10Yro can't eat and constantly feeling sick.

[Upintheairnow]

Hi all. Sorry if this is long.
Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar in their children.
10 yo daughter for over 3 weeks feeling sick and full up constantly. Has 2 bites of food then says she's full. Always got stomach pain (middle tummy, belly button area) it never goes away. Not constipated. No actual sickness. Is exhausted. Has no energy. Always cold. Says she gets "sicky burps" and feels like she's going to throw up after eating. She is allergic to wheat so eats a gluten free diet. She hasn't eaten any wheat. Some days she drinks loads but is still pale and has dry lips.

She is petite anyway (1m 30) and weighs about 29kg. Her clothes are getting loose.
Saw GP last week who promptly said gastroenteritis and prescribed omeprazole. It isn't gastroenteritis.The Omeprazole hasn't helped. Neither has Gaviscon. Dr said to bring her back in 4 weeks if she isnt better! She's barely eating!
She is so sad, tired and down all the time. We submitted a stool and urine sample on Thursday but I have no idea how long results take.

Not sure if this is related but at the beginning of Dec she started getting breathless and feeling like her throat was closing up if she exercised or ran around. Saw a Dr who said she has a "wheeze" but not asthma or anything. Now she can barely walk upstairs without needing a rest. She's struggling to get up in the mornings.

I've just tried calling 111 and was on hold but couldn't get through.

Had a video consultation with a private GP who suggested Abdominal migraine? And also said she would be asking for a blood test for thyroid function etc. And a urine dip for diabetes.

If anyone has experienced similar I'd be grateful for any ideas or advice as I'm not sure what to do. We are getting through a lot of Calpol but I think she needs to be seen and maybe her abdomen be scanned, could it be a blockage of some sort? I'm going to keep trying 111.

I’d be trying 111 again who may organise an emergency appointment or walk in centre. You could also try A & E. I know not an emergency as such atm but it would be a way to get results etc fast tracked.
There should be a Paediatrician on call. I’m not medical I’m sure there are others with more informed advice. The fatigue is worrying but understandable if she can’t eat.

I don’t mean to scaremonger but please be on the alert in case it could be an eating disorder. Are you sure she isn’t weighing herself? Try removing bathroom scales if you have them and see if there is any reaction. My DD attempted to hide her ED with claims of nausea and tummy pain. She was also freezing cold and hair starting to fall out.
I do hope you find the cause soon, whatever it is.

Not a dr, but from experience with my own son I would ask about Addison's disease. See if you recognise the symptoms.
From my own experience as a child, I was like this... but I had an ED (associated with huge amount of pressure to eat... but that was my parents' issue).

I would say constipation. I know you say it isn't and I'm assuming you're basing that on "regular bowel movements" - means nothing, a person can go to the toilet regularly and still not be fully emptying. I would be asking for an abdominal x-ray if you do go to a&e or see another GP. I promise it's worth the check.

Anaemic or low B12 (pernicious anaemia)? Was she ever tested for coeliac disease? She may also be lactose intolerant and testing thyroid sounds like a good plan.

My 13yo DD had similar symptoms of nausea, some vomiting, abdominal discomfort and she had h. pylori and has been fine since having the antibiotics. It was diagnosed by stool sample.

Could she be weak as she hasnt been eating much and might be deficient in iron or other vitamins or minerals?

My first thought was stomach ulcer, possibly h pylori. Sounds like she's having acid reflux so maybe checking for hiatal hernia as well, although this is unlikely at her age.

FFS take her the Dr ,,I'm very relaxed re child's heath but I'd deffo want her seen to with symptoms your describing

I think this sounds like an ED to be honest, the excuses to not eat can be very convincing.
If she’s eating less than 500 cals a day then I’d take her to a&e and ask for all the physical checks to be done.
Ultimately whether there’s a physical or psychological reason for not eating it needs treating asap. Loosing weight and the tiredness are red flags and children can become very very sick very quickly when they’re not getting enough food.
What happens if you tell her to push past the sick feeling? Will she drink okay?

Thank you all for your replies.

I was seriously not impressed with the first Dr we saw last week, hence taking it further now.
She does want to eat and isn't purposely not eating but anything more than 2 or 3 mouthfuls and she's had enough. I'm pretty sure it's not an ED as she is very good at gymnastics (been talent spotted a couple of times) and she knows how important food is to be strong and healthy. She enjoys her food normally. She is fed up with feeling ill and tired and wants to be able to eat normally again.
She can drink ok. She is having lots of milk and those yoghurt drinks (good bacteria type) A few years back we had blood tests done and she wasn't allergic to dairy. She was tested for coeliac which was negative but we went to an allergy specialist and did skin prick testing which showed the wheat allergy.

I called 111 just before 4pm and they finally called back at 8pm. She has an appointment tomorrow morning at our nearest hospital. They have asked for stool and urine samples if we can get any. We are going to push for some sort of scan or abdominal xray too.

Nothing that similar because of wheeze but ds had gasterenteritis, E. coli and Covid simultaneously. I’d say just get her to the hospital and let them start testing. Best of luck x

If she drinks okay I’d make her milkshakes and smoothies just to get some calories in. There is a biological type of anorexia that can be triggered by weight loss, it doesn’t really matter what causes the weight loss.
Hope you get it sorted op.

I had similar gastric problems for years and it turned out I had low stomach acid. Omeprazole makes the problem worse. Gaviscon does nothing. Low stomach acid mimics the symptoms of gastroenteritis. Easily treated with taking betaine HCL supplement WITH meals. Hope you find out what is wrong with her!

A few things spring to mind, have you considered lactose intolerance? It developed quite suddenly in my daughter after a virus.

Is she actually wheezing or does her throat just feel tight? Oral allergies might trigger tongue and throat swelling without any full body reaction. It could also be something functional rather than a disease, something like vocal chord dysfunction or GERD.

My daughter experienced persistent stomach pain and nausea. We thought it was her appendix and after many scans and tests she was diagnosed with functional abdominal pain due to stress (not an illness as such, but a genuine physical symptom caused by psychological distress). The doctor confidently told us all the children he had seen with this problem find it clears up as soon as they are reassured it's not real, he said it magically disappears when they realise it's all in their head. Well here we are nearly 2 years later still battling the same symptoms and I think the doctor was full of shit to be frank. I'm considering a dairy free diet trial for her.

I tested her for Covid a few days ago and it was negative.

The breathing issue was at the beginning of Dec and the hospital said she had a wheeze but as she could talk ok it isn't asthma. They also said it could be psychosomatic. But she was getting that more when she was active and since she's been feeling ill she hasn't been to gymnastics or running around so hasn't used her inhaler.
(She is also allergic to house dustmites and some tree pollen so we thought the wheeze might be due to that)

My sister has Crohns so perhaps its something similar.
She is having some smoothies etc too and we are trying to give her small amounts of food often during the day but the stomach pain and nausea are just always there.
Really hope the hospital will be able to help tomorrow.

EDs hardly uncommon with gymnasts. But if there is something different going on medically you want to get to the bottom of it too.

I wouldn't want the drs jumping to a conclusion... perhaps don't mention she's a gymnast when you go to the dr.

Hello poster I am so sorry what you are going through because I know exactly how it feels.
You are describing my daughter’s symptoms when she was 12 years old. I too was having trouble getting our gp to understand something was wrong with my daughter. Eventually I took my daughter to the dentist to look at the mouth ulcers which was also a symptom. To cut a long story short he referred her to the dental hospital who then referred her to the gastro team at the children’s hospital with suspected Crohn’s disease.
It did turn out to be Crohn’s disease and I would like to add you mentioned that your sister has crohns and I do know many others where it runs through the family.
You say you have provided a stool test, that will be the test that will show any inflammation in your daughters gut which is what crohns is all about, it is called a calprotectin test.
We had a wonderful consultant who did tell us that GP’s don’t have much knowledge in crohns hence why our gp was dismissive with the symptoms my daughter had.,
If it does turn out to be crohns your daughter more than likely has deficiencies which will be causing the tiredness, paleness and seeming withdrawn.
Please be rest assured if it does turn out to be crohns it is better to have answers so your daughter can receive the treatment needed.

That was the case for my daughter she received the treatment needed for her gut to heel and to get her into remission. She is now 20 years old and has been in remission for 8 years. She has lived a perfectly normal active life, in fact she is living an amazing life and has never had to miss out on anything. She is at uni away from home and went away skiing with the ski society kudt before Christmas. She really does have a great life.

You also mention that you have an appointment today at the hospital I think you said. Please mention that your sister has crohns. If they too are dismissive of your daughters symptoms this is when you need to become the voice for your daughter and go back to your gp and voice your concerns.

Please come back and let us know how you get on.

Sounds like reflux - silent reflux - which would explain the breathlessness and asthma too. Gastroparesis and gord in what I’d be looking at and also has she been tested for coeliac disease? Ask for the genetic blood test as the other test is well known to be faulty especially in children and the NHS just keeps using it as it’s a lot cheaper

My daughter's friend had something very similar for AGES (age 12) and it took a couple stool samples to identify a bacteria in her gut, she got antibiotics and it was like magic. She finally got better and is back.to normal. At the time she was also was barely eating, always feeling sick, etc. Good luck today at the hospital, keep us updated. You must be worried sick!

I hope it goes well today and you get some answers. My 16yo DD is suffering exactly the same since 5 Jan, we went to the Dr’s and he said it’s probably the stress of mocks and prescribed propranolol for anxiety. Mocks finished on Friday and her stomach is still sore needless to say, along with feeling sick.

I can sympathise as I’m going through this with my 14yo DD currently, who interestingly also has wheat allergy (not celiac) and has hyper mobility, so gastroparesis could be a part of it.

Full after a few mouthfuls, often gags/throat closing feeling, middle stomach discomfort and pain on the left side under ribs after eating. Sometimes just can’t eat for nausea. She’s so pale and fatigued all the time. Stools are yellow and ‘mushy’ which looks like undigested food, but she’s regular. After two years of steady periods she missed three in a row, which had me worried, but it’s just arrived.

She’s recently been diagnosed with adhd and we’re awaiting autism results and I used to think she just got bored of sitting at the table for larger meals and was put off by the textures of some food but now it’s become painful and she’s old enough to describe what’s going on, I’m concerned it’s something like crohns as her dad has it mildly, but I’m almost certain GERD is involved. I’ll be speaking to the dr tomorrow to start the process.

It sounds like yours needs a more urgent assessment and maybe abdominal x-ray? Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Good luck to you too with speaking to the gp tomorrow.
Anything like crohns needs to be treated because if not the gut will continue to become damaged. It took a year for me to be heard that something wasn’t right and I got to see the photos of my daughter’s gut and it was covered in ulcers. However the treatment allowed the gut to recover completely.

Thank you everyone.
My husband is taking her to the hospital appointment which is in an hour. Will keep you updated.

She hasn't been to the toilet this morning but I've sent them off with a couple of pots just incase she needs to go whilst they are waiting there.

I'm pretty sure it's not an ED. She wants to be back to normal and eating more than 2 mouthfuls and she also wants the constant tummy pain to stop.
She is very bendy so possibly may be hypermobile too. Not sure if that makes a difference to anything.

I've often wondered if she might be ADHD or Autistic as I've noticed a few traits such as she constantly has to have slime or putty to fiddle with and can get very fixated on certain things etc. She no longer likes going to any school disco's as she gets a headache and feels sick from the flashing lights. Again, could be totally unrelated to the current stomach issues.

We are worried as over the years she has been very sad about being the only one who has to have GF food etc and the various tests she had done when she was about 5 that freaked her out (bloods etc, she's now scared of needles) so we try to get her involved with baking/cooking which she now loves doing and she knows now that she can still have lots of different tasty food without wheat in.

I am hoping that perhaps it is some sort of bug that a course of antibiotics will sort out but I am prepared that it could be something more with Crohns in the family. My daughter is a worrier so I don't want any of the symptoms to get worse from her stressing over it all.

Just to update.
Hospital appt was a waste of time. My husband and daughter were in and out in 30 mins.

She did a urine sample and the Dr tested it and said it was normal.
He prodded her stomach (which she said hurt) but said that there's nothing there which would indicate that she needs a scan or Xray immediately. The Dr said that without the stool sample results they can't do much and that we need to weigh her each day to see if/how much weight she is losing. If she is losing weight then they will investigate further.

So it's back to more Calpol every day and attempting to get through the days as normally as possible until the stool sample results are in. Very frustrating.