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Stomach pain and Diabetes
My child often complains of stomach aches - which I can relate it to having a low. However, once in a while (since he's been diagnosed 6 years ago) he has bad pain just below his belly button and this last Saturday was the first time I've seen him bent over. Although by the time we see a dr. the pain is gone no one seems overly concerned but it's not normal. Has any one had this and what is the cause and what can we do to eliminate this happening again. Something tells me it's in relation to his Diabetes but am not certain.
This happened to my daughter and after tests for celiacs. then the dr mentioned the high sugar alcohols in sugarfree candies and products can give them a stomachache , we did then notice a corralation.
My daughter had daily stomach aches for years and was diagnosed with IBS. Upper and lower GI tests showed nothing. We tried going 100% gluten free and her stomach aches have been alleviated. Gluten SENSITIVITY or INTOLERANCE do not show up on tests for celiac. Try going 100% gluten free for a few months. It is hard at first, but you can do it. my kitchen is a GF kitchen and we are all healthier.
Everything that you have said about Em is what we are experiencing with Lexie. She is 6 years old and was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes 1 1/2 years ago. Just a month ago she started complaining about stomach pain around her belly button. She only complains when she's really in pain. She also loves school and have been missing a lot of school because of the pain. At first it started out happening about every few days then it got more and more and now it was happening constantly. She said that she was always in pain but at times it would hurt very badly. It seemed to be morning and night and everytime she ate food. So she started not eating very much. She thin any way so she lost about 2 lbs over the past month.
We took her to the pediatrician and they did an X ray of her stomach area and a blood test to test her pancrease to rule out pancreatitus. They also tested for bacteria in her stomach/blood stream. All tests came back normal. He put her on Prevacid.
So we kept track of her blood sugar, keytones and food eaten. I did this for a week and then called her Endocrinologist. I faxed them the log and they said that they didn't feel it was diabetes related and told us to go back to her pediatrician and have him do a Celiac test.
We went back in to see her doctor and he took some more blood to do the Celiac test. While at the doctors she seemed in no pain. This happened all of the time. No one seemed to be witnessing the pain she gets in so it seemed that no one belives us. The pediatrician increased her Prevacid to 2 pills a day. I had tried Prevacid for a week now with no change in the pain. I tried Tums and Peptobismo. Neither helped the pain. I tried childrens Tylenol (doesn't help). I also tried Hydrocodone (she had this from when she broke her leg) and it didn't phase the pain and infact she said it made it worse.
So when we were leaving her doctors after the blood test for the Celiac, she doubled over in pain. She was getting in the car and had just shut the door and was screaming. I thought that she had shut her hand in the door. When she could finally talk she said it was her stomach. Of course I was panicking and was going to rush her to the hospital. I thought it may be her appendix. It ended up subsiding so I took her home but she was very lathargic and wouldn't eat. We took her to the childrens hospital that night.
They did a blood test and a CT Scan and tested for all kinds of things. All came back normal. While we were there the pain was gone. So all the doctors saw was a little girl with nothing wrong with her. It's been very frustrating. They ended up saying that her bowels were slightly impacted (but she was always having daily bowel movements). So they gave her an enima and sent us home. So we still have no answers after all of this.
We started exploring the posibility that it was in her head and possibly stress related to school. Although we noted that over the holiday while she was out of school it continues to happen. So that kind of discounts that. Her blood sugar has been high for no reason. I'm going to start watching for it to go high then bottom out and then get normal and see if that is when the pain happens. She has had some keytones but not consistant.
She's back at school and having less pain but she went through about 2 days of no pain and then it was back at one point. So I'm not confident that this is over. Nothing helps the pain at all. If we could just at least get her some relief from the pain, that would be better then nothing since no one can figure this out. It's bad enough that she has to got through shots and finger pricks but now stomach pain. What more could a 6 year old go through. I just am so frustrated and concerned.
We feel so alone but reading everyone's emails make me feel slightly better. At least we are pretty sure that this ISN'T all in her head. What's hard is the lack of help we got from her diabetes team. The doctor is really, really good but very busy and didn't provide much help to us. I would think that he'd be familiar with the stomach pain related to diabetes. Reading all of this sounds like there are lots of people going through this. Surely someone has figured this out.
Meanwhile, our tiny daughter is in pain and we are attempting to get her mind off of things and get her back in school so that she's not behind and left out of life with friends and class mates during the holidays. She seems to be a little better but what the heck caused all of this???!!!
What I'm wondering is if this might have anything to do with her pancrease finally shutting down completely. We've been in the "honeymoon" period all this time and with the blood sugars going high for no reason, I'm wondering if possibly the stomach pain is related to the extrem highs then lows and the hights might be caused by her pancrease completely shutting down. We have started increasing the insulin over the past 2 weeks but are going slow since shes so young. Don't want an extreme low in the middle of the night. It's happened a few times and she hasn't woke up every time.
I'm just frustrated that we're having to diagnose this all by ourselves. Good luck everyone who is going through this same thing. My heart goes out to you and your kids!
We took her to the pediatrician and they did an X ray of her stomach area and a blood test to test her pancrease to rule out pancreatitus. They also tested for bacteria in her stomach/blood stream. All tests came back normal. He put her on Prevacid.
So we kept track of her blood sugar, keytones and food eaten. I did this for a week and then called her Endocrinologist. I faxed them the log and they said that they didn't feel it was diabetes related and told us to go back to her pediatrician and have him do a Celiac test.
We went back in to see her doctor and he took some more blood to do the Celiac test. While at the doctors she seemed in no pain. This happened all of the time. No one seemed to be witnessing the pain she gets in so it seemed that no one belives us. The pediatrician increased her Prevacid to 2 pills a day. I had tried Prevacid for a week now with no change in the pain. I tried Tums and Peptobismo. Neither helped the pain. I tried childrens Tylenol (doesn't help). I also tried Hydrocodone (she had this from when she broke her leg) and it didn't phase the pain and infact she said it made it worse.
So when we were leaving her doctors after the blood test for the Celiac, she doubled over in pain. She was getting in the car and had just shut the door and was screaming. I thought that she had shut her hand in the door. When she could finally talk she said it was her stomach. Of course I was panicking and was going to rush her to the hospital. I thought it may be her appendix. It ended up subsiding so I took her home but she was very lathargic and wouldn't eat. We took her to the childrens hospital that night.
They did a blood test and a CT Scan and tested for all kinds of things. All came back normal. While we were there the pain was gone. So all the doctors saw was a little girl with nothing wrong with her. It's been very frustrating. They ended up saying that her bowels were slightly impacted (but she was always having daily bowel movements). So they gave her an enima and sent us home. So we still have no answers after all of this.
We started exploring the posibility that it was in her head and possibly stress related to school. Although we noted that over the holiday while she was out of school it continues to happen. So that kind of discounts that. Her blood sugar has been high for no reason. I'm going to start watching for it to go high then bottom out and then get normal and see if that is when the pain happens. She has had some keytones but not consistant.
She's back at school and having less pain but she went through about 2 days of no pain and then it was back at one point. So I'm not confident that this is over. Nothing helps the pain at all. If we could just at least get her some relief from the pain, that would be better then nothing since no one can figure this out. It's bad enough that she has to got through shots and finger pricks but now stomach pain. What more could a 6 year old go through. I just am so frustrated and concerned.
We feel so alone but reading everyone's emails make me feel slightly better. At least we are pretty sure that this ISN'T all in her head. What's hard is the lack of help we got from her diabetes team. The doctor is really, really good but very busy and didn't provide much help to us. I would think that he'd be familiar with the stomach pain related to diabetes. Reading all of this sounds like there are lots of people going through this. Surely someone has figured this out.
Meanwhile, our tiny daughter is in pain and we are attempting to get her mind off of things and get her back in school so that she's not behind and left out of life with friends and class mates during the holidays. She seems to be a little better but what the heck caused all of this???!!!
What I'm wondering is if this might have anything to do with her pancrease finally shutting down completely. We've been in the "honeymoon" period all this time and with the blood sugars going high for no reason, I'm wondering if possibly the stomach pain is related to the extrem highs then lows and the hights might be caused by her pancrease completely shutting down. We have started increasing the insulin over the past 2 weeks but are going slow since shes so young. Don't want an extreme low in the middle of the night. It's happened a few times and she hasn't woke up every time.
I'm just frustrated that we're having to diagnose this all by ourselves. Good luck everyone who is going through this same thing. My heart goes out to you and your kids!
1 Comments
Sounds like gastro persis. It's a neuropathy related complication of type one diabetes. Take her to gastroestoalist who knows Endocrinolgy as well. Has your daughter ever had a C-pepetide test?? She may need to find out what her antibodies are in relationship to her natural insulin production.
To all the people with type one and stomach pain. Deffidently bring up celiac desiese with your doctor. 1 in about 33 diabetics have it and its very underdiagnosed. Unless you bring it up you may end up having loads of unnecessary tests.
Some of this is redundant - I posted it on a different comment trail as well.
Hello - I am the parent of a 9 y.o. with diabetes (originally said to be type 1 but now they are looking into MODY). Our daughter is not Celiac -
She has a very high pain tolerance but has had intermitent bouts with stomach pain over the past year and a half - which is when her diabetes started.
OUR pediatrician and endocrine both state that they "don't think her stomach pain is related to her diabetes" - I know it is - she NEVER had this pain especially this often before her diabetes.
I can say that we have gotten to a point of nearly ZERO stomach aches and pains by either removing or significantly reducing her intake of dairy (milk and cheese), processed foods, high wheat foods and complex carbs (bread, pasta, white rice etc). We also increased her intake of fresh fruits, veggies and natural foods. And added a fiber supplement (benefiber) just to help her body with digestion and processing what she does eat. Her body did not have any problems diagesting the foods that she struggles with now before her diabetes.
The pancreas has multiple functions in that it produces and secretes hormones (including insulin) and digestive enzymes necessary to break down carbs, protein and fat.
I actually found this website just this evening looking for some type of study about the pancreas and its' other functions and how it could affect a person with insulin dependent diabetes.....
We are 100% sure that this has helped our daughter - but I am determined to find a study or something to help substantiate our findings so that I can forward that information to other parents that deal with our same frustrations.
It is such a powerless feeling to just watch my daughter in pain. We are new to diabetes (11 months) but we have always been a very nutritionally conscious family.
By keeping her diet clean and simple - we have made a huge difference in our daughters stomach aches.
If we all keep reaching out to one another and working toward gaining more knowledge and empowering ourselves - hopefully we can figure this out so that our children don't have to suffer......as KManis stated above - It is diffucult enough to see your child suffer with diabetes.
Hello - I am the parent of a 9 y.o. with diabetes (originally said to be type 1 but now they are looking into MODY). Our daughter is not Celiac -
She has a very high pain tolerance but has had intermitent bouts with stomach pain over the past year and a half - which is when her diabetes started.
OUR pediatrician and endocrine both state that they "don't think her stomach pain is related to her diabetes" - I know it is - she NEVER had this pain especially this often before her diabetes.
I can say that we have gotten to a point of nearly ZERO stomach aches and pains by either removing or significantly reducing her intake of dairy (milk and cheese), processed foods, high wheat foods and complex carbs (bread, pasta, white rice etc). We also increased her intake of fresh fruits, veggies and natural foods. And added a fiber supplement (benefiber) just to help her body with digestion and processing what she does eat. Her body did not have any problems diagesting the foods that she struggles with now before her diabetes.
The pancreas has multiple functions in that it produces and secretes hormones (including insulin) and digestive enzymes necessary to break down carbs, protein and fat.
I actually found this website just this evening looking for some type of study about the pancreas and its' other functions and how it could affect a person with insulin dependent diabetes.....
We are 100% sure that this has helped our daughter - but I am determined to find a study or something to help substantiate our findings so that I can forward that information to other parents that deal with our same frustrations.
It is such a powerless feeling to just watch my daughter in pain. We are new to diabetes (11 months) but we have always been a very nutritionally conscious family.
By keeping her diet clean and simple - we have made a huge difference in our daughters stomach aches.
If we all keep reaching out to one another and working toward gaining more knowledge and empowering ourselves - hopefully we can figure this out so that our children don't have to suffer......as KManis stated above - It is diffucult enough to see your child suffer with diabetes.
My son was diagnosed this past July with juvenile diabetes, he will be 3 October 11th. He complains of stomach pain EVERY day. I am very concerned. I tried to address this with his pediatric endo however when i mentioned it to her she told em to speak to his pediatrician which I found a bit bothersome. I was confused by that because, every time we had a visit with the endo they always ask about stomach pain, well if they are asking they must know something about it yet she referred me to his reg Dr. After speaking with the pediatrician, she first asked we keep a journal of when he gets stomach pain and any other info about that time that may be helpful. She then contacted a GI Dr. they asked her to have us get some blood work done as there are a few things that have been associated with diabetes. As I read above, the gluten intolerance, celiac disease, but she also mentioned something with the liver could cause it, as well as something with his pancreas function that has also been known to not only cause pain in the stomach but through to the back as well. We have not had the blood test yet, she said wait until we go into the endo next week and they will have to stick him for the ac1 test so they can just draw it at the same time. So for those of you not knowing what route to take maybe talk to your pediatrician or go straight to the pediatric GI Dr...It is difficult enough to see your child suffer with diabetes.
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