United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My 20 month old daughter Mackenzie, ROBPI, has been having some digestive issues going on. I strictly breastfed her up until she was 12 months old and she did fine with that and in fact did not spit up as much as my other two children did. But for the last 8 months since she's been on solid food she's been sick alot, where she throws up and has loose stools a few days a week. The first time it happened we thought she had the flu. When she had another episode of it we discovered through testing that she had a milk allergy and we've now got that taken care of. But even with her on a lactose free diet she is still vomiting etc. several times a week, is not gaining weight, and has been hospitalized for dehydration. I think I've read on here before where sometimes a person's diaphragm was damaged with this injury so I was wondering if there was a chance that all of this sickness is related to her injury. Have any of you had problems like this with your children? I'm at a loss as to what to do to help my daughter and would appreciate any ideas/help. It's been so hard to keep her on a clear liquid diet any time her stomach flares up, at the doctor's request, when she's crying and crying for real food.

I am not a doctor, but I think you need to keep looking at Mackenzie's diet.

Have you looked into Celiac Disease? This is where they can't eat gluten. Mind you, gluten is in EVERYTHING and going gluten-free isn't easy. I know a mom who does it though and her son is healthy and pain free. There is a test for this. Perhaps it wasn't the milk, but the gluten. His didn't show up until he was eating solid food.

I would keep investigating. Sometimes with issues like these (with broad symptoms) you really have to keep on top of your doctor. You might also try going gluten-free to see if that works. Go to a store like Whole Foods, they have a lot of gluten free products.

good luck,
claudia

Teresa I think that if this were related to her BPI it would have shown up before now - most of the kids I know of with diaphragm issues ( including my own son) had these problems straight away and were on medication or had surgery within about 6-8 months as the child fails to gain weight and vomits large amounts by a couple of weeks old.
It wouldn't hurt to get it checked out by a Doctor anyway.
Hope this info reassures you a little
Karen

We had something simular happen with our daughter (she does not have bpi.) it happened when she was a bit younger but started about 10 days after her 1st set of vaccines so we corrilated it to her having a reaction to her vaccines and it was confirmed by a holistic doctor. As she got to be a bit older(12 months) and I started to add food to her diet she had simular symtoms as your child (along with blood in stool. The ped. suggested to continue nursing until she could handle food. I nursed her until 18 months and she began to handle foods then w/o any food allergies. We also took her to a NAET doctor(naet.com) for allergy treatments as a baby. Hope this helps.

OPPS...I have a correction to my post above.

My Daughter actually nursed until age 3 but never started to eat solid food until 18 months.

My son had digestive problems from about 6 months on. He went from 75th percentile in weight to zero, off the scale by the time he was one. It was awful, so I know how you feel. What I'd recommend is getting to a pediatric gastroenterologist. They deal with digestive problems, etc. We also saw a nutritionist and an endocronoligist. It took a year and several tests, unfortunately, before we pinned down the problem. Turned out to be reflux, but he wasn't vomiting after he ate. He just hardly ate anything. He got put on Zantac liquid and "high calorie" diet and thank goodness gained the weight. He's now 3 and in the 25th percentile. We think he's just going to be thin guy, but at least he eats normally now. Contact me if you need more info on tests, doctors, etc.

Sounds a lot like my son as well. We went through tons of testing and it just ended up being your good old reflux. He stopped losing weight around 18 months and started gaining pretty steadily after that, but I have heard of people up to 3 years old still growing out of it. My son still has a "weak stomach" when other things are going on like teething or other illness. Good luck, it will get better. We also took him to see pediatric gastroenterologists and had him on medication (Zantac didn't work for him so we had to go with Prevacid, which made a huge difference).