August 25, 1999
Aches and Pains
Question from Tennessee, USA:
My 5 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 19 months old. Recently he has been complaining that his stomach hurts but no other symptoms. My husband is concerned that he may have a problem that he had read about a long time ago in a Diabetes Forecast article. Is there any particular stomach problem associated with diabetes that we should be concerned about?
Answer:
Assuming your son is not hypo at the time of these stomach pains then they are probably nothing to be worried about if he has no other symptoms such as diarrhoea or poor weight gain. However, I think you may be worried about coeliac disease which is a condition affecting the absorption of food and associated with an allergy to gluten. It is quite rare but is a bit commoner in people with diabetes. You should discuss this possibility with your diabetes team.
KJR
