My daughter (7) had suffered from poor gut health ever since a severe bout of food poisoning 4 years ago. Over that time we tried all sorts of different supplements and diets to relieve her bloating and diarrhoea – all to no avail as we were unable to find any clear link between her diet and her gut problems and I had started to think it was related to mental health (which gave me another thing to worry about). Eventually, we enlisted the help of the Paediatric Gut Investigation Clinic as it had started to impact on her life and activities and I were concerned about whether she was getting enough nutrients.
Very quickly the clinic was able to start working through a list of potential options to test. They made my daughter feel at ease (in fact she really enjoyed her visits to the clinic) and once a couple of the more common conditions were ruled out they were able to identify the solution, which we would never have got to on our own. She is now (for the first time ever) able to clean herself up after using the toilet, which has given her more independence in terms of doing activities which go beyond 5 pm (when she would usually need to be at home to use the toilet). She also no longer suffers from the extreme end of day bloating which had been getting steadily worse.
I had almost given up hope of finding a solution when we consulted the clinic. To know that we know have a firm diagnosis which we can manage into the future is more than I had hoped for and I am very grateful to the clinic for all their help. I just wish I had consulted them earlier!
Louise