Help! Child feeling fullness after eating.

[JG27]

Hello everyone

I’m really looking to see if anyone has been in a similar situation and what the outcome was. My daughter is experiencing fullness after eating and a lot and a tightness around her tummy. We have ruled out coeliac and she’s currently on omeprazole as prescribed by her doctor but this doesn’t seem to be helping! She is wanting to eat and has become low in herself that she is experiencing this intense level of fullness, nausea and sometimes pain after food. She is losing weight due to not being able to eat very much, the fullness and tightness kicks in after a very small amount of food. Has anyone been through similar and if so, what was the outcome?

Sorry not same symptoms, but experiencing a frustrating time with getting a diagnosis for something different for my kid.
Be the squeaky wheel. "This is affecting her daily life, she can't attend school, she cannot get enough nutrition" seemed to be what I needed to say. You can ask for a different Dr too.

Is it happening with everything she eats? Soup? For ages my dd could only eat a smooth soup thickened with a little potato to get her nutrients and any calories, though still lost some weight it did slow. Half a cup at a time. Avoid broccoli, cauliflower, onion and garlic in it.

Have they ruled out constipation (can get worse with omeprozole so keep an eye on that) and h pylori?

Is she experiencing anxiety about anything?

No anxiety and is generally very happy at school with a great group of friends. Will give soup a go and see how that goes and will keep pushing the doctors! She was tested for h pylori on Saturday and we’re awaiting results, fingers crossed they come soon!

i would advise you to do some research into Gastroparesis.

My daughter has just been diagnosed with this - it took 5 years to the diagnosis and she has been pretty poorly.

The test to diagnose it is a gastric emptying study, but as it’s a rare illness lots of other things will be considered first.

There are a number of things it could be, so prepare for the long haul in testing, but be persistent. For a long time many doctors insisted it was anxiety for my daughter, but I persisted and had to push hard to get her diagnosis.

Good luck - I hope you get answers faster than I did!

I was looking into this last night. How do you manage her meals with gastroparesis? What are the treatment options? Does your daughter find that she’s full immediately and how quickly does the pain and fullness subside? Sorry for all of the questions!!

We’re very early on in this journey as she was only diagnosed very recently (although I suspected this diagnosis for a few years).

She has been prescribed a motility medication to help food move through her stomach, but she only started this last week so we haven’t seen results yet.

I'm also working on food with her - as it’s taken so long to get a diagnosis she has developed some disordered eating, so it’s going to be a long process.

It is suggested to eat little and often and easily digestible food, low in fibre.

However I would urge you to get medical advice - also get her B12 and iron levels checked. If she isn’t getting enough nutrition and these levels get low, it will make her feel even worse…