Worried about ds

[BingB]

ery worried about D's who is 8. He's not been himself lately including...

Joint pain and back pain (on one occasion he could barely walk)
Tiredness/needing more sleep
On and off sore throat/sniffles/cough/ not being ill but constantly under the weather (although I'm pretty sure has a chest infection right now)
Stomach aches and has random days where he goes off his food.

He has had mild back ache for a few months but I put it down to bad posture when playing on his Xbox. The rest of the symptoms have come on in the last month. He's just constantly 'not right'.

He does have a vitamin d deficiency but has been taking prescribed high dose vit d since mid February.

He has a GP appointment Tuesday but does anyone have any ideas? He has SEN if that's relevant.

Hi,
I can understand why you are worried about your son. When you go to the doctors I would request blood test for your son.

My daughter went through very similar symptoms when she was 12. She went off food, stomach pains and joint pain but few other symptoms too. When she had a blood test it showed that she was low in iron. My daughter never got better if anything became quite poorly even though she was taking iron tablets. To cour a long story short she had tests done and was diagnosed with crohns disease. Not telling you this to scare you but just to prompt you to request a blood test and because he is, getting stomach pains a stool test too. These two lots of test will give plenty of information. A lot of GPS refuse to do blood and especially stool test but you have to push for it.

It turned out that because my daughters gut was immflammed she couldn't absorb iron hence why she was deficient of iron.

It could be that your son just has an on going infection of some kind.

Hope you can get him sorted soon.

Thank you for replying. I'm glad you got to the bottom of your daughter's issues. I wil definitely be asking for a blood test. And thanks for mentioning the stool test as I'd never have thought of that. I bought a digital thermometer today and he has a slightly raised temperature.

Ds had similar at the same age, but it also included a temperature and vomiting pretty much daily.

He had all the tests they could give him, and eventually they discovered he was allergic to dust mites (and magic cream!) but other than that it was probably just a post viral fatigue.
It took him a year really to get back to how he was, and even now (7 years on) he picks up bugs very easily.

My DD2 had very similar symptoms, she has since been diagnosed with hip issues (having previously been told it was over pronation of her feet/ankles when she was younger) so now we know what’s causing her joint pain and to a degree her tiredness. However when we were in the midst she had bloods and was subsequently diagnosed Vit D deficient and prescribed the high dose liquid stuff, and just you know this used to cause her random tummy aches.

I also suspect DD is sensitive to gluten, she can eat it but I can bloat her and make her very uncomfortable. For this I buy GF pasta, and she still eats normal bred, but If we are having anything carb heavy pasta/rice/bread I always serve her a smaller portion and give extra meat or veg instead. This seems to have worked for us. Obviously things might be different for your DS, but I thought I would mention as perhaps they are things to consider and maybe an allergy test if you haven’t had one already and see your GP.

Thanks for replying, I'm not sure it can be hip issues as he is also getting the pain in his shoulders and arms. I've had to keep him off school yet again as he found walking so painful this morning. The pain has gone back to normal levels now. Someone suggested long covid and I think it might be that?

I would check for coeliac (blood test) as that can present like this and can reduce absorption. It may also be worth checking calcium levels (can be linked to Vit D)

Thank you, Would that show up on a full blood count or would I need to specifically ask for that test?

Was going to say is it possible he had Covid a month ago? My initial Covid was just like a bad cold but I've had joint and muscle pain ever since ( although not do bad I can't walk). Doctor's not been terribly helpful as it's been less than three months but hopefully they would for a child.

What did the doctor say to you? Did they offer a blood test to rule out other things? I hope you start feeling better soon.

you would need to request these- the coeliac test is a separate blood test and the calcium is within the bone profile test panel

Thanks wombles that's really helpful.