Could this be food intolerance?

[ClaraRenee]

DD (nearly 10 yrs), has been having painful tummy cramps for a few months. It was so bad in November that an out of hours doctor sent to A&E with suspected appendicitis. Her blood tests were negative for infection.

She keeps getting tummy cramps almost every night, the pain wakes her. She is very windy and has occasional bouts of diarrhoea (without blood in it). Sometimes she cries with the pain. She doesn't suffer tiredness.

Our GP did diagnose her with irritable bowel and gave her anti-spasmodics.
She has eczema too. She has a GPs appointment next week as she didn't want to miss any school. I'm keeping a food diary, she eats a lot of dairy as she is going through the vegetarian phase. Because of this, I don't really want to start an elimination diet until I've seen the GP.

Was wondering if this sounds like an intolerance and wondering what tests can be carried out for food intolerance, so I'm prepared for her appoinment next week.

Thanks.

DD has IBS too (but specialist hasn't yet ruled out Crohns) - her stomach is BADLY affected by the following & according to her hospital, these are common triggers -

Chemical food additives - azo dyes, benzoate preservatives, MSG, & artificial sweeteners etc.

Lactose in milk/cheese etc - when well, she is fine with dairy so long as its lactofree, or mature or cooked cheeses etc -

& Stress is also a bad one, that can be harder to control :( ( is your DD worrying about SATs or anything else??)

During a flare up, diary in general becomes hard to digest & makes her worse, as does any wheat, & meat can make things worse too - (though DD never eats meat)

Also during a flare up keeping her on bland roughage, wheat & dairy free foods helps her tummy heal much quicker - as does adding the spice Tumeric to what ever you do give her, its a natural herbal medicine for inflammation of the gut - I cook rice in it & she eats the rice :)

I also make sure she gets plenty of extra "tissue salts" if she has diareah she will lose these important electrolytes - you can get powders, but its hard to get DCs to take them, so I give my DD crisps & coke - of all things, they are good for replacing the important pottasium, sodium & glucose - if these are low as a result of diareah - it can make them more stressy & cause more stomach problems.

Some other food groups can cause problems, such as the nightshade family, that includes peppers etc, so it might be worth keeping a food diary if the above doesn't work.

We also have ended up in A&E with suspected appendicitis - turned out to be Colitis - AKA an inflamed colon - which can have several causes - including IBS, Crohns etc

Good luck finding her triggers, it can make a massive difference to getting it under control :)

Thank you.

Stress doesn't appear to be a factor, she always tells me when something is upsetting her, she's in yr 5 at school, had some tests when yr 6 had SATS, she's never worried about tests, she's 1 of the lucky ones that seems to sail through them and enjoys literacy tests!

I'm querying lactose intolerance as her eczema worsens when she has tummy pains. I find GPs tend to fob parents off with IBS, claiming it's one of those things. I've managed to get an appt with a GP that takes symptoms a bit more seriously.

The nightshade family is interesting, she eats quite a lot of varying veg as she only eats fish, avoiding meat, such as Meditterranean style pasta, rissotto etc.

She eats quite a varied diet so its hard to find a trigger.

Thanks for the advice.

has she not had a hospital referral?? - I found out with my own DD that GPs CANNOT diagnose IBS, though many do to save the expense of a hospital vistit - it has to be a gastro specialist after ruling out other possible causes - so do insist on a referral - I found the hospital FAR more help than the GP

& with IBS its classically internalised stress that will cause a flare up, so they can seemingly be fine over something, not worrying - but they are deep down, so comes out as stomach pain etc -

DDs recently had a bad bout due to worry about SATS - despite initially seeming very happy about doing them & doing very well - took a few days to get to the bottom of it all, as i knew she'd not had any food triggers - eventually she owned up to not understanding what SATS were & worrying as a result of over hearing play ground talk

Dairy does sound a likely aggravator for your DD though, or at least lactose - Dd also eats a lot of peppers etc, but thankfully they don't affect her :)

I'm going to push for a referral. We have Derby Childrens Hospital locally, which has a good reputation and deals with gastro related problems and intolerance. Its just trying to convince the GP. After her trip to A&E, I was hoping we would get a referral, but GP thought I was an over bearing mother.

She's been like this for a few months now so warrants a referral.

I hope your daughter gets better, good luck.

Good luck & FWIW DDs school nurse was a big help with pushing our GP to send her to the Gastro specialist - she gave me the name of the best one & I think just the fact that I had been discussing it with someone else "in authority" was enough to make the GP realise she had no choice

& yes IKWYM I had the same thing with our GPs on too many occasions - I learned not to take no for an answe after they misdiagnosed her Pneumonia as a virus

& thanks she's much better today & back at School :)

Whilst I'm here - you might want to also look into giving your DD Viridian Childrens gut flora powders - they mix in with anything, & Spirulina is a good all round superfood tonic, full of vitamins, minerals, Iron etc - its good if you are worried about her not digesting her food properly & therefore been malnourished - it contains enzymes too :) - I notice a big difference with DD if I give her this stuff & always do so now if she's having stomach trouble

Yes it could be intolerance and could be wheat related as ime lactose intolerance can be caused by wheat (my ds was dairy intolerant but is fine with some dairy now that he is gluten free). My ds has gluten sensitivity and this can have varied symptoms, depending on how much and how frequent wheat is eaten - the more the worse - and there is some recovery possible in-between not eating wheat.
My ds was also self-restricted vegeterian and I later found out that wheat suppresses various enzymes (eg stomach enzymes) and causes malabsorption of numerous nutrients, so often you think you give them best poss nutrition but gluten covers the inside of the gut with indigestible glue-like substance and they can't absorb them. ANd that indigestible substance then ferments and feeds bacteria in the gut that produce gas.
Afaik, there is no test for intolerance, just a diet trial, I did it with my ds as was desperate enough as he was getting worse in a number of ways, it's the improvement on exclusion diet that makes it obvious what the cause is as often the improvement starts within days.
You need to research and observe it thoroughly as drs appointments are not usually long enough to go into all aspects of it all. Gluten intolerance also affects immune system, as immune system reacts to it as a foreign protein (gluten is a protein).
What makes it worse is that a lot of wheat bakery products are not properly fermented or cooked/baked so effectively they complete the fermentation in the warm gut, not healthy at all.
PS. I could go on for hours as have looked into it in great depth and with various subsequent tests.