Fructose Malabsorption, shortened to FructMal. It was the last thing the GI doctor mention in the list of possibilities with the gut issues my child was having. But that is getting ahead of myself. Let me introduce you to my younger daughter, Ciara.
Ciara is three years old. She is a serious and shy child, the exact opposite of her older sister. She joined us the summer of 2006 and, aside from a few quirks (such as being afraid of being carried down the stairs as a newborn!), seemed normal and healthy.
Our journey began in the winter of 2008. I introduced my child to fruit juice, with "explosive" results. I figured it was from the juice and, it being just a treat, stopped giving it to her. Next was pear, than an apple. Later strawberries. Add in the behavior differences I was noticing, she was yelling at her sister, wanted to be left alone, wouldn't answer me, never looked at me and was having night terrors, I called my pediatrician in April.
Celiac's and autism were suspect. We started the process of testing but we were also moving. Things had started to get better. Ciara's wonderfully balanced diet had gone in the hole and she wouldn't eat much. It got to a point where Ciara would eat nothing but french fries and what happened? She became social. She was happy. The runs went away. The pediatrician sent us to a GI but she was pretty certain it was celiac's.
They tested for celiac's, allergies, white blood cell count, etc. They all came back negative. The Fructose was last. It was supposed to take three hours. After 30 minutes they had a positive breath test. After a second at 60 minutes they let us go. The nurse later told us she had "sky rocketed" from a baseline of 2 to 76 ppm in that 60 minutes. I don't think it is a good sign when a nurse uses the term sky-rocketed. From what I have read a positive test is an increase greater than 20 ppm in 3 hours. Okay. That is a pretty sure positive.
We were sent to a dietitian. A rather, useless one that is. She never heard of fructans. She is unaware of what causes the pain, bloating and gas in Fructose Malabsortion. She knew less than half of what is on Wiki on the subject. She thought Ciara would out grow it quickly and this diet was temporary. She found out from another before we left that that is unlikely. So we left with questions than answers and the basic instructions to avoid anything with more 0.2 fructose and anything sweetened with Sucrose (like candy, ice cream, bread) as it breaks down into fructose.
I was in tears. I worked hard getting my children to eat a balanced diet including tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. They loved raw green beans, artichokes, even radishes. Now she can't have them and I had to remove them from the house so Ciara doesn't see them. She is most upset about oranges. An dI still have to give my first daughter a balanced diet as one containing mostly proteins and dairy would not be good for her. That poor child inherited mom's metabolism and can pack on weight quickly if I don't watch and keep things healthy in the house.
We got the positive test a week ago today. We just saw the dietitian this past Thursday. Ciara is on the fructose avoidance diet right now and will be until at least the end of October. Then we will start adding foods back to her diet. I can't really relay much info in this post if that is what you have come here for. But I will update often about our little triumphs, info I find, and even our bad days, because their will be plenty.
It will be interesting seeing how my little girls changes and how we, as a family, adjust to these changes. Removing nearly all sugar from our, learning to balance produce differently, will take some adjustments. Later we will be adding school that mix, birthday parties. Stick around. Things will get interesting.
