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 Children with constipation and/or diarrhea are telling us their digestive system is “off” or imbalanced. Food protein intolerances particularly cow’s milk and gluten are often overlooked as a reason for “functional” constipation and/or diarrhea, as is a condition called intestinal dysbiosis, a microbial imbalance within the gut.
Our digestive system should be armed with healthy gut flora. These microorganisms together are busy doing a host of “chores” for our body including fermenting food, training our immune system, keeping growth of harmful pathogenic organisms in check, producing vitamins and hormones for our body, and more. The gut flora have been called the “forgotten organ”. We never forget our heart beats, our lungs breath, our brain thinks, but we do forget that our digestive tract has ten times the amount of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and protozoa) than cells in the entire body and plays a major role in the normal functioning of our body.
Your digestive health is key to your overall health.
People know their digestive system is responsible for digesting and absorbing their food, but most don’t realize that this sacred process of “digestion” is how we nourish every cell in our body. What is more important than the way we “feed” our cells? Not much. The cell is where it all happens ~ the functional basic unit of life. The word cell comes for the Latin word cellula, which means a small room. How many “rooms” are in the human “house”? About 100 trillion! Cells divide and grow using nutrients such as glucose to produce energy. Cells make proteins from amino acids to form for example neurotransmitters, and cells even move which is how they surround and destroy a wound or cancer site. Cells are the building blocks for every organ in your body, such as your heart, your lungs, your brain, etc. Need we say more? We feed our cells through proper digestion of food and absorption of nutrients. This all takes place in your digestive system. Please repeat: Your digestive system is key to your overall health. In other words, if your digestive system is not functionally optimally, the rest of “yourself” is compromised.
A helpful test to evaluate a patient’s digestive health is a comprehensive digestive stool analysis. I use a lab called Genova Diagnostics to do this test, you can find a practitioner in your area to order this test for your child. This test evaluates digestion, absorption, bacterial balance and tests for yeasts as well as parasites. It's helpful as a beginning “snapshot” and follow-up snapshot of digestive imbalance (or balance). It's fun to see how this test improves and a child’s symptoms resolve.
Blood testing is helpful to check for food protein intolerances (particularly cow’s milk and gluten) as a cause of a child’s constipation or diarrhea. When testing for problems with foods, do both true food allergy (IgE-mediated) and food sensitivity (IgG-mediated) testing. Be sure to use a lab that tests for all four subclasses of IgG as ImmunoLabs and Alletess Medical Laboratory do. You can contact both these labs to find a practitioner in your area to order food allergy and sensitivity testing for your child.
Be sure your child is thoroughly tested for issues with milk and gluten with blood testing. Helpful tests include IgE for cow’s milk, and testing for the sub-fractions of milk with IgG and IgA testing. Sub-fractions of milk include: casein and whey. Children who test positive to casein should not eat cheese, and children who test positive to any of the 4 proteins of whey, should eliminate whey protein from their diet as well. When looking for gluten intolerance, best to be very thorough. Test for IgG to gluten, IgG and IgA anti-gliadin antibodies, IgA antibodies to tissue transglutaminase, anti-endomysial IgA, total IgA, and HLA typing for celiac disease (a genetic mutation test). Some of these tests can be run through standard labs, while others are run through specialty labs such as ImmunoLabs and Alletess Medical Laboratory. Depending on the clinical situation, Dr. Sue also tests the child’s stool for gluten and cow’s milk in addition to the blood testing mentioned above. Since the immune system reactions to foods are centered within the intestinal tract, an earlier way to detect gluten and milk sensitive individuals can be through specialized stool testing done through EnteroLab.
Susan McCreadie, MD is a Holistic Pediatrician and co-founder of nourishMD. She shows parents how to find REAL health for their child, so they can stop treating their child's symptoms and instead find solutions that help their child heal from the inside out.
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