Crohn's symptoms in toddlers

[newbie]

Hi,
I was just wondering what kind of symtpoms your younger children/toddler were having prior to diagnosis.
The reason I am asking this is because my son, who just turned 3 has had ongoing recurrent fevers since he has been 6mnths old,when the fever hits, it last a long time (1-2wks average at one point his fever lasted 3mnths). Drs/pediatrician never find a reason for his fevers, u\s, x-ray,echo, and b/w apart from low iron is normal. So they never find a cause for his fevers. He's still growing/gaining weight like he should so no further testing has been done. Just have to monitor and journal his fevers and any other symptoms that he is having at the time to try to see if there's a pattern.
Over the last year he has been occasionally c\o RLQ abd pain that last a few hrs and then goes away on it's own. And I have noted that he has had blood in his stool on a few occ.-not realy related to the abd pain I think.
When he was younger and still eating lots of veggies, he would have 5-6 BM a day, now he's down to 1-2 day with only occasional diarrhea.
So were going back to see his pediatrician in dec. and was wondering if crohn's coud be a possibilty ( hope not but if so would like it diagnosed).
I was just recently diagnosed with crohn's and started reading these links of young children with crohn's and kind of got me scared now.
Also what ind of non-invasive test can they do to diagnose crohns?

 

[Farmwife]

Hugs to you and your son.:ghug:
My girl is 3 and has suffered for a long time.
We're still going through the head ache of trying to figure this out.:confused2:
He sound like my girl minus the fevers.
More wonderful parents will be along to give support.
Hang in their? Please feel free to PM anytime.

 

[Sascot]

Hi, my son was 12 when diagnosed so not idea on the young children side. But you asked about a non-invasive test to check for Crohn's.
You could ask the doctor to run a faecal calprotectin test (on a poo sample). It checks for inflammation and our paediatrician seems to use that as his main pointer to Crohn's. Good luck with getting a diagnosis.

 

[my little penguin]

One other thing to consider which has similar symptoms to Ibd is periodic fever syndrome.
http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/patients/diseases_and_conditions/pfapa.asp

WHAT IS PFAPA?
This syndrome includes recurrent episodes of fever with aphthous stomatitis (mouth sores) and pharyngitis (sore throat with redness). Occasionally, there also may be exudate (white patches on the tonsils) and usually the lymph nodes in the neck are enlarged (adenitis). Episodes of fever start suddenly and last for 3-7 days. Fevers occur routinely every few weeks; often, families know the exact day when an attack will start. Some children have other symptoms like joint pain, abdominal pain, rash, headache, vomiting or diarrhea. Children are completely well between attacks.

The disease may last for several years but usually will resolve by itself in the second decade of life. Over time, the time between the attacks will increase. Children with PFAPA continue to grow and develop normally.

My son was dx at age 7. So not really a toddler

 

[newbie]

I wonder if they do the feacal calprotein test in canada? anybody know?
And as for the PFAPA- he never has any other symptoms, throat is never sore or red and never has mouth sores. but i could mention it to the dr

 

[Thermo]

I use to get bad night sweats, panic, failure to thrive, and would always complain about my stomach hurting or be curled up in fetal position.

 

[DustyKat]

Hey newbie,

I'm pretty sure they do faecal calprotectin in Canada but I will tag Tess into this post as she may be able to give you a definitive answer.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Tesscorm]

I had unclear answers from our ped GI in response to my request for FC test - at Sick Kids hospital, they told me they weren't 'authorized' or 'approved' but that it was in the works and suggested Stephen's next GI (adult GI) might have approval to proceed???

So, I was never quite sure if it was the 'hospital' specifically that needed to obtain approval or if it's the provincial medical plan that doesn't authorize this test??? (Didn't take the discussion much further with his adult GI as he said the FC test wouldn't be a great indicator for Stephen's location of crohns anyway.)

But, passing the tag to Twiggy930, I'm sure I remember her saying her son's GI did run the FC test but she mentioned something about having to go to a different lab or facility or something???

 

[polly13]

Hi there and welcome - sorry to hear about your little boy not feeling well. My daughter Lucy who is 4 now was diagnosed with Crohn's when 2 but was showing symtpoms much earlier (if I knew then what I know now). to start with her symptoms were very unspecific, always had a fever, always unwell, at 9 months old she had her first real exacerbation which was a serious dose of mouth ulcers - diagnosed as hand foot and mouth disease, and while she recovered she never really did, she vomitted daily, had diarrhea and screamed with every bowel movement like she was in a lot of a pain, by the time we got to see a paediatric gastroentorologist (after being referred from our local hospital) the diagnosis was pretty obvious but it was a long road getting there. There are other parents on here whose little ones have had completely different symtoms to Lucy and still got a Crohn's diagnosis - to be honest I think everycase is different. You son's case doesn't sound like Lucy was but thats indicative of whether he has it or not. I can sense the worry in your original post and I suppose I completely understand where you are coming from - there is nothing worse as a mother knowing there is something wrong with your baby but you just dont know what it is.
The facal Calprotecton along with Blood Work (ESR and CRP) will help determine if his inflamation markers are high, however in Lucy's case these tests are normally within normal limits even when she is flaring so they are not definitive. I wish you the best of luck. PM me if you want any more specific info in relation to lucy.

 

[tarajohns]

Hi there,

Im sorry to hear about your child being unwell. Your story sounds similar to my sons story who was diagnosed with crohns at two years of age, he is now 8. Initially his symptoms were stomach pain, slight fevers, vomiting weight loss. All very typical crohns symptoms. However after about a year he began having fevers and stomach pain every second week lasting about a week or so. Often his fevers would be very high and as high fevers are not usually associated with crohns, unless there are serious complications, we went through all the tests for fever syndromes including, as one post mentioned, PFAPA. All tests seemed to indicate that his fevers were indeed a manifestation of his crohns. My son began Infliximab infusions last year and has since had no fevers or at least when he does they are ever so slight compared to the ones he use to have. The stomach pain had settled but recently has returned.

So my point is yes fevers can most certainly be a manifestation of crohns but I would also seek advice from an immunologist first in terms of ruling out fever syndroms. Good luck in your search, all the best for your son.

 

[newbie]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
I think I just got worried after reading some of the posts, it seems that the more I read the more symptoms I find similar to my sons. Crohn's never even came into my mind until I was diagnosed with it, then I look it up for myself and then find out that young children have been diagnosed with this terrible disease, it just broke my heart.
He has been tested for most fever syndromes, like I said previously he's had all non-invasive testing available, next step was going to be lumbar punctures and bone marrow, which I didn't really want him to go through that.
All immunogobins tested on many occasion. He had b/w almost every week at one point. esr and crp was never elavated-so thats a good sign. Also the fact that most of his fevers are really high (up to 106 at times) (thank god he doesnt have seizures with fevers!)is a good indication that prob. not crohns.
So until his app. i'm gonna now start to journal his abd pain, try to find causes- like tonight abd pain started 1-2 hrs after eating grapes.
And just mention to his pediatrician that i've been recently diagnosed with crohns and see what she thinks.

 

[DustyKat]

I hope you are soon able to get answers for your little guy, bless him. :hug:

I think starting a journal is a fab idea. IBD or no IBD, I found living with these sort of things long term made the little abnormal things seem normal and as awful as it sounds I did start to forget the details. That just may be though! :lol:

We have some ideas about diary inclusions in the wiki, maybe have a look through them and see if you want to include any of them...

http://www.crohnsforum.com/wiki/Diary-Inclusions

Good luck to you both!

Dusty. xxx

 

[kimmidwife]

Hi Newbie,
Sorry you guys are going through this. My 15 year old was diagnosed a few days before her 11th birthday but now we are going through the possibility of a second child having this awful disease. She too has had stomach issues since she was born. THey got very bad at age 2 but then seemed to improve for a while and now started up again. We are waiting for an appt with her sister's GI doctor in a few weeks. sending you guys hugs!