advice re dairy 'issues'

[eggybrokenoff]

ds2 seems really prone to tummy bugs. at almost 2 he has had far more than ds1. he seems to follow the same pattern - vomits for many hours, then stops but vomiting comes back after 24-48 hours. it seems to be when we brave reintroducing dairy that the vomiting starts again. he has always had odd bowel movements - constipated one day, very loose the next.

is this normal tummy bug behaviour and we have just been lucky with ds1 or could it be a sign of some kind of dairy problem that shows itself when he is ill?

Stomach bugs can induce a temporary lactose intolerance. So maybe next home hold off a bit longer re introducing it.

However it might be worth a trip to the gp, if it happens every time and he gets sick alot I would get it checked out.

I'd steer clear of it if that's the effect you think its having. My 2yo has an intolerance to lactose which causes awful belly aches and honestly foul bowel movements. Have you tried him with lactose free milk?

DS1 was like this. He was allergic to egg and then after two truly vile tummy bugs, he became intolerant to milk just before he was 2yo.

It seemed like he got endless bugs after that, probably at the rate of one a month or so, even when off dairy. He was rarely sick, it was usually just diarrhoea. But he also seemed to catch everything going too.

Around age 5yo, he started complaining of reflux. I actually think he had been suffering for quite a long time but had not been able to verbalise it. They did an endoscopy which revealed irritation from the reflux in the stomach lining and the osphoegus (sp?) but nothing sinister.

Around this time, I read on here about a link between tongue tie and reflux. We had his tie revised and his gastric problems disappeared. He has just had his 8th birthday and is strong as an ox and hasn't been ill for months and months.

In comparison, ds2 is 3.5yo and has had one stomach bug and chicken pox. He is slightly tied but has pretty much full function in his tongue.

thats interesting - he has tongue tie. long debate about whether to deal with it at birth but as he could bf fine they decided not to.

how do you know if they become lactose intolerant?

With ds1, I never knew for sure if it was the lactose or the proteins, I just eliminated it completely. He outgrew his egg allergy around 4yo and by 4.5yo he was back on small amounts of dairy, building up from cooked milk, to cheese to yogurt then finally just milk.

Gastric problems are really common amongst tongue (and lip) tied kids. The tongue is attached to several muscles (8 I think, but don't quote me) and if these muscles are not being correctly stimulated during chewing and swallowing, then it can have a knock on effect on the entire system.

If I were you, I would investigate the whole tongue tie issue. Educate yourself about the possible effects it can have and make a decision about whether to revise or not. Top tip, skip the NHS, they are clueless about this.

Just to give you some idea, as well as the gastric problems, ds1 suffered from many different things related to his ties (anterior, posterior and upper lip tie) Including poor sleep, with bouts of apnoea though probably not enough for a diagnosis, ENT trouble with congestion, noise and hearing loss which persisted for several years, fussy eating with gagging on certain textures, mouth breathing and large tonsils.

He also has a high palate. The tongue shapes the palate, it should be broad with a very wide U shaped dental arch. Ds1's was very high and extremely narrow because his tongue action was restricted. When we saw a dentist who specialises in tongue ties, he said there was already evidence (aged 7yo) that his bottom jaw was becoming bigger than the top jaw, he had an open bite at the front from tongue thrusting and a cross bite at the back. Also, he said the middle section of his face was very flat, hence the mouth breathing as his nostrils were very restricted. He also had a curvature in his neck, possibly from holding his head in a way to help his tongue, which had a knock on effect on his hips and ankles.

We are a year on from that now, and he's responding very well to the palate expander and headgear which had brought his upper jaw forward. He has stopped mouth breathing and sleeps like a dream now.

I would never have believed that all of this could be caused by a tongue tie, but I have heard similar things over and over from parents of other tied kids on the facebook group that I am on.