Talk to me about diagnosis in children

Hi almost30, I have had similar concerns about my eldest daughter. She is following the same pattern I did as a pre-teen and now teen, in terms of stomach issues. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 39, so I am concerned that my daughter doesn't have to live with undiagnosed disease like I did.

On the other hand, my MIL has terrible reflux. So my daughter has issues on both sides of her genetic tree, and in addition to that, Crohn's in a parent is not a guarantee of Crohn's in a child. In fact, in my family, only me and one 2nd cousin have Crohn's.

My process for dealing with my daughter's issues (general and frequent complaints of stomach aches, random bloody stools, loss of appetite) was to really wait until there was a significant issue to deal with. I told her ped that she had random bloody stools and he wasn't worried. But when she was turning 10 and stopped eating, lost about 10 lb, that got the ped's attention.

We got a referral to a pediatric GI and ultimately got her an endoscopy. She had inflammation in the esophagus (but not a lot) and in the duodenum (also not a lot). The GI disregarded the duodenum (lots of people apparently walking around with inflammation there but no complaints!) and focused on the esophagus. He'd put a sensor in during the scope and afterward reported limited reflux. So we treated her for reflux. It took about a year for her to recover completely. Now she's almost 13, takes no ppi, but will use maalox occasionally. She has modified her diet according to what she thinks bothers her. She is pretty much lactose-free.

Her ped GI has talked with her about the bloody stool, too. My daughter also has mucous on her stool. I think I agree with the GI in that this seems to be an issue with stool hardness. She doesn't eat enough fiber or drink enough water. The GI wanted her to really focus on this for a while, but heck, she's 12 and had little interest, so we don't really talk about it much.

In looking back at my own life and at my daughter's experience, I think a lot of the issues at age 10 were related to the onset of puberty. There are a ton of hormonal changes going on, and they all affect the way your digestive system works. I know I had terrible reflux during pregnancy. I imagine that my daughter will, too. Now that my daughter is pretty much through the major changes she has few complaints about her stomach.

So my advice to you is talk to your ped, and make a decision about how much testing you want to do based on how your daughter's life is affected by whatever is going on in her belly.

Thank you for the advice. I will bring it up at her next annual exam. I agree with the waiting until she says something. Right now it doesn't bother her and will only complain that her "butt is itchy" on occassion. That could be from the fissure or just not wiping good enough.

Thanks again guys.