4.5 year-old with pale poo ... is it something to worry about?

[imaginaryfriend]

My dd's been having pretty beige-coloured poo and lots of them, 4-5 a day, not runny though. She now and then says her tummy hurts but hasn't been sick or seemed to have a tummy bug.

Is this anything to worry about or shall I stop thinking about it?

Sorry if too much info.

also, his are mostly v v dry, quite often just a collection of pressed togetehr stones IYSWIM (apologies for graphic explanation there)...
he does drink a lot of milk. loads. so that could explain the colour (a long term thing btw)
does this add up to a likely intolerance? or prob not...
(do tell me to bugger off if im asking stupid questions btw)

sassari, I am only a fledgling pale poo expert I'm afraid so I don't have any answers to your question. I've wondered about wheat intolerance too but I thought that usually that led to very watery poos rather than constipated ones. And I've never heard of pale ones particularly being to do with wheat intolerance. This is total conjecture based on memory of various things read at various points over the last 4.5 years however so not to be relied upon. Perhaps you could yourself add to our growing pool of wisdom (I was so tempted to write 'poo of wisdom' then which goes to show I really do spend too much time with someone under 5) and find out if pale poo is connected to wheat intolerance?

How pale are his poos by the way? dd's are a kind of very pale beige, sandy-coloured, neither loose nor overly firm. I remember her having exceedingly pale ones after gastroenteritis, almost cream-coloured, but these are a bit darker so I'm hoping we might have skipped a tummy bug.

Fingers crossed!

lol. and i still did toilet humour as an adult before having dc, so dont be hard on yourself

um, w regard to colour, hes anywhere on a scale really of v pale creamy colour to fairly normal looking pooy brown. ive kind of noticed it for a long time coz someone (doc? mw? cant rmemeber) said once when one of them was a newborn i think that v pale poo was something to be worried about. ive since not really had much feedback about it tho tbh, vaguely remember being looked at oddly upon mention of pale poo... so i just kind of notice but get on with it now.

yr post is reasonably reasurring actually, but i guess i should send off for a york test thingy. they can do it once they are over 2 and he is now so...

anything i learn, poo fans, i'll let y'all know ok?

DD1 had the perfect poo today not sure what that was all about

I would definitely get her checked for gluten intolerance- coeliac disease.

um... would this test tell me anything i need to know?

anyone klnow?

Yes, what is this york test thingy?

hillary, dd has yet to produce today. I'll be sure to tell you the full colour and consistency details later when she's home from school ... ... Gosh they'd hate us for this when they're older wouldn't they?!

Two hundred and forty two quid?!? And just from a sample of blood on a bit of cotton wool? I'm truly not convinced that's a good way to spend my hard-earned dosh.

Can't the GP do something like this?

240? isnt there a sinpler cheaper one, which tells you if you need to do the 240 one?
if so, would it be good enough?

i should just take him to the sodding gp, shouldnt i? sigh. always feel such a twit at the docs for some reason...

Me too. I imagine they inwardly sigh when I walk in with dd. And asking about things like pale poo seems kind of vague.

york tests aren't medically proven - go to the GP if you are worried about food allergies/intolerances (esp if it is in a child - in an adult, you could always try and cut the food out for a bit to see how you feel unless you are worried about coeliac disease and then it's prob better to go to the GP)

here's the BBC consumer thing on these food intolerance tests (incl York tests) - it's not a long article

hah! thanks for that foxi.
i am so bloody gullible. i feel like i should ask mn before i do anything these days!

Poo report: Much the same as yesterday, a good colour but slightly 'urgent' consistency if you see what I mean?

I'm feeling a bit queasy myself though ... hope I haven't picked up a latent bug ... urg ...

nooo dither, don't feel like that, just didn't want you to spend £240 on something that may not have even given you useful answers that's all!

hope all those with dodgy tums start feeling better soon

sorry foxi - caught me at a bad moment!

annyhoo - took him to the doc today and lo and behold, she looked at me like i was a nutter, again, and said hes absolutely fine so long as hes meeting his develpoment milestones blah blah ..to which i replied 'oh blimey i dont bother with all that nonsense' ...which made her look at me like i was a nutter again...

anyway, short version is; she doesnt think pale stools, dry stools and hard tummy add up to anything to worry about. (then of course, she felt his tummy which wasnt hard at all. just to confirm that i am indeed, a nutter.)

ho hum!

and i meant to say thank you actually foxi, for saving me the money and stress of buying a pointless test which would tell me nothing useful!

It's awful isn't it dither? That look the GPs give you! I've avoided going with dd about this for just that reason.

On the subject of poo ... Dd's still having semi-explosive diarrhea and complaining about her tummy and I've been feeling yuck too. So maybe this was a sign of a kind of bug.