Page created on February 14, 2022. Last updated on December 18, 2024 at 16:58
| Etiology | Typical features |
| Lactose intolerance | Gas, abdominal pain, vomiting, onset in school age, non-Caucasian race |
| Coeliac disease | Abdominal pain, abdominal distension, fatigue, failure to thrive |
| Cow’s milk/soy protein intolerance/allergy | <1 year, vomiting, failure to thrive, abdominal pain |
| Cystic fibrosis | Delayed meconium passage, fatty stools, failure to thrive, protein-calorie malnutrition, respiratory infections |
| Irritable bowel syndrome | Altered bowel habits, vague pain, poorly localised, resolves spontaneously, family history, triggered or exacerbated by stress |
| Inflammatory bowel disease | Dull, crampy pain, fever, weight loss, haematochezia. Lower right quadrant |
| Functional diarrhoea (toddler’s diarrhoea) | <5 years, undigested foods in the stool, normal child growth |
Functional diarrhoea is due to excessive intake of foods with osmotically active carbohydrates, like juice, which overwhelm the intestine’s capacity to absorb the carbs, causing osmotic diarrhoea. Reducing this intake treats it.