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Family Matters:  Sugar Intolerance  |
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GinghamGirl
Schoolmarm
1409 Posts
Joyce
PE
Canada
1409 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 08 2015 : 10:24:55 AM
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I am wondering if anyone else has sugar intolerance issues. My son is 7 years old. We don't have a family doctor, but through going into emergency we were able to see a specialist. We had thought it was lactose intolerance. When I called the specialist to find out the results of the test, the receptionist was only able to tell me that he is not lactose intolerance, but was unable to give me any further information, as that needs to go to our family doctor. We don't have one because there is none available. He continues to have pain though, so I researched the test, and they also test for sugar intolerance. Based on this, I did a food diary for a week, and found a pattern of him being in extreme pain any time he consumed sugar including a tiny timbit at Tim Hortons. I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem, and can share with me some things to avoid, and how to help him. From what I have researched, corn syrup and honey are the worst for him.
Joyce Hein
Farmgirl Sister #6071 |
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Red Tractor Girl
True Blue Farmgirl
6517 Posts
Winnie
Gainesville
Fl
USA
6517 Posts |
Posted - Oct 09 2015 : 05:56:45 AM
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Joyce, I think the only way to get to the bottom of this is to see the gastroenterologist since you don't have a family doctor close by. My suggestion is to call back the the specialist office and find out how you can get an appointment when you cannot go the usual chain of referrals. There is no way you can really guess all this out because the problem could be any number of issues working together. In the event that this is something serious and possibly congenital, you are going to have a physician track down the problem so that a proper treatment can be put together. Keep your food diary going as this will be helpful to a physician when you finally get an appointment. In the meantime, avoid those food items ( and keep a list of which ones they are) and stick to meat, fish, cooked vegetables, rice, and cooked fruit without sugar added. You can also try unsweetened almond milk as a milk substitute for cooking something like hot rice cereal for breakfast.
Sometimes allergies to foods like wheat, eggs, corn can irritate the lining of the stomach so that just about anything upsets it and causes pain. Again, given his age, the only way to find out the culprits are to test and try various elimination diets. An endoscopy might also be indicated to have a look to see if there are just some ulcers present or other abnormalities.
This sounds like it might take some time to sort through the possibilities. Like I mentioned, try doing a simple diet like you would have for an infant/toddler and see if you cannot calm things down so that he can get the nutrition he needs for growing and health. In the event that gluten might be an issue, if you stick to just rice grain for awhile, you might see if there is any improvement. You can find 100% rice products like bread and cereals at most health food stores or most grocery stores.
Good luck! I know this is so hard to do when your little guy is miserable. I hope better answers and help will be coming soon. Just keep pressing for help and make the medical system respond by not taking no for an answer!! Moms advocating for their children usually get their way.
Winnie #3109
Red Tractor Girl
Farm Sister of the Year 2014-2015 |
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Marilyn Hartman Sullivan
True Blue Farmgirl
1138 Posts
Marilyn
Oxford
PA
USA
1138 Posts |
Posted - Oct 09 2015 : 08:05:10 AM
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At least you were on the right track when you suspected lactose, which is actually a sugar. It might be complicated to narrow it down, but hopefully it will be something that can be controlled with diet.
Farmgirl #6318
"Where there's a will -- there's probably a family fight." |
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GinghamGirl
Schoolmarm
1409 Posts
Joyce
PE
Canada
1409 Posts |
Posted - Oct 09 2015 : 08:49:12 AM
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Marilyn & Winnie - thanks for the encouragement and advice! I appreciate it.
Joyce Hein
Farmgirl Sister #6071 |
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homespunlivin
Farmgirl in Training
19 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
19 Posts |
Posted - Oct 09 2015 : 9:57:38 PM
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Hi Joyce,
I agree with Winnie. My family needs to avoid gluten and I have recently started having dairy issues myself. Although there are many wonderful sites about gluten free cooking, the one that I refer to most is Danielle Walker's "Against All Grains." Take a look at it: www.againstallgrains.com And if for some reason the link doesn't work then try retyping it as www.againstallgrain.com Hope this is helpful. Keep us updated!
"Your braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin |
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GinghamGirl
Schoolmarm
1409 Posts
Joyce
PE
Canada
1409 Posts |
Posted - Oct 10 2015 : 08:35:39 AM
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Thank you Brenda!
Joyce Hein
Farmgirl Sister #6071 |
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CindyG
True Blue Farmgirl
293 Posts
Cindy
Fairfax
VA
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - Oct 10 2015 : 10:32:14 AM
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How specific have you been about the pain to the doc? I have found that especially with make doctors (studies have shown they really do ten to listen less than female physicians) you have to be as specific as possible with the description as fast as possible in the appointment.
That being said, my husband is a self-acclaimed recovering sugar addict. He had diffuse, general pain in his gut for ages, to the point it just became part of his day and he adjusted to it it to the point it almost went unnoticed. But then for whatever reason (probably stress) he amped up his sugar consumption and it got to the point he thought he had appendicitis or some other serious issue going on. I have been doing some reading about inflammation caused by sugar, and after his unremarkable door visit, suggested he cut way back and see what happened. It was like flicking a switch. Within a week the pain was decreased and within about three weeks it was simply gone.
The whole sugar as an inflammatory agent plus the effect of too much sugar and artificial sweeteners on our gut flora is just gaining popularity with most GPs now. Not a great deal of study is out there, but it is something worth considering.
I hope you find a cause of his pain soon - that has to be very hard to have go on.
CIndy |
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GinghamGirl
Schoolmarm
1409 Posts
Joyce
PE
Canada
1409 Posts |
Posted - Oct 10 2015 : 12:51:37 PM
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Hi Cindy - that's exactly what I've discovered with my son. Can I ask how you decreased sugar? Did you get rid of it all together or just certain types of sugar?
Joyce Hein
Farmgirl Sister #6071 |
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homespunlivin
Farmgirl in Training
19 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
19 Posts |
Posted - Oct 10 2015 : 9:04:07 PM
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Joyce,
Have you researched a paleo/primal diet? It is simply eating whole foods. Meats and wonderful veggies and some fruit. It stays away from refined sugar, high fructose corn syrups and all artificial sweetners. I believe you are encourged to sweeten with raw honey and pure maple syrup though. Sugar wrecks havoc on blood sugar levels and the pancreas. I hope you find the answer for your son soon. Best wishes.
"Your braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin |
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CindyG
True Blue Farmgirl
293 Posts
Cindy
Fairfax
VA
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - Oct 11 2015 : 03:59:26 AM
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Hi Joyce,
For my husband, it was a matter of simply cutting back the outrageous amounts of sugar he put in his cereal (honestly he was using easily 1/4 cup at a time!), cutting back on sweets like cookies and candy, and being very aware of the amount of sugar in things like ketchup. He knew he all but "sugar binged" at night - craving lots of sweets when he's tired, but he just had to get over that which is easier for an adult than a child, I would imagine. He replaced eating candy with eating fruit - still sugar but slower to digest with the fiber of the fruit rather than "mainlining" processed sugar in candy.
Drinks can be another significant source of sugar, so we switched over to using seltzer with a splash of tart cherry juice and a squeeze of lime. He never missed the calorie-laden things he was drinking.
I have a friend whose son went through something similar and the pediatrician recommended slowly reducing the sugar in order to make things more acceptable to the little boy - going too fast and having everything taste so very different would have probably caused the kid to reject the new way of doing things. So mom watered down his juice by about 25% at first, then in a week or two cut it to 50% juice and 50% water, down to where he basically had juice-flavored water and was happy with it. Replacing cookies was done by cutting back the number of smaller cookies and sometimes even just cutting a bigger cookie into pieces and not giving him all the pieces - he never missed it.
Timed snacks and filling foods kept snacking to a minimum, and "never a carbohydrate without a protein" helped keep his blood sugar more even. If he had a graham cracker, it was with a small glass of milk, if he had some apple slices it was with a little nut butter or a cheese stick.
I hope this helps a bit-
Cindy |
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CindyG
True Blue Farmgirl
293 Posts
Cindy
Fairfax
VA
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - Oct 11 2015 : 04:00:31 AM
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| I just re-read my previous post and it was supposed to say "unremarkable DOCTOR visit" not "door visit". Derp. |
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GinghamGirl
Schoolmarm
1409 Posts
Joyce
PE
Canada
1409 Posts |
Posted - Oct 11 2015 : 6:02:35 PM
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Brenda - I haven't - thank you! However, I know that he can't have anything with honey or apples as that severely aggravates him...which I know both have sugar in them :) I didn't realize apples had such high natural sugars in them.
Cindy - thank you! We are a very healthy family, with very little sugar intake. He prefers water over anything else to drink, and he actually stays away from sugar himself as it hurts him. I found it helpful when you said never a carbohydrate without a protein...I will remember that! Thank you so much!
Joyce Hein
Farmgirl Sister #6071 |
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CindyG
True Blue Farmgirl
293 Posts
Cindy
Fairfax
VA
USA
293 Posts |
Posted - Oct 12 2015 : 05:42:12 AM
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| We have not been a very healthy family! With no kids in the house, there have been some poor food choices and especially drinks - way more sugar than we should be having. Thank goodness it has changed. |
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homespunlivin
Farmgirl in Training
19 Posts
Brenda
Louisiana
USA
19 Posts |
Posted - Oct 12 2015 : 9:27:02 PM
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Yeah, I suppose the apples and other high sugar fruit and honey would need to be left out. I really hope you find what works. Hugs to you and your son.
"Your braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin |
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Family Matters: Sugar Intolerance |
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Sugar Intolerance
