Advice please

[greenbexy]

My son of sixteen keeps getting an upset stomach, diarrhoea, abdominal pain etc. with no explanation. He has had them on and off since he was around 11 years (I thought he might just be susceptible to childhood bugs). He gets these horrible sulphur burps, which he now he is older he finds rather embarrassing! I've made an appointment with the doctor, I was just wondering if anyone else has suffered from them on their quest for good digestive health? I have looked into some of the symptoms of coeliac, but he doesn't seem to get many apart from the obvious digestive issues. The only other thing that I have noticed is he has a spotty rash-like on both elbows and both bum cheeks, that he has only just disclosed to me. Any thoughts?

[pretender]

You need to get him referred to a gastroenterologist about his stomach and maybe keeping a food diary might find a cause, a Dermatologist for the rash, photographs of the rash might help a diagnosis.

[Regalbirdy]

Hi,

Well done for making a doctor's appointment. As you may have read elsewhere already, the first thing to get your son to ask for is a coeliac blood test.

I didn't start displaying any of the 'classic' coeliac symptoms until I was in my mid 20's, and even those I chalked up to having an intolerance to milk (which I did also have - but it was caused by being an undiagnosed Coeliac!). With the benefit of hindsight, all sorts of symptoms from age 7 onwards now make much more sense. For example, dental enamel defects, anemia, seriously offensive toilet smells, brain fog and late puberty being amongst them.

Do not take gluten out of his diet until all tests are completed. If he was to test positive for Coeliac Disease, he may need an endoscopy. For this (and for the blood test) to give a true result, gluten has to be present in the diet.

Good luck, I hope you get the answers you are looking for.

[Gigi1214]

My son had similar issues and took to GI could not figure it out. Allergist tested and he came back with gluten and yeast allergy among some other things as well.