Cystic Fybrosis- Coeliac Disease

[mrsforgetful]

my friend has a year old baby- and basically he's now being tested for these - however wondered if you 'experts' can give me some info for her.

he basically vomits almost all he eats- it is unpredictable- and seems regardless of what he has eaten- did a food diary etc.

in 6 weeks he lost 4lb in weight and this week in 5 days he has lost 3oz.

sometimes he simply flops on the floor -he is so weak and tired. he is also understandably a fretful baby.

thanks

all i know ia CF has something to do with enzymes...and i've avoided looking it up on the web as i'm sure to 'read and worry'

A friend's child has CF and I know when her second child was born and needed to be tested she spent a good deal of time licking the childs face as CF suffers tend to "taste" salty. She was fine.

Hello MrsF.

CF is a deficiency of an ion channel, so that the electrolyte balance in the lungs is wrong (hence the salt business), leaving people with very sticky mucus and making them much more prone to bacterial infections. In some children there are problems with the pancreas too, making digestion harder. This can be treated reasonably well with dietary supplements, and antibiotic treatment for the lung infections, along with physiotherapy to bring up the mucus, can help a lot. The average lifespan is 30-40 nowadays- not great, but so much better than if it's untreated. I would ay 1 year is pretty late to be diagnosed nowadays, by now means impossible, but it may well mean that even if he has it he will have a milder form.

Coeliac disease is quite different, caused by an intolerance to certain substances, but not life-threatening.

I hope he turns out to be fine; it's better that they sort out what's wrong though. I'll try and answer any questions!

thanks to you both- i spoke to her today and she said she just sits and watches him eating the few things he enjoys-chips,crisps and bread.

can CF cause vomiting?

I hope it is 'just' an intolerance to food- though if so not chips bread and crisps as thet is all he wants to eat.

I wouldn't have thought it would cause much vomiting at this stage. It can do in newborns who have meconium ileus (blocked intestine) as a complication of CF, but that would have been picked up yonks ago. I feel really horrible for saying this, given how worried she is, but I would be very wary of giving a child that age crisps, I can't imagine the salt is doing him any good. I don't mean that that's what's causing it, but I don't think it can be helping. Don't mean to be judgemental though, it must be awful for her.

is there any thing else that would drive a child thatyoung to salty foods?