Do Electrolytes/gaterade help GI track??

[Aboveallislove]

As many know, DS has horrible GI issues. I'm trying to get my arms around the last three weeks of things to process/discuss with doctors what's going on. Yesterday he had a nasty tummy ache after having a large glass of salt water and then another glass of water and he kept wanting more and more water. I thought the salt water (which he loves and I give him for the extra salt) maybe had dehydrated him so I finally switched to gaterade. But he had a nasty tummy ache before the switch and was on the verge of vomitting. After he had the Gaterade, he said it made his tummy better and said "the big grape juice, not the little grape juice, helps my tummy. It pushes the poop that's stuck from here to here." (Big grape juice is larger gaterade bottle, little is Welch's. Here to here was hand pointing to top of tummy to about 4 inches lower, around belly button. And he did a complete turn around from near vomit and me saying "honey get home as soon as you can," to playing and dh saying when he walked in "I thought he didn't feel well."

I know Gaterade and dehydration are an issue with sweating and especially in hot weather, but could this be something that affects the GI track too???

 

[SaraNoH]

The only thing I can think of is that pretty well hydrated an "balanced" as far as your electrolytes do would just ensure that there's a right amount of water staying in the bowel, thus softening stools, reducing stomach pain etc. But that's my guess. My thinking is that if you're dehydrated your body is going to pull water from where it gets it the most: your gut.

Gatorade is pretty sugary stuff though. You could try diluting it with a little bit of water, or even trying something like Smart Water.

 

[knowitall]

Well let's see here.... Grape Juice such as Welch's is SUPPOSED to be watered down in children so you don't dehydrate them... That's why you cut juices when you give them to infants. GATORADE helps with the CF digestive track as most with CF have an imbalance of electrolytes, because in CF the Bicarb channel is also messed up. So when people realize the CFTR the only thing wrong in CF we will actually have effective treatments, but that is another story for another place.

 

[Rebjane]

My daughter likes to eat salt. Once she ate alot of salt and did feel nauseas. Maybe he just overdid the salt and water combo?

 

[Aboveallislove]

hey, i thought that was it . . . was virtually positive that was it. Just wondering if the electrolytes might actually help the GI track too, given his response when I gave him that after the salt overload???

 

[LittleLab4CF]

Allisabovelove,

I apologize for not getting you the poop on pooping just yet. But as for your electrolyte question, I have come up with the following:
Electrolytes are important, that is obvious, and electrolytes are helpful in the bowel. As always, too much of a good thing is bad but a high electrolyte concentration in the digestive tract is going to keep more of the food/feces pliant and easier to pass. Possibly too much will cause the runs.

I recommend 1liter/20kg of Gatorade or similar electrolyte based drink for all CF patients. That is to say if your child weighs about 45lb then drink 1 liter of high electrolyte fluid. Sugar, if it presents a problem can be reduced elsewhere. Gatorade gets old fast with a developed palette and sugar isn’t too high a price to entice one to drink it. Diluting it is a waste of effort in my case but I would never go against diluting it. If you are interested in a true electrolyte drink, visit the local bicycle shop and see what sounds best. I have gone on to make my own cycling drink that carries more variety of electrolytes and sugars not from corn, again a personal call, and I put some simple starches that convert quickly to my needs. If the absolute best drink is what you want, compare the bike shop’s drink mixes and go from there.

By keeping the stool pliant, the idea is that it will move easier and more quickly through the digestive tract. If you DS’s stool is hard, treat the problem. Use a stool softener, Mirilax and a dose of bisacodyl sodium 5mg. That works for constipation.
Chances are your DS has a soft stool but either lacks motility or enough bowel spasms to move his horrid sticky stools. Keep in mind that osmotic laxatives and bulking laxatives will only build bulk and with gravity’s help, a poop is on the way. If the stool is soft but sticky, like most CFer’s stools are, you need some muscle to get things moving.

If you have to get things moving this minute. Dose with bisacodyl sodium for his weight and do this daily until he starts to move regularly. Don’t exceed a couple months and don’t do anything I say without running it by your doctor. They won’t want to use bisacodyl sodium but they can crap and your DS can’t. Just insist on being accurately informed and do what you must. In my case bisacodyl sodium is a daily regimen. I have been taking it for over a decade and I don’t suffer laxative abuse or whatever. Don’t forget the other motility aids like Lactulose and Mirilax, I will soon PM my treatise on tummies.

LL

 

[LittleLab4CF]

Allisabovelove,

Not to put too fine a point on your discovery, but fructose, found in abundance in Gatorade is the principal ingredient in anti-emetics. To be certain, I can correspond a quality and ease of a bowel movement to having had my dose of "Gatorade" daily. This is important enough to make it a habit. Other sources of liquid in the course of the day are important and should be encouraged. I stopped eating rock salt the first time somebody poisened my food with it. For all the salt craving I had, I felt it made food taste bad and still do to a degree. My point is allowing a child to eat salt to his or her satisfaction is not a good indicator of how much they need. The danger is either way, but in America at least, nobody is likely to die from salt deprivation considering they add it to everything from apple sauce to yogurt. I have to plead ignorance when it comes to how much MORE salt is needed by CF patients compared to the non CF population. I don't think we need more, but that is a blind guess. When it comes to sweating out salt, I have no problems extruding all the salt the next CFer does, but for a long time I was almost hydrophobic. Not really, but water burns going down as do most water + products, so milk is a big part of my liquid intake. I don't recommend this but it is something that has worked for me. I probably own stock in Bessy's Utters but I also probably could walk the Sahara for days on a quart of water. Wait, I did walk the Sahara three full days with a quart of water! One of the sorry "benefits" of CF is the ability to conserve liquids in the body.

That last sentence is really important. If nothing special is done to condition the stool for a CFer with CF GI Syndrome, it will tend to be drawn of water. The Bowel is supposed to draw 93% of the water out of the average stool. Anybody who has mixed a batch of brownies knows 7% liquid will moisten a lot of powder into something too soft to be called a formed stool. As it turns out, the extended time transiting the colons allows the last traces of liquid to be absorbed by the colon. Without improving the bowel transit time, the stool needs some conditioning. Your Milk of Magnesia is a great choice for a little one but it is mostly an osmotic laxative like Mirilax. It coats the lining of the bowel and the barrier prevents all the moisture from being re-absorbed. Bulking and ozmotic laxatives need moisture in the form of ingested liquids. Mirilax is mixed with a prescribed amount of liquid, which you should consider as solid as steak, and a solid the weight and volume of that mixed drink. I wish I knew more about Lactulose in terms of clinical long term use. What is cool about Lactulose is like PEG, it remains intert through the digestive tract. It also acts as a very mild but persuasive contact (stimulant) laxative. Anybody using Lactulose or not using it for good reasons, please help!! From all I have read, it almost sounds too good. It isn't cheap and it used as a detoxicant against amonia. Amonia is nasty in the liver and really nasty in the gut when an amonia gas producing bacteria takes hold. Lactulose is supposed to be used in chronic use for CF patients but I aint found anybody yet who's benefitting from it. Ask the doctor about this one!

Electrolyes in a drink get sent through the gut. Water and the small amount of electrolytes needed are drawn quickly into the blood stream long before it goes through the stomach. The excess water and electrolytes pass on into the intistines. The small intestines can bring on all the misery that is found in the large intestine. As for Gatorade passing through the small intestine, it moves freely, possibly drawing in a little more water and dumps with everything else undigested into the large bowel. It is possible that your DS is still making meconium. CF GI Syndrome is charactarized by "meconium ilius equivelent" or a sticky blockage in the bowel. Even if there isn't, and most times it doesn't make a big sticky ball, your DS is making the stuff in a thin layer lining the intestines and bowels. That thin sticky film may not move for years. Poop could be sliding over it right now. It usually doesn't make a great "slide" in fact the feces adhere to the bowel wall and like a tongue laid on a frozen pipe, it peels off some skin each time it moves through the bowel. Electrolytes will keep moisture in DS's poop and will make his tummy feel better.

LL