[catmele]

Hi! We have been home 2 months with our 16 month old son. He came home with giardia & has since tested negative twice for it after being on mediciation. He was still having many bowel movements & loose stools so the dr said to go to soy (did not make much of difference) & then to rice milk & cut out all yogurt & cheese. Well this seems to have done the trick. .. but I am I feel like I am so limited in what he can eat now. He LOVES yogurt & cheese! Anyone else have this situation ? What did you give them instead? Where you ever able to give them yogurt /cheese again?

[kazmumtobe]

I had a friend who adopted 2 boys from Siberia that went for 2 solid years of meds for Giardia and the re-occurance - it can come back and back - you have to test 3 times negative before you are clear....the boys never did - finally a really on the ball Pedriatician - asked if the boys had been tested for h-pylori - NOPE - they tested them - positive - put on double dose of meds for both Giaradia and HP and boom - the boys are cured...

So make doubly sure about testing....

Good luck!!!

[tbl119]

Our son also had some issues. We switched him from whole milk to Lactaid. We also significantly reduced his juice intake. The "juice" he gets is actually 75% water and only 25% juice. Bananas also help. Our son also LOVES cheese and is still able to have it.

[angelkisses0102]

We started to look into the gluten free casein free diet for our DS...you may want to look into some of those support groups and research that diet. The casein is the dairy portion. There are tons of alternatives out there...Whole Foods and similiar stores have many products to choose from and I know Whole Foods will help you find the products. We did not stay on the diet since we had DS tested for the allergies and intolerences and he is OK. I think emjay's son has a similar restriction.

Good luck!

[emjay]

I would check H Pylori, too, just in case. Our son was 12 months old when we brought him home, and we were convinced he had giardia or H pylori - 2-5 diaper explosions a day! But after testing 4 or 5 times, all were negative. We cut out dairy and it lessened, cut out wheat too and all was normal.

After 2 years of no wheat or dairy (for the most part), we recently had him officially tested for allergies. Came back with NO allergy to wheat or milk!!! We've been re-introducing wheat slowly and it's going great. Our ped thinks his digestive system was just underdeveloped and unused to lots of variety when he was younger. Dairy still gives him a problem so he may be lactose intolerant.

Your little one may have an intolerance he will outgrow or not. You can find many, many dairy-free alternatives now. There are soy yogurts that you can get at most supermarkets (our guy didn't do great with soy, either though, so we stick with rice products). Rice Dream makes rice cheese slices in Swiss, American and Mozzarella flavors. Used to get at any supermarket - now I only find them at Hannaford or Whole Foods. Whole Foods has a bigger selection, including cheese in larger blocks. Also try almond cheese - it's good. There are also good ice cream alternatives - Rice Dream has some, and Tofutti. Also, google casein-free or dairy-free recipes and you'll get lots of ideas. Replacing regular milk with Rice milk in recipes doesn't always work well, but you'll learn by trial and error.

By the way, if you have a Trader Joe's near you, they have the lowest prices for rice milk - either their brand or Rice Dream. I buy by the case!

[cathvash]

I am a nurse, and was totally unaware that both Giardia itself and medications for Giardia can CAUSE DAIRY INTOLERENCE/ALLERGIES! It seems that many folks recommend that you go off dairy products for at least one month during and after taking Giardia meds. I don't know when you finished the last course of meds, but you should try staying off dairy for 4-6 weeks, and then slowly re-introduce dairy products. With luck, the symptoms are "passing" I do not know the accuracy of this, but I read in several sources that yogurt with active cultures does not cause the distress and symptoms that other dairy products cause during/after treatment. Worth a try!

BTW - We just got another positive culture back, and are starting on a second round of medications today!! Back to soy milk for us as well...!

[catmele]

Thanks for all the feedback! We did have him tested for H piori & it was negative. Right now he is still on only Rice Milk (thanks for the tip about Trader Joes!) & no yogurt or cheese. I noticed even when he had macaroni & cheese or ravioli with a little cheese the bowel movements started again. I am going to keep him like this for a while as it seems to be working. I will re-introduce yogurt in another week to see how he does.

Thanks again!
Cathy

[hopeful_in_Wi]

I was allergic to all milk when I was a youngster ... breast, cow, goat... I could have soy or rice only for ages. By the time I was in kindergarten, I was drinking choco milk with the best of them

[randloar]

We were having some troubles when we first got home and then started using kefir. This is what she was used to having so we did that for a bit then slowly started mixing with whole milk till now, she doesn't even use the kefir at all. I don't have any solid medical support for this (although our doc said it was no harm in trying), so I guess we had some support! But, she ended up liking the flavored kind (can't blame her, it is pretty strong of a drink), so bummer is she got extra sugar but there are worse things I guess.

Just an idea because kefir is believed right now to help the digestive track get the right critters in there for digesting milk products. So, maybe its worth including in their diet when they first get here anyways? Also, our doc said that yogurt and cheese didn't have the same effect on the bowels as straight milk. So, she thought that with our problems at least, we just needed to stop the whole milk, not the yogurt or cheese. Could be worth asking your doc???

Hope it solves itself and goes away on its own!

[catmele]

Just a quick update.... I had Scott tested again for Giardia & H Pylori as his stools were not getting much better. He tested negative for giardia but positive for H. Plyori. I had to push my peditrician to test for the H. Plyori & when she called with the results she seemed clueless & referred me to a GI specialist. I am worried it will take months to get an appt with them. Has anyone just done the stool test for H. Plyori? Will they want to scope him now? He is 17 months old. The good news he has gained 4 pounds in 3 1/2 months!

[jennamom]

Our daughter, home 3 mo, is on amoxicillan, biaxin and prevacid for h.pylori. She is being treated by a GI doc based on positive stool along with poor eating and no weight gain.

[lakimnafite]

Both my kids are allergic to dairy, but we do soy yogurt, soy and rice cheese, soy ice cream, rice milk. I make pizza, mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches.. They don't miss out on any kid stuff - and Allie doesn't even realize what she eats is different than other kids. Tayton is old enough to know now, but he also understands how much better his body feels when he eats this way and it doesn't bother him a bit.

[catmele]

Latest update on my little guy (21 months now)... he has been vomiting a lot. He always seemed to have a bad gag reflex & would vomit easily but lately it has been happening for no reason so now they want to scope him. Has anyone had their DS/DD scoped? His stools are much better but I would say still not totally normal. Luckily he still seems to be gaining weight which actually makes it harder sometimes to get the dr to treat him as they say its not a "Medical" issue. He also went on 2nd round of meds about 2 months ago. I can't wait for all of this to be behind us & I feel so bad for him when he gets that look like he knows he is going to "lose it".

[ddahl]

I will just say that at 16 months, its likely he has not had the types or amounts of foods you are giving him before. Have you tried giving him baby food only? At 18 months our son had no concept that he cpuld even take a drink while he had food in his mouth so if he was given a scoop of food and he was simultaneously thirsty, he would spit out the food, He pooped and pooped when he got home. My though and his doctors was that he was processing the food quickly then expelling it. Keep in mind, our son was 17 pounds at 18 months so he was very nutritionally deprived. We did baby cereal and toddler soft stage 2 foods for a few months then gradually eased him into a regular toddler diet.

I would say back it up a bit and eliminate almost everything and gradually add it back it. Going from starving essentially to a full scope of foods is hard on their little tummies. I would not scope him as long as he is gaining weight. Why traumatize him if its not medically indicated. Food is a total issue with these kids and it sounds like your son is going to run the full taste and textures course. Also, I would only feed him what he can tolerate. Nothing new until he settles down. 2 months home is not too long... although it seemes like forever with one poop diaper after another. The thing is that at 16 months he is really like a 10-12 month old. Our son would not even drink milk when he first came home then ngradually it all came together.

[cathvash]

Gosh...Food allergies are incredibly common, include the same spectrum of symptoms, and can be difficult to diagnose...Just a thought!

Some common culprits: Wheat, milk, beans, even soy!

I think it's good to get a "scope" in order to rule out some structural problem, but if that is negative and the Giardia and H.Pylori (once you test for it) are clear, you might try testing for food allergies by eliminating each food one at a time for a couple of weeks, and then reintroducing it and eliminating something else... Good luck!