IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) in a 9yr old girl....anyone else have a child with IBS?

[whispywhisp]

My 9yr old daughter has IBS. She has been under a consultant and our GP since December when IBS was diagnosed. She has been on medication ever since - Colofac but is now on the slow-release equivalent which means just two tablets a day - one in the morning and one just before tea-time, whereas before she was taking 3 tablets a day, one of which had to be given at school.

Anyway....I would dearly love to get her off ALL tablets but each time I try this she gets dreadful diarrhoea and the stomach pain she has suffered with in the past comes back - its pain around the belly button area.

I am very careful as to what she has to eat - she can tolerate dairy but in small quantities. She has been tested for CD - neg. She was rushed into hospital just before Xmas because she collapsed at the top of the stairs due to being so ill with diarrhoea bout after diarrhoea bout - and she became so weak her major organs were beginning to fail. Fortunately with a spell in hospital and with the right medication she is now ok but anyone got any ideas how I can get her off the tablets without her becoming ill...we have tried so many times - I normally try during a half-term break so she doesn't miss school and after a couple of days with no tablets we're back to square one.

My GP isn't concerned that she remains on the tablets - he's put them on a repeat prescription and to continue with them but I'd love her to just go back to normal and not have to keep taking them.

Anyone else had this especially with a child so young? TIA. xxx

Anyone?

sorry I'm no help at all but I'll bump for the evening crew

cd tests are unreliable in children, you could go wheat/gluten free to see if it helps
I am afraid drugs are only covering up symptoms, so she is unlikely to improve unless you find the cause

how awful. Are you sure she doesn't have a candida infection?

To be honest no one has actually diagnosed IBS as such...the consultant held his hands up and said 'I don't know' so told me to go back to the GP - it was the GP who referred us to the consultant in the first place. So you could say the tablets she is taking are simply helping the situation but if she comes off of them, and boy have we tried, she ends up with bad stomach ache (belly button area) and diarrhoea. We cut out dairy for quite a while which did definitely help but with the tablets she was able to take dairy in small quantities. I know taking a tablet in the morning and one in the evening is no big deal but for a 9yr old otherwise healthy girl?

Perhaps I need to go back to the GP and ask what else we can do because, I as her Mum, want her off the tablets but don't want her ill.

I would get a book about candida, and read up on the symptoms, just to be sure it isn't that. It can come out of the blue, with no apparent trigger.

Otherwise, I'm not sure, but understand why you are worried. If you were in Germany, they would not stop looking or testing until they found the reason why, but I guess that probably isnt much help to you.

(I mean candida infection in the gut, not thrush, naturally.)

I would def try wheat and gluten free - I have a couple of friends who had bad IBS/colitis, and who have complete relief from doing a wf/gf diet, and no longer take medication.

It isn't the easiest diet in the world, but as long as you are careful to make it balanced, it can't do any harm to try.

I'm really ignorant when it comes to finding wheat/gluten free foods....I need to start reading labels! Fortunately she eats exceptionally well - she loves her fruit and will eat every vegetable going...I have always tried to keep her on a natural diet as much as possible.

Its very hard tho when your own GP says keep her on the tablets and I want her off of them but as soon as she comes off of them she's ill...even with a relatively natural diet.

My other daughter, who is only 4yrs, was lactose intolerant from a few weeks old up until she was 2yrs old. She would be so ill with any formula and cows milk so I had to bring her up on prescription soya formula and soya alternatives in foods. She would be sick, have dreadful diarrhoea and eczema.

Could the two be linked? IE could it be genetic? I know DD1 who has the IBS is a lot older but it just seems coincidence (and also bad luck!) that both have been and are ill with food related problems.

we have a lot of food related problems in our family.
Most of us are lactose intolerant (have no lactase, apparently). I was allergic to wheat when younger, still show a half reaction. Different symptoms to what you describe though.
I also had the candida infection when younger,which was yeast getting out of control in the gut.

There does seem to be a common thread of flora/fauna in the gut being out of sync, and lacking enzymes?

I dont know enough about it to be more helpful, though sorry.

The things you can have of wf/gf is longer than what you can't - fruit, veg, dairy, meat, fish, rice, corn, millet, quinoa, potatoes, buckwheat. You can't have wheat, barley, rye or oats, so you can't eat mainstream bread, biscuits, cakes, pasta, soy sauce, sausages etc. The good news is that all of these are available as gf either online, in specialist shops, or in the Free From aisle of most of the supermarkets. Everything prepackaged now has to tell you whether it contains gluten or wheat, so it really is a matter of reading labels.
If you already eat a fairly natural diet, you'll have no problems at all cooking at home.

Allergies/intolerances do have a genetic basis - you get the predisposition to have allergies, and its the pick of the draw what your body decides it doesn't like.
Dairy intolerance often goes along with other food intolerances as the villi in the gut get damaged and stop producing lactase.