren't sure and then miss the chance to catch something in the early stages.

That doesn't sound normal. That combined with the pain and discomfort. Poor little girl.

Park at the GP until they get you a referral to a paediatrician.

I say this as someone who did get fobbed off in the early days but I learned and now I tell them what I want eg a referral.

They are general practitioners not experts. Write out the symptoms, go to the doctors, explain exactly what's happening. If they try and fob you off, stand your ground and say this isn't normal.

My son had all those night time symptoms and it was reflux - he was never sick, put on weight well and was otherwise fine, but at night he would be so full of farts that sometimes you would pick him up around the middle and he would just expel air for ages! Definitely take her to see the GP - his reflux is now really well managed and we have had proper sleep for the first time in months.

That's what I meant greathunt when I go to the doctors I need to have it clear in my mind what I expect from them- whether it's more tests, a referral or what.

I don't go just for reassurance as I can think of at least three occasions when the doctors have been drastically wrong in saying all is well. Well, I say three occasions but each one consisted of multiple doctors visits so that's a lot of doctors being wrong! Them saying all is well is kind of meaningless to me now!

DoJo- it's interesting you say that. When DD was younger she had a lot of symptoms of reflux (wouldn't sleep if laid flat, screaming when fed etc) but the doctors said that there was nothing wrong.

After her tongue tie was diagnosed (one of the instances of doctors being very very wrong!) I put a lot of her symptoms down to that. And I also cut out caffeine (breastfed) and that reduced her symptoms a lot.

Write it down and take it with you. Then ask them why they think this is normal. Or see a different GP.

My two had massive reactions to certain foods and silent reflux - the GP never really took it seriously so I found one that did. I also read up a lot into it to avoid being fobbed off.

One thing that massively helped was giving watered down peppermint tea. It's relatively harmless and you can give it immediately. Basically make the tea then mix a couple of teaspoon into her beaker of water. Then give her sips at bedtime and in the night when she wakes up. It worked wonders for ds.

Oh and look at her diet. Sweet potato is high in fibre - difficult to digest. Some people are allergic to fish. Carrots can actually be hard to digest for some.

With my dc, they had a plain diet (no onions, minimal green or windy veg like broccoli, peas, cauliflower), no spicy food, only very well cooked tomatoes, baked potatoes, small amounts of pasta, minimial bread, no eggs. A lot of meat like lamb, chicken and turkey but not beef. They had calcium enriched oat milk, not cows milk. This was approved by the dietician. Keeping it simple was best for them until they outgrew the worst of it.

I agree you need to see a GP I wouldn't change her diet at all without medical advice, there are so many food related conditions, unless you have an actual diagnosis it would just be guess work. My DD1 is celiac diagnosed at 22 months only had real symptoms for a couple of months. She had a few minor issues before she became symptomatic such as night waking accompanied by what seemed to be tummy pain and frequent mushy poos.

It could be something could be nothing but do ask for a referral from your GP x

I agree that cutting out any more foods would be pointless without some medical advice - my son became temporarily lactose intolerant after a series of antibiotics, but the reflux stayed even one we had identified that. We were really lucky to see a paediatric GP at our local surgery who was happy to investigate based on our concerns.
To be honest, the lack of sleep would have been bearable if my son hadn't been suffering so much. He would really scream when he had trapped wind and it was so sad listening to him making himself cough to try and squeeze the farts out! He improved within a couple of days once he was on reflux meds.

DS1 has a food intolerance and would scream and thrash around until he released the cramp by trumping. A food diary might help reveal a trigger. For us it was easy to identify as we were seeing the dietician for other allergies and the intolerance was activated by the substituion of another food.

Thanks for all the advice!

I know I shouldn't go cutting foods out without medical advice, but really the tomatoes were obvious. She gets a rash round her mouth after eating one, then when it comes out the other end you could see blisters exactly matching where the tomato was in her poo! I spoke to the HV about that, and she said that while babies are in nappies it's fairly common because of them sitting in heir own poo, and I should try her with tomatoes again when she is potty trained.

I'll write everything down and bring it with me to the GP, it'll be next week before I can get, so I'll keep a food diary until then, and also write down any instances where she's up in the night, or appears to have stomach pain.

Also meant to add that my lovely GP actually said that she would rather spend all day seeing perfectly healthy babies than have one who was really ill be missed. She never made me feel bad about taking him in, even the week when he was there three times, and if your GP is dismissing your concerns or making you feel like you're wasting their time, then I would suggest complaining and/or moving surgeries.