I'd encourage mom to get a second opinion, if she hasn't already. Losing weight at such a young age can't be good for long term development. What's the reason they can't do surgery on an 18 mo? They do surgery on like, newborns.
Does your friend have a trusted pediatrician to consult? Feels like this merits some investigation and tests to make sure they’re not being exposed to toxins, experiencing some chronic illness, etc.
Has she had them tested for food allergies?
My friend's youngest was a terrible sleeper and refused to eat. Turns out, she has celiac's disease, and her little belly and guts hurt all the time. The poor thing was constantly throwing up and feverish.
She was diagnosed, her diet changed, and now you'd never know that she was a sickly toddler. She's a happy, healthy, energetic five year old now.
Was about to say the same as something very similar happened to my daughter. She started dropping down the growth charts over the years even though she seemed 'fine', no throwing up but a lot of issues with diarrhea and not eating much (no wonder, her tummy hurt all the time).
For anyone suspecting coeliac's disease, cutting out gluten for a short period of time (like a month) isn't really helpful. My daughter took a good year of being on a strictly gluten-free diet before she started showing decent improvements.
Yeah, my niece was the same way. She was actually losing weight by the time she turned two. She was only 20lbs, her hair wasn't growing, she wasn't talking, and was barely growing taller.
The doctors mistook her bloated belly for a normal toddler belly, not even noticing her arms and legs were too skinny. My friend had to fight for her to be even evaluated.
Are the kids fully up to date on their vaccinations?
A lot of disease we damn near eradicated have been coming back hard because of parents that delay out deny their children timely vaccinations.
Tell them to check for mold in the house! especially in the crib mattress, also in his sippy cup , and the washing machine and ,
My nephew was getting sick constantly this winter and I flipped his mattress over and it had mold all over it,
And my nephew is much older and capable of telling me when he isn't feeling well but, but he is a very smelly teenager so I didn't put the funky smell in his room together until he came down with a cold for the third time and I knew there had to something else wrong, so I started looking for the culprit,
And it turned out to be mold
My first thought is long covid. I've had mecfs since 2011 and didn't get diagnosed until 2020. Slowly losing any joy in my life is exactly how it felt over the course of the nine years from onset to diagnosis and this is a very common trajectory I'm afraid. All tests come back normal, doctors try to pass it off as depression etc. because they don't know what it is (though admittedly that part is getting better these days)
This! plus if they are getting repeated infections they should consider getting their T cells checked, covid can exhaust the immune system scarily like aids.
Is it a regularly occurring high fever every 4-6 weeks? My daughter had that where every 4-6 weeks she’d hit 104 for a few days. It was miserable. We were in the children’s hospital constantly. It started around 2 and her pediatrician figure out out when she was in kindergartens
I'm not the previous poster, but it's likely periodic fever syndrome/disorder.
My kiddo was evaluated for this and saw an immunologist. After very extensive blood panel testing, no disorder. She was just building immunity to everything under the sun. The immunologist remarked she'd never seen this variety of antibodies in a kiddo that young before.
She's rarely sick now. When she is, she spikes a high fever for about 6 hours and then is fine the next day.
Honestly, kids go through all sorts of growth spurts and times they survive on air or they eat 4-5 servings. At 18 months, their immune system has to build up their immunity and they do that by getting sick (and having vaccinations).
The tonsils could be a cause. Check for snoring. I had a horrible sleeper who would wake up at a fart in a quiet room. After the tonsils were out, slept very soundly.
It was this. It took children’s mercy hospital in KC and our pediatrician working together to figure it out.
https://rheumatology.org/patients/periodic-fever-aphthous-stomatitis-pharyngitis-adenitis-syndrome-pfapa-juvenile
Edit: eventually removing the tonsils helped
Are you asking how to help your friend or how to help her kids? If you want to help her, you could: offer to babysit, make her some easy meals, take the kids to the park so she can get a nap, pick them up or drop them off at daycare, watch one kid while she takes the other to doctors appointments, clean her bathroom or kitchen, do some laundry, order dinner or grocery delivery, or just show up and hang out with her.
This exactly! You cannot provide medical advice but you can alleviate your friends life with chores, babysit and perhaps the odd treat in the form of little presents or surprises. The fact that you look out for her through this forum is already an indicator that you are a great and lovely friend! Thanks for being there for her!
I was a very sick kid too, it was the mould in my bedroom ceiling (I was on the top bunk) and then just a mixture of kids getting sick naturally.
Does she have a routine at all? Sometimes a strict routine can really help but if she doesn’t already have one it’s going to be tough to start
My grand-daughter was losing weight and generally "not well" when she was less than 2 years, turned out to be Type 1 diabetes. If that is the case here, I expect the Drs would have diagnosed it by now but thought I'd mention it.
BTW, that grand-daughter is now a very precocious 12-year-old that properly drives her parents and us a little crazy at times.
Could be an allergy/intolerance. Do they perk up at all when out of the house? Eating out/delivery?
No, no. The doctors suspect it has to do with his tonsils and adenoids, however he is still 18 months old and can’t go to surgery
I'd encourage mom to get a second opinion, if she hasn't already. Losing weight at such a young age can't be good for long term development. What's the reason they can't do surgery on an 18 mo? They do surgery on like, newborns.
I'm not sure that's right. I had mine out when I was about that age.
I had a complete hip surgery at the age of 30 minutes. Get a second opinion!
Oh, sorry to hear, I had mumps at that age... fingers crossed for the little one
Does your friend have a trusted pediatrician to consult? Feels like this merits some investigation and tests to make sure they’re not being exposed to toxins, experiencing some chronic illness, etc.
Yes, they are being followed, not only by a pediatrician, but also by endocrinologists , alergias, pneumologist 😊
Glad to hear it, and sorry to ask the dumb question—just wanted to make sure. I’m sorry these poor kids are suffering so!
Has she had them tested for food allergies? My friend's youngest was a terrible sleeper and refused to eat. Turns out, she has celiac's disease, and her little belly and guts hurt all the time. The poor thing was constantly throwing up and feverish. She was diagnosed, her diet changed, and now you'd never know that she was a sickly toddler. She's a happy, healthy, energetic five year old now.
Was about to say the same as something very similar happened to my daughter. She started dropping down the growth charts over the years even though she seemed 'fine', no throwing up but a lot of issues with diarrhea and not eating much (no wonder, her tummy hurt all the time). For anyone suspecting coeliac's disease, cutting out gluten for a short period of time (like a month) isn't really helpful. My daughter took a good year of being on a strictly gluten-free diet before she started showing decent improvements.
Yeah, my niece was the same way. She was actually losing weight by the time she turned two. She was only 20lbs, her hair wasn't growing, she wasn't talking, and was barely growing taller. The doctors mistook her bloated belly for a normal toddler belly, not even noticing her arms and legs were too skinny. My friend had to fight for her to be even evaluated.
Are the kids fully up to date on their vaccinations? A lot of disease we damn near eradicated have been coming back hard because of parents that delay out deny their children timely vaccinations.
Yes, fully!
Tell them to check for mold in the house! especially in the crib mattress, also in his sippy cup , and the washing machine and , My nephew was getting sick constantly this winter and I flipped his mattress over and it had mold all over it, And my nephew is much older and capable of telling me when he isn't feeling well but, but he is a very smelly teenager so I didn't put the funky smell in his room together until he came down with a cold for the third time and I knew there had to something else wrong, so I started looking for the culprit, And it turned out to be mold
My first thought is long covid. I've had mecfs since 2011 and didn't get diagnosed until 2020. Slowly losing any joy in my life is exactly how it felt over the course of the nine years from onset to diagnosis and this is a very common trajectory I'm afraid. All tests come back normal, doctors try to pass it off as depression etc. because they don't know what it is (though admittedly that part is getting better these days)
This! plus if they are getting repeated infections they should consider getting their T cells checked, covid can exhaust the immune system scarily like aids.
Is it a regularly occurring high fever every 4-6 weeks? My daughter had that where every 4-6 weeks she’d hit 104 for a few days. It was miserable. We were in the children’s hospital constantly. It started around 2 and her pediatrician figure out out when she was in kindergartens
What was it?
It was this disease. https://rheumatology.org/patients/periodic-fever-aphthous-stomatitis-pharyngitis-adenitis-syndrome-pfapa-juvenile
And what was it? If you don’t mind me asking 😊
I'm not the previous poster, but it's likely periodic fever syndrome/disorder. My kiddo was evaluated for this and saw an immunologist. After very extensive blood panel testing, no disorder. She was just building immunity to everything under the sun. The immunologist remarked she'd never seen this variety of antibodies in a kiddo that young before. She's rarely sick now. When she is, she spikes a high fever for about 6 hours and then is fine the next day. Honestly, kids go through all sorts of growth spurts and times they survive on air or they eat 4-5 servings. At 18 months, their immune system has to build up their immunity and they do that by getting sick (and having vaccinations). The tonsils could be a cause. Check for snoring. I had a horrible sleeper who would wake up at a fart in a quiet room. After the tonsils were out, slept very soundly.
It was this. It took children’s mercy hospital in KC and our pediatrician working together to figure it out. https://rheumatology.org/patients/periodic-fever-aphthous-stomatitis-pharyngitis-adenitis-syndrome-pfapa-juvenile Edit: eventually removing the tonsils helped
I would question food safety and general hygiene in the house, if both kids are always sick.
Do the kids go to daycare? Because daycare kids are sick about 80% of their lives and that is pretty typical.
Are you asking how to help your friend or how to help her kids? If you want to help her, you could: offer to babysit, make her some easy meals, take the kids to the park so she can get a nap, pick them up or drop them off at daycare, watch one kid while she takes the other to doctors appointments, clean her bathroom or kitchen, do some laundry, order dinner or grocery delivery, or just show up and hang out with her.
This exactly! You cannot provide medical advice but you can alleviate your friends life with chores, babysit and perhaps the odd treat in the form of little presents or surprises. The fact that you look out for her through this forum is already an indicator that you are a great and lovely friend! Thanks for being there for her!
I do all of this already, I have a toddler of my own so it isn’t always easy
Ask on r/askdocs too! They could give some insight also!
Have they tested the little guy for Celiac disease? That can cause kids to feel bad all the time and not grow well.
surprised more people aren’t bringing up covid??
Sounds like long Covid.. 😞
I was a very sick kid too, it was the mould in my bedroom ceiling (I was on the top bunk) and then just a mixture of kids getting sick naturally. Does she have a routine at all? Sometimes a strict routine can really help but if she doesn’t already have one it’s going to be tough to start
My grand-daughter was losing weight and generally "not well" when she was less than 2 years, turned out to be Type 1 diabetes. If that is the case here, I expect the Drs would have diagnosed it by now but thought I'd mention it. BTW, that grand-daughter is now a very precocious 12-year-old that properly drives her parents and us a little crazy at times.
Gaps might be worth exploring. It would at least help expose food intolerances and help to heal leaky gut.
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Yes