Hi, I have been reading some of the posts and I have a question. For those of you whose children were not diagnosed at birth, what let to the diagnosis. Were any of your kids not failure to thrive? My son is growing quite well, but there are some things nagging at me. He always has loose stools that smell bad. Not diarhea but just loose. He also has had the croup twice this winter. he's only 14months old and he's not in daycare so it's bugging me that he keeps getting colds. maybe i am being paranoid. he is in the %75 for height and %55 for weight, which is where he's been since birth. i keep asking the doctor about the loose stools and they keep assuring me that it's fine. I did dump one of his stools in the toilet once to see if it floated, someone told me that if it floated that meant that he might have a malaborbtion problem, and the poop sunk...I was just curious, do you think i should be asking more questions to his doctor?
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- Thread starter anonymous
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My first daughter was dx at 14 months thanks to a rectal prolapse. She had done pretty well for a while, although she always had smelly, bulky poops! I thought they were normal though, because I had nothing to compare them too. She was my first baby. But at 14 months, she was still taking a bottle at least once in the middle of the night (doc said she was spoiled, but little did he know she was starving!) and she was having a difficult time pooping, and she was having at least 10 b.m.'s a day<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> She was always ok on the weight chart until solid foods came in to play. At 14 months, she weighed only 19 lbs. And now, looking back, she was always an unhappy baby, cried A LOT with stomach aches, and looks so pale in her pictures. POOR BABY was malnourished and her doc kept blaiming it on everything else but CF. I am angry with him because he knew CF was in my family, my nephew has it and we had the same doc, and she had so many symptoms, but he kept sending me away with stupid things, milk allergy, spoiled baby, too much juice, blah, blah, blah.
My second daughter has much more normal poops. They sometimes float, and sometimes they sink. It just depends on if she gets the correct amount of enzymes with what she eats. But she was dx at 1 month, thanks to big sister's dx.
Hope it helps.
My second daughter has much more normal poops. They sometimes float, and sometimes they sink. It just depends on if she gets the correct amount of enzymes with what she eats. But she was dx at 1 month, thanks to big sister's dx.
Hope it helps.
I'm 27 with CF but I know a bit about my diagnosis so I thought I'd comment.
I was a fat and sassy baby. I got a wicked chest cold twice before the age of 2.
Loose stools is what led to my diagnosis. My mom says my diapers were a huge mess. There was no prior known CF in my family.
Have you had other children before this one? My mom had and therefore she was able to compare my sh.t to his sh.t and well... there was just no comparison.
Why not just ask that he be tested. Better to know than not to know and if he gets diagnosed later you'll probably kick yourself for not having been more forceful.
Being proactive is not asking for trouble to be bestowed upon you, its being realistic and smart.
Good luck!
P.S. How did you know about CF to think that maybe that's what it is?
I was a fat and sassy baby. I got a wicked chest cold twice before the age of 2.
Loose stools is what led to my diagnosis. My mom says my diapers were a huge mess. There was no prior known CF in my family.
Have you had other children before this one? My mom had and therefore she was able to compare my sh.t to his sh.t and well... there was just no comparison.
Why not just ask that he be tested. Better to know than not to know and if he gets diagnosed later you'll probably kick yourself for not having been more forceful.
Being proactive is not asking for trouble to be bestowed upon you, its being realistic and smart.
Good luck!
P.S. How did you know about CF to think that maybe that's what it is?
CF symptoms can be all over the place and not everyone is falling off the bottom of the growth charts as babies so unpleasant poop might just be that. If you or the other parent were known CF carriers you might want to get your son tested or if he tastes really salty all the time, or if fatty food runs right through him everytime - or if you can convince the Dr. that you're worried enough that s/he'll order up a sweat test then go for it. You could also ask to get throat cultures for those frequent colds to see if any of the typical CF bugs show up, such as Pseudomonas (which does not typically grow in people without CF or who live in a hospital). Sweat tests are quick and simple and not invasive. Maybe also take a look at other threads on this website and at the CFF.org website too if you haven't already.
There was an article in Good Housekeeping Mag a few years ago. Parents found out their second daughter had CF due to prenatal screening. So they tested the older, 3-year old who'd only ever been sick with an ear infection -- that's it. Turned out both children had cf.
A friend of mine's daughter had frequent chest infections and constipation issues.
And a lady I spoke to shortly after DS was born, told me her child just didn't grow -- failure to thrive and a friend of hers, who was a nurse LICKED him and said -- I think he has CF.
Liza
A friend of mine's daughter had frequent chest infections and constipation issues.
And a lady I spoke to shortly after DS was born, told me her child just didn't grow -- failure to thrive and a friend of hers, who was a nurse LICKED him and said -- I think he has CF.
Liza
My daughter was diagnosed at 5 months old because of a UTI. She'd been sick and underweight since she was 2 months old and we took her to the gp several times but was told she just had colds or viral infections. My mother-in-law suggested testing for cf, she had a cousin with cf, but I was the one that said there's no way my child could have that (denial all the way, because I had read the symptoms and she had every one of them). Anyway, the gp did order a sweat test for her but she had an allergic reaction (rash) to an antibiotic she was on for a sinus infection and they couldn't do the test. During that time we switched her to a great pediatrician while she had the rash, he admitted her for a uti and sent us home after 4 days of iv meds. Two weeks later, after a follow up, she was admitted again for another uti, this time she had pseudomonas in her urine and after checking, found it in her blood also. I think the ped knew then that it was cf, just waited to tell us until he ran the sweat test. Her stools weren't abnormal or foul smelling until she was 4 months old, but she was constantly crabby, unhappy and crying. Poor thing had a tummy ache for months before we knew why.
I too would recommend the genetic testing if you suspect it's cf, we had 3 sweat tests done and only one of them produced accurate levels. The numbers were so high on the other two that we were told we couldn't trust the results.
I too would recommend the genetic testing if you suspect it's cf, we had 3 sweat tests done and only one of them produced accurate levels. The numbers were so high on the other two that we were told we couldn't trust the results.
Thanks, the reason I looked to CF is because I was searching on the internet for answers to his loose stools and I kept running into CF. I am taking him for his 15 month check up next week so we will be discussing some more things with the pediatrician. Thanks for all the input <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">
Hi, I actually have cf and I wasn't diagnosed until I was five and that only happend because my little brother who was 2 was getting sick and coughing all the time, he had bathroom problems and finally a doctor told my parents to do a sweat test. I didn't start going to the hospital until I was 8 years old. My mother told me before she knew what we had when she would kiss us we would be really salty tasting, not sure if this helps but that could be another sign to look for before you do testing... I hope I was able to help, take care and good luck with the little one.. I have a 28 month old and luckily he doesn't have cf and I know how scary it was thinking that he could have it... Please if you do test the baby let us know..