4 years old get pain in lower belly each time he eats

[Babyhealthy]

my toddler had a virus 3 months ago, since then he is not right.
He just had cereal with Milk and he is complaining of lower stomach pain under belly button. He says pain is severe.

And he makes regular normal stools but once in every two weeks he gets an episode of water diarrhoea. I don’t know if it’s another virus or related. Gp says not worried but I aM worried because he complain of pain each time he eats. Also he is burping a lot after food . Any advice is appreciated. Doctor gave me stool sample to drop off Monday to rule out h pylori, but I just want to see with anyone similar situation

Constipation can "over flow" and appear like normal stools are passing regularly. He may have a small part blockage that needs cleared.

He doesn’t Soil at all, he does nice adult formed bowel movements. The only think he burps and get bouts of belly cramps followed by diarrhoea once a week ! And he wakes at night chocking. He never suffered from reflex before !

His temperature spiked 39
I don’t know what’s wrong with my child. I called 111, clinician going to call me back and I have Gp appointment Friday.

My son has extremely similar symptoms and I'm pretty sure it's just IBS as I had the same symptoms with my IBS before I started controlling my diet, and he has had everything else ruled out. Try him on a low fodmap diet for a couple of weeks and you'll know.
The pain and on/off diarrhoea caused by IBS can be really bad. But it can't make you underweight, don't know why they said that. IBS is joy uncommon in children.

You don't need to soil to have overflow.

Just something to keep in mind.

I hope you hear back from NHS soon.

But I cannot call it IBS or anything because before he was healthy big eater kid. This started 3 months ago after a virus !
he cannot bounce back and he is getting worst and worst

How did you get on last night OP?

111 clinician advised me to give him calpol and ibuprofen every few hours and wait for Gp appointment Friday. They don’t think it’s related. They said he probably caught new bug !
now he had oats with strawberries and banana with oat milk and couldn’t finish it and he complained of severe pain . This confirms it’s not dairy :(

It's probably a gastro bug. I hope he's better soon

Hi @Babyhealthy - my DD was same as yours. She had a bug and then was super poorly for months after. TLDR: she was coeliac but GP diagnosed her with reflux (DD had horrendous heartburn) but consultant I saw in ED said it wouldn't be reflux as DD had never suffered as a baby with it and it wouldn't start happening now! She had all the other symptoms you describe though; gassy, tummy pain, diarrhoea (literally would have episodes that went on for weeks and weeks but stool samples were always negative). Do you know what the levels for the coeliac screen were? Anything over 15 should be investigated - my DD's were over 250 (the docs presume she was higher as she was so poorly). My DS had tummy pain for about 2 months (underneath his belly button) and really bad poos - turns out he was coeliac too but his level was 49, and the only thing that made him poorly was weetabix, nothing else!

Get him re-checked for coeliac would be my opinion.

This going to make me end up in mental hospital, I am losing my mind

. But he was negative via blood test for celiac @Blossomandblooms is the blood test not accurate . He always eats gluten so if he was positive I would assume the antibodies were sky high.

Does he have the positive genetics for celiac but no antibodies?

I never heard of anyone having celiac in my family or husband family. My husband is European origin and mine is North African origin. So you can do genetics too. They won’t do it for me because he was negative via blood, no ?

I was asking because normally initial test is for genes + antibodies.
For instance I do have the genetics (no known celiacs in family), but no antibodies. As I had symptom that improved with GF diet my diagnosis was Non celiac gluten intolerance. It is possible that without gf diet I would develop antibodies soon

Do they test for genes via blood tests too or stomach/intestine biopsy?

Genes are tested via blood test, in my case they tested for genes and antibodies at the same time. If you do not have any of the genes then celiac is ruled out completely.

@Babyhealthy coeliac disease can lay dormant in the system until it is triggered by an illness (sometimes a bad vomiting bug, which was the case with my DD). Sometimes, it is triggered when children are weaned onto solids and they show an adverse reaction to gluten. Neither myself or my DH are coeliac but there is a strong coeliac history in my family, but it skipped my dad, my sisters and myself but has shown itself with my DC. My son only reacted with weetabix and was fine otherwise - he had the blood test which confirmed tTg-IgA level of 49 so he was neither here nor there with an "official diagnosis" until he had an OGD which then proved that there were Marsh 3A changes (your intestinal villi are still there, but are smaller). I would just ask for another blood screen and find out what his level is.

Is your son on any multivitamins? My golden advice would be to start him on zinc; I use a tasteless zinc liquid which I pop into a tiny bit of water (5 drops, 3 x a day) and that will help repair the stomach. Likewise with vitamin D and iron (read the intake volumes for these carefully). Probiotics are also a good idea to help rebuild his stomach.

@Blossomandblooms what was your child symptoms ?

DD (aged 5 when symptoms started and aged 6 when diagnosed);

• gassy, tummy pain, diarrhoea (episodes that went on for weeks but stool samples were always negative), mucus in poo (like 20p-50p sizes and always separate from the stool), hurt burn, headaches, tummy aches and generally looking unwell (pale, tired)

DS (aged 8 when diagnosed) - he would have explosive diarrhoea only with Weetabix but absolutely fine with other forms of gluten. He had about 2 months of daily stomach pain (under the belly button) but as DD hadn't been diagnosed then, the GP didn't connect it with coeliac disease / a gastro issue. He pinned it on anxiety, funnily enough! We would never had known he was coeliac at all if his sister hadn't of been diagnosed first, but because she was positive, all the family had to get tested and he was the only one with raised serum levels. Because they weren't massively raised (levels should be less than 15 - usual diagnosis based on blood test is 3 x normal level, so 45 and he was 49) we went down the "official" diagnosis route of OGD.

23andme will also test for coeliac gene via spit if you’re desperate. I have heard of people being negative for coeliac on blood test but positive on endoscopy, but that’s rare. I’d be tempted to get the gene test done.

And yes no history of coeliac disease in our family until Dd got it, hers started after a virus.

After months of our daughter being like this our gp recommended probiotics- we use "proven fit for school" ones and she has never had a problem since x

I just meant with my lovely Gp and got fobbed off. She said keep a diary a c monitor. She said she won’t refer him or investigate further about celiac. His level were 1 umol (0-5 normal level)
he had chocking episodes last night and couldn’t breath. Newly called ambulance. I told her and she fobbed me off and said next time maybe record it. I nearly lost it when she said that.

I’ll book another appointment and see. He has follow up in two weeks and she seems certain he is constipated !

I just met with my lovely Gp and got fobbed off. She said keep a diary and monitor. She said she won’t refer him or investigate further about celiac. His level were 1 umol (0-5 normal level)
he had chocking episodes last night and couldn’t breath. I Nearly called the ambulance. I told her and she fobbed me off and said next time maybe record him and we will see!
I nearly lost it when she said that.

I’ll book another appointment and see. He has follow up in two weeks and she seems certain he is constipated !

he ate something