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Stomach pains after eating sugar

My 6 year old daughter has been complaining of stomach pains after eating certain foods for about 12 months or so (not long after we moved to the USA from Australia).  The only common thread in the offending foods seems to be processed sugar (it started with ice-cream, which she won't eat anymore due to the pain, but now it's candy or anything else that is high in processed sugar).  Tonight she had two Swedish Fish candies and, almost immediately, the stomach pain started.  I will often make her a banana smoothie for breakfast (milk, banana and honey) which she's fine with and she loves yoghurt so I've ruled out dairy.  It just seems to be junkie food that her body can't process.  She says she also feels nauseus and has vomitted a couple of times (after visiting Grandma's house where she gets loaded up with candy, chocolate milk etc etc).  If she's only had a small amount of sugar and has the pain she will ask to take a bowl to bed with her, although she rarely ends up vomitting in those situations.  She says the pain is on the inside, right around her belly button, and above it, but she holds her shirt up because she says it's also tender on the outside.  She's got a very small frame and doesn't eat all that much.  Her eating isn't terrible - I can usually get her to eat some vegetables each day, plus fruit etc (all of which is fine for her) so I don't think it's constipation.  I think her bowel movements are normal (she's very private about that) but I have noticed on ocassions that she has very smelly gas (as in more so than normal...).  Any ideas?
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231441 tn?1333892766
COMMUNITY LEADER
Many foods in the US have high fructose corn syrup added (much more so than in Australia), so it is possible she is reacting to this.  There are also many additives, and it is possible she is also reacting to these.

I think the best approach is to avoid offending foods.  Please read labels and avoid HFCS and added sugars as much as possible.

Hope she feels better.

It probably would not be a bad idea to have her blood sugar / hba1c tested in the future if she is having blood drawn for any reason.
Helpful - 0
4851940 tn?1515694593
Sorry to hear about your daughter being unwell.

Get her stools checked out for thread worms and other parasites.
If she has an infection of worms or parasites, that can give a child terrible tummy pains.  My daughter went through a similar thing with swollen tummy glands, a high fever and painful tummy.  It wasn't until she had to use the toilet urgently, that I saw what the problem was.  So it worth checking it out, just as a precaution.

With the sugary foods, if she is OK with a little normal sugar, it would then be highly likely to be an allergy to the chemicals, additives and colourants.

Although in some respects it is a good thing that she won't sugar foods, there may be an underlying cause.

Book an appointment to see the doctor and get your daughter checked out for diabetes.  Unfortunately glucose intolerance, pre diabetes and diabetes and happen to anyone at any age.

Best of luck and best wishes.
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Avatar universal
Oh, and I need to add that she was hospitalized for two nights at the end of January with what seemed to be Mysenteric Lymphadenitis (that was the best guess diagnosis the doctors could give me at the time).  She had a very high fever, abdominal pain, very high wbc count.  Ultra sound showed up inflamed lymph nodes plus appendix but the test for mono came back negative, as did all other tests (blood tests, swabs etc etc).  I've never been sure whether that illness was related to the on-going stomach pain she has that I've referred to in my question above...
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