Wrong Diagnosis

What is the name of your state? Arizona.

My daughter was having problems with her bowel movements. We seen her PCP and they gave her meds which stabilzed her bowels while we waited for authorization for a specialist.

After receiving authorization for a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Valleys' best children's hospital in Az, the specialist just said it was constipation, put her on a strict diet and to continue with meds. After a year seeing the specialist, they decided to complete a berum (sp?) enema to see if anything was wrong with her insides. Test came back with nothing wrong.

After another year of no new news, no further testing and still continuing meds for 2-years, I decided to get a second opinion from another specialist at the same hospital. Also, in the meantime my daughter got a skin disease called HSP with no explanation of how she got it. After telling the 2nd specialist my concerns of still on meds with no resolution and my daughter is 3 1/2 yrs old and the need to potty train her but unable to since her bowels are irregular, she then completed blood work to check thyroids and for any food allergies.

I got a call back saying my daugther is allergic to cow's milk which caused her constipation.

I don't understand how it took the valley's best children's hospital two years to detect my daugther was allergic to cow's milk. I dont' understand why they would prefer to complete a berum (sp?) enema over a blood draw? Was this misdiagnosis malpractice especially since my daughter ended up getting a skin disease and suffering for two years too long.

Hi SalinaG. If your daughter was referred to the peds gastro specialist, and her chronic constipation did not resolve with diet and /or meds, then they had to begin other diagnostics to rule out other causes, such as an obstruction in the bowel. A barium enema is used to evaluate the lower colon (the bowel), so this would have been an appropriate test. Blood labs, while their results can lead to a diagnosis, are certainly not used exclusively to find out the causes of constipation. So while the second specialist has appeared to isolate the problem, that does not mean that the first specialist was in error to not have discovered this allergy to cow's milk.

As far as the HSP, it is not certain what causes this disorder, but children do usually recover. It has been associated with “allergies”, but I think it would be impossible to link the cow’s milk allergy to the HSP if that‘s what you‘re thinking may be the cause of the HSP. In short, I don’t see “malpractice” here. I hope she’s doing better. Keep her in treatment with the one you think is giving her the best results. Best of luck.

hmmbrdzz