jmh

It can be a number of things but the most common is insulin resistance (possible precursor to diabetes). Try reducing their carbohydrate to see if it helps. Bacon and eggs all round for breakfast!

Think about it - typical kids diet these days: cereal/toast - crackers - sandwich or wrap for lunch, biscuit/cake snack and pasta for dinner, or in other word carbs for breakfast, carbs for snacks, carbs for lunch, carbs for dinner. If they are sensitive to carbs it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Suggested alternative might be, eggs & toast for breakfast (avoid fruit juice), high protein salad with cheese/meat, nuts as a snack and old fashioned meat and veg dinner. Obviously avoid sugary drinks, sweets, cakes etc. At the very least it will set up good habits for later. Fully understand that they might complain though.

jmh

By the way, did they test your blood sugar? Note that even if you have good blood sugar levels you can still be insulin resistant (IR). IR means that you cells have become resistance to insulin because the body is creating so much of it (usually due to a high carb diet). While insulin is essential to health, and is necessary for effective hormone pathways, too much is very bad for you. Best way to reduce insulin is cutting sugar and other carbs. Not saying no carbs, just cut them back a bit. Makes me wonder whether your other problems are related. One symptom of IR is PCOS which causes severe stomach pain - I know because I've had it. Usually at that time of the month but can be other times.

Hokey-pokey

Without actually seeing the prob this is a tricky one. Would you describe this as a rash? Is it itchy? Certainly sounds environmental. Are the kids having an allergic reaction to a tree/plant or reacting to a spray used by the caretaker/ cleaner? Is it possibly caused by a parasite? Scabies? Head lice can bite around the nape of the neck. Parasites can run rife through a school especially over summer. If you're concerned I'd pop into the school and have a chat. They can get a public health nurse in to check the kids out and hopefully get to the source of the problem.

MrsFychan

Bloods seemed to be all fine from what I can remember. Do suffer from belching with the stomach pains. Didn't eat ver much yesterday no spasmic pains in the night just feel very sore, tender and bloated. As for the kids blemishes don't itch but didn't realise you could get health involved with school so if it appears again I will contact them. Thanks again every one

bourbon-biscuit

Is the pain most acute at night? Do you notice if it is more severe after a high fat dinner? Is it located on the right side just under the bottom of ribs?

I had gall stones in the first two years here, culminating in an acute attack one night that was more painful than post c-section without pain meds, and I thought I was going to die. I then went on a zero fat (I mean totally zero) for a few months while I decided what to do as the timing was tricky. Luckily it settled down and I now have tricks up my sleeve for if I get twinges, like at first hint of discomfort I drink as much iced water as I can stand and cut fat out again for a couple of days.

Stress is just so mentally bad for health, and not much is more stressful than emigrating. Scan will give you piece of mind and reduce your stress.

MrsFychan

BB - so your stones went away?

last episode and most to be honest seem to happen around 2.30/3am.
I had chicken, cous cous, peppers, salad leaves and beetroot chutney followed by apple and bannana crumble and custard as an evening meal, not much else during the day.
The pain when happening seems to be focused above my c section scars and belly button and round the back. Also feel like I'm going to throw up (luckily not done that). Afterwards, like now, its sore tender and bloated.

I do try and have a low fat diet, was the only diet that helped me lose weight in the UK as so easy to do, finding it hard to keep up over here (just laziness on my part to be fair as sure with a little time and effort I could get back into the swing of it).

I hope the scan does bring up something then least I have something to actually deal with rather than stumbling from one idea to the next. Roll on the 26th

jmh

I just wanted to put this out there regarding low fat diets and gallstones:

If you eat low fat less bile is needed to digest your food. More bile thus stays in the gallbladder. Long enough, perhaps, for stones to form. It’s been shown that people who (instead of fat) eat more carbohydrates are at increased risk of gallstones.

He links to some studies:

http://www.dietdoctor.com/gallstones-and-low-carb

bourbon-biscuit

I lost a lot of weight suddenly and unintentionally due to some personal stress and it was then that the problem occurred (quite typical). Small ones sometimes go away but also sometimes it just takes not stimulating the gall bladder for a few days for the position of the stone to move and be less troublesome. Anyway, your doctor will no doubt discuss all this with you. It is more likely than not that one day I will need surgery but I am very reluctant indeed to go under the knife for anything.

MrsFychan

darn really ??

loved my low fat diet in the UK. chocolate snack a jacks were a life saver.

(In response to jmh post)

MrsFychan

not something to look forward to

agree not a fan of knife jobs, unless its a nip and tuck

jmh

Can I just say, I may be becoming across as a low carb zealot. I actually believe that we are all different and that some people are better off on a lower fat diet, others will be better with higher fat. The trick is to find your ideal diet. You body is uniquely designed to do that for you. Unfortunately we gum up the works with addictive-type foods like sugar and processed food which can set up cravings for food that do us harm, and we have dietary guidelines that encourage us to avoid food we would like to eat (e.g. cheese and nuts).

This tendancy will be inheritated so following your ancestral diet is probably a good idea (unless your ancestors were all sick and fat). Unfortunately current dietary guidance assumes were all the same and this is harming a large proportion of the population who don't do well on low fat diets. That's not to say that a low fat diet isn't good for some (based on obesity figures I suspect about a third of the population).

If you lost weight successfully from doing a low fat diet, you may find that it was not dropping the fat per se that led to success. For example, cutting out pizza cuts the fat, but pizza is quite high in carbohydrate (the bread base). When you cut out fatty food like junk food, you are often cutting high amounts of carb as well.

Scientists make this mistake too. I read a study saying that mice who had a fatty diet got cancer. The mice were fed cake frosting, but at no time in the study did they comment on the sugar content of the diet.

MrsFychan

I suppose the best diet for most people would be everything in moderation.

jmh

Assuming you have no food sensitivities - yes. I can only eat cereal for a couple of days and I start getting stomach pains so I leave it alone now.

MrsFychan

Actually I find this quite interesting.

Wonder if anyone has done any research on health on Immigrants.? after say like me 2yrs, then possibly 5yrs and so on?

Personally I know a few people who have had health issues since emigrating

jmh

It would be really interesting. You'd have to do a cohort analysis (I think that's what it's called) to adjust for the passage of time. I.e. over time more people will experience illness (e.g. because they are getting older) in the home country too. Is this higher for immigrants?

Dr Kendrik, who wrote a really good book called The Cholesterol Con (see if it's in your library) and had a chapter at the end showing that immigrants get higher levels of heart disease. I have the book at home and will see if I can post some data, but I have an urgent job on so it will be later.

His blog is here if you're interested. He comments on UK healthcare a lot:

http://drmalcolmkendrick.org/