18 month old keeps being sick - being tested for coeliac disease??

[galaxygirl45]

My grand-daughter is 18 months, and about 3 weeeks ago started being sick at random mealtimes. At 1st we thought she had a bug, but it's carried on now and she's even being sick during the night. She's barely eating, is listless and miserable. She's now under care of our GP who has referred her to hospital but appmnt isn't until middle of October. She's also supposed to be weighed once a week, but DD is having a nightmare getting her into clinic. You can see she's lost weight. She had bloods done, which showed good liver/kidney function but borderline anaemia so she's been given an iron supplement that she won't take..... it's really really worrying me, she just isn't right and it's awful to see her so pale and listless. My DD is 37 weeks pregnant and also has a lively 3 yo, so really has her hands full. DD has tried her on pediasure shakes but she really doesn't like them, so her diet literally is yogurt at the moment. (she's being tested for coeliac disease, dairy intolerance and a few others but none of it back from hospital yet after 2 weeks). Has anyone gone through similar??? I'm now worried she's associating eating with pain/being sick but GP insisted her diet wasn't changing during tests so that an allergy will show.

Yes it's really important that your DSD continues to eat dairy and gluten during testing, otherwise the test won't be a true result.

If it were one of mine, I'd be offering cake, donuts, ice cream, anything at all to tempt her to eat and get both calories and gluten/dairy into her whilst she's being tested.

I hope you get some answers soon and DGD makes a good recovery!

The test for celiac can take a few weeks as most hospitals have to send it off.
Do not stop her from having any gluten foods though as if she needs other tests not eaten gluten can effect the results.
Also it could of been a tummy bug which has now giving her temp lactose intolerance which in young children is quite common.

My DS went through this at 20 months so I completely understand your concern. In our case I took DS to the GP weekly for 3 weeks just to be told it was a tummy bug and to come back if the symptoms were still there in 6 weeks! After 3 weeks I went back to GP and refused to leave until something was done. In the end they reluctantly sent me to A&E just to get rid of me. Once we were in the hospital system it took around 10 days to get a diagnosis of coeliac. A&E we're great, the triage nurse took one look at him and told me he 'wasn't right'.
I would go back to your GP and insist you need an urgent referral. If possible go with your daughter. I turned myself into a difficult, pushy, demanding parent, I'm normally pretty chilled but if knew something had to be done.
One thing I found useful was to keep a notebook, I listed all instances of sickness, trips to GP, who we had seen, also when tests were done/ appointments made I would ask when will results be through, when should I hear by and who should I contact if I hear nothing. Inevitably I would end up chasing things but every day he was getting weaker & thinner, and I wasn't prepared to sit by and wait.
We were also fortunate to be under the care of a lovely paediatric consultant at our local hospital who liaised with the gastro consultant at another hospital and all tests were done at our local hospital and diagnosis ( on bloods alone) was done without DS meeting the peadiatric gastro consultant (by the time they met DS was GF and well on the road to recovery).
Please do push for action and keep giving gluten in the meantime, as horrible as it is to see the discomfort it is the only way to get a diagnosis.
Good luck

Middle of October is a very long time to leave anyone repeatedly vomiting. She should attempt to get someone to see her earlier.

Thanks all - such a worry. My DD has said she's going to take her to see GP monday and push for quicker referral as she's really not right.