Bloated belly on 8 yo DD

[Twodozenroses]

My DD has chronic constipation. She has daily movicol and has done for years. Shes on a maintenance dose at the moment and going to the toilet regularly. She’s always had a bloated and distended belly and quite often gets painful gassy cramps. She’s been tested for coeliac about 4 years ago. We’ve tried dairy free which I do think helped the bloating a bit but she still needed laxatives.

she is on the 75th centile for height and weight so is in proportion. She is very slim apart from this big bloated belly which at times is rock solid and painful

what could it be? Has anyone’s child ever suffered from this before and you’ve found a cause for it? Do I ask for coeliac test to be redone or would she likely be smaller and skinnier if she had coeliac. Do I ask for other tests?

thank you

Did she have the celiac blood test ? Was she eating gluten when she had the test?

My son had this and I worked out he was lactose intolerant. Switching to plant milk etc helped with the bloating and gas.

Have you tried keeping a food diary and seeing if you can work out a possible culprit ? My ds doesn’t have coeliac but does much better on a lower gluten diet eg when he has bolognese now the proportion of pasta to sauce is very different. He doesn’t like gluten free pasta which is why he eats normal pasta.

If you get no joy with the tests ask if they can give buscapam or an equivalent get proper tests done though don't let them do an elimination diet I tried that over 20 years ago I haven't been able to eat wheat since so they cannot confirm that I'm gluten intolerant via testing when I eat gluten I crash out completely unable to function 😅

Bloating and wind are potential side effects of movicol so could just be that? My DC both get awful farts when taking it.

@SonicTheHodgeheg I haven’t done a food diary- that’s a good idea. I’d probably be best doing that before I make a dr appt wouldn’t I. She did have the blood test yes

@Theunamedcat thank you I’ll ask about that

@SatinHeart maybe. She’s been on it years but her maintenance dose has increased so it could be. I hadn’t realised it causes gas. She does have a lot of burps and farts

Movicol causes excess wind, I've only been using it for 6 months and I can't do without it but it gives me terrible wind and stomach rumbling/groaning noises.

Sounds exactly like my daughter diagnosed coeliac. Swollen tummy and constipation so bad it was that we went to hospital for. Maybe ask for retest or further investigation.
We had to go private eventually after being fobbed off many many doctors

Pay privately to see a gastroenterologist. She needs to see a specialist. No one on mumsnet will be able to diagnose her

she has a few symptoms of coeliac but then on the other hand, no one else in the family has it, she’s tall and not too skinny so must be getting nutrients and the bloating seems to go up and down. Also could the blood test from 4 years ago have been wrong? I do strongly feel something else is causing this but can’t quite figure out what

this is interesting to know. Unfortunately I can’t get her off it either. I’ve tried weaning her off many times but it never works

Thanks I have in the past when she was little for the constipation issue but may have to again for the bloating, gas and pain. I think my dh has private health insurance with his work so if she’s covered on that we could use that

I know no one can diagnose her on here but it’s interesting to know if others have experienced it with their kids and what the reasons were for them. So I know what the ask the gp to check for. And I’ve also learnt now that movicol could be causing it too which I hadn’t realised

My daughter was on movicol for years and we have only managed to get her off by ensuring she has a few fruits every days and a lot of water to drink. I honestly don't think that will be the issue.
Another few things before she was diagnosed coeliac was that her hair never really grew, got to her ears and just stopped, she also always had very pale nearly see through skin.

I used to have awful constipation with IBS and couldn't tolerate monocle at all as it gave me horrendous bloating and wind. Can you try and get her off the movical? The best constipation treatment I have found is flaxseed (with lots and lots of water) and vitamin c. Works better than anything I've had from the doctor.

I also cured my lifelong IBS by going on a low FODMAP diet. This is not a permanent diet but is an elimination diet to find triggers. I found my triggers and can now eat everything as I can take a digestive enzyme with by trigger foods which helps me digest the foods I struggle to digest myself. Your daughter won't need to do this if the bloating and wind is caused by the movical.

If you are trying an elimination diet or food diary remember that it can take a long time for food to get down to the gut. If you eat a food, and get gut symptoms immediately, it's unlikely to be the foods you've just eaten as it's not in your bowel yet. Eating fires up the digestive system so it can trigger symptoms from foods you've eaten earlier in the day or the day before. For me, it usually takes about 24 hours, so if I get symptoms at lunch, it'll be because of something I ate for lunch yesterday.

My foster daughter is also on movicol and suffers with wind from it too. When she first came to live with us she was on it sort of "as and when needed" basis but in March this year she was presenting with more and more tummy aches and nausea and sore bum on going to the toilet so the GP advised us to give it every day - since then her wind has increased 10 fold and it's foul smelling too!

Another one for coeliac disease! I would ask again for a re-test. My DD has coeliac (so does my DS who was diagnosed after having an OGD as he had zero symptoms). DD had swollen tummy, heart burn, very gassy, diarrhoea etc. I would push for another blood test. No one in my family (mum / dad / siblings) has coeliac disease BUT my dads family is riddled with it! It can skip people but if it’s in the family, there is a higher chance that you can have it.

@eleda542 thank you. My daughter is pale (but then so am I) but has long thick hair and looks quite well really.

@AbraAbraCadabra im sorry to hear of your ibs. I used to suffer with it terribly in my 20s. Unfortunately I can’t wean DD off the movicol, I’ve tried for years. We even got down to half a sachet a day for 6 months and I was convinced we’d cracked it but sadly we hadn’t.

@Nogodsnomasters thanks. My dds daily movicol can change - she’s on 2 sachet a day now up from half. I’m going to closely monitor the wind with the amount of movicol now and see if there’s a link for her

@MrsBillyhargrove thank you. I will def ask for another test to be sure. No one in mine or dh family has coeliac. I had a borderline blood test for it in my twenties and had an endoscopy but that came back negative.

I don’t mean just wean her off, I mean wean her off while trying something else for the constipation (eg flaxseed, water and vitamin c). Apologies if you’ve already tried this, but she can’t go on with her stomach distended and painful. I’ve had this, it’s debilitating.

And I would definitely be pushing for another coeliac test, even a bowel biopsy to definitively rule it out.

Ah ok I see. I’ve not tried flaxseed so will give that a go, thank you. She drinks about 1.5-2 litres of water a day and I’m trying a daily Yakult at the moment too

I will definitely go back to the gp

She needs plenty of water with the flaxseed. If you don’t want to do vitamin c, lots of orange juice can have a similar effect. Too much orange juice used to give my DS diarrhoea (thanks grandma!). You need to hit this constipation with everything I think, it’s not going to give up easily!

I would ditch the yakult, it’s full of crap which will offset any good the bacteria in the Yakult will do. Fermented foods are a good idea - maybe some kefir mixed with banana to make it more palatable, Or in a fruit based smoothie (fruit generally is a good idea). Or buy some probiotics. Be careful with anything with prebiotics in as these can cause bloating and wind.

Good luck. My DS had awful stomach pains for months as a child (until I worked out he was lactose intolerant, GP was no use whatsoever), and it was horrible to have to watch. 💐

Thanks, didn’t know Yakut was full of crap 🙈 it’s a minefield!

she has fresh orange each morn and quite a lot of fruit too in the day.

I will definitely try the flax seed. Thanks so much for your replies, they’ve been really helpful