kind of OT ... two-year-old with mucousy stools ...

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I have my 5 1/2-yo ASD son on the SCD diet. He is tube fed so I really

haven't had to worry much about presentation, taste, etc. We have been

going about 6 weeks now and I do have questions regarding him but will

post under a different thread ...

My question right now is regarding my younger son. He has been having

increasingly mucousy stools, often with red, blistering diaper rash

resulting but not always. They look a lot like rotavirus stools but he

has not had any of the other symptoms - no fever, no reduced appetite,

no explosive diarrhea (he has anywhere from 1-4 of these stools a day)

and no one else in the house has had similar problems. His stool

changes started about a month ago with alternating between runny stools

with lots of undigested food and the mucousy stools. He hasn't had a

normal stool in several weeks now. At this point he pretty much has

mucous in all his stools, not so much indigested foods but lots of

sticky black flecks of something at times, and other times just kind of

a puddle of brown mucousy goo. I do give him probiotics but he is not

on the SCD diet right now. He is dairy intolerant but did not test

allergic to dairy. He does not get any dairy products right now and

actually will refuse to eat even goat yogurt (commercial is all we have

tried with him so far) or goat milk.

The only other change is the decrease in the amount of breastmilk he

has been getting. I am about 14 weeks pregnant and my milk supply has

diminished noticeably over the past few weeks. I do usually avoid

dairy, since in the past it has bothered him even through my

breastmilk. I have tried eating small amounts of cheese or yogurt in

the past few months and it seemed to bother him less but now I'm

wondering if this isn't in response to my own dairy. I have stopped

eating it again to see if it helps - I haven't noticed an obvious

direct correlation and he has been sleeping fairly well, which in the

past he would sleep terribly if I ate anything with dairy in it at

all. He has had lots of trouble with reflux in the past, and it seems

to bother him off and on now but not all the time. He is currently not

taking any medication for reflux.

I would like to try him on the SCD diet, but am not sure about

switching over myself since I am pregnant. I know the diet itself is

safe, but is it realistic to try to make the switch at this point? I

know my son will not want to wean and I really didn't want to wean him

until he was ready. (He is just over 2 and is showing no signs of

readiness to stop nursing.) Also, he has quite significant asthma and

I feel the immune boost he gets from nursing is important as well. I

am afraid that if I put him on it but not myself I will be defeating

the purpose.

We do have an appointment with our ped tomorrow morning - so far they

have just said to observe and encourage pastas and white grape juice,

bananas, etc. to help firm the stools. Those measures have not made

any difference at all as far as I can tell.

Thanks so much for any thoughts!

Cathy

5 1/2-yo ASD son SCD since February 2007.