Question about 'solid' stool

[GirlwiththeCurl]

I've been a little unhappy with L's eating and bowel movements lately. She's hungry all the time, but eating makes her feel a little sick (not so sick as to miss school). Every couple or three weeks she has diarrhea for a couple of days. About half of the rest of the time, her​ stool appears solid but falls into little pieces when she flushes. We can see undigested food in her stool when it is like that. Lately she has been very tired, also. Today after school she was so hungry she was crying. After she had a substantial snack, she said she was too tired to go to her soccer game and fell asleep for the night at 5:30.

I'm going to call the nurse tomorrow, but I just wondered if any of you have seen this sort of odd flaky stool, and if it has been a sign of something wrong. At her last appointment, the GI said she wasn't concerned about her having some diarrhea every few weeks as long as it didn't persist, but I've been wondering if her sort-of-solid-but-not-exactly stool counts as diarrhea.

 

[pdx]

Sorry, I don't have an answer to your question, but I hope you were able to get some advice from the nurse yesterday. I did want to say that I would also be concerned about the frequent fatigue. The combo of the flaky stool and fatigue makes me think that she may have some inflammation going on, and thus isn't absorbing her food very well. Hope she starts feeling better soon.

 

[Maya142]

I would agree - sounds like she isn't absorbing well, which could possibly be inflammation. The fatigue also could be inflammation or anemia. Has she had labs or an FC recently? That might be something to ask about.

 

[GirlwiththeCurl]

Thanks, pdx and Maya. The nurse never called back. She's usually very prompt. :/ I'm going to try again Monday. She hasn't had blood work for a long time now--six months. I was surprised when at her last appt the doc said no labs.

 

[kimmidwife]

Definitely sounds like she has something going on. I would ask for a full set of labs and make sure they check a fecal calprotrectin.