Inflammatory bowel disease in kids is on a mysterious rise

[BridgeTheGap]

BALTIMORE — For 10-year-old Jacob Krause, getting ready for the new school year wasn't a simple matter of back-to-school shopping. It also involved working out logistics for getting to the bathroom as many as 20 times a day.

The Clarksville Elementary School fifth-grader has severe ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that increasingly, and somewhat mysteriously, strikes children.

The number of children afflicted by colitis and another inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn's disease, has increased 50 percent in the past decade, according to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. About 1.5 million Americans suffer from colitis and Crohn's; about 10 percent of them are younger than 18.

"We're seeing younger and younger children getting it over time," said Dr. Maria Oliva-Hemker, chief of Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine's division of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/28/1453892.html#ixzz11UX3Z6JO

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. It started in me at age 10, but there were signs of problems long before that. I am very lucky that

I still even have my colon, which was almost removed when I was 11.

I'm seeing signs of some issues with my kids, so I'll keep watching them closely.

[otohara]

2. Mystery Meat - Mystery Cereals

where's the mystery?

[ensho]

3. true

the food the child eats, the food the preg. mother ate

[LeftishBrit]

4. One reason for this...

may be that it has only relatively recently been recognized that kids CAN have IBD, and only even more recently that it occurs with some frequency.

I developed symptoms of Crohns at age 5 in the late 1960s. It wasn't diagnosed till I was 16, because the received wisdom was that kids couldn't have it. During those nearly 11 years, I was at best assumed to be prone to infections, and at worst to be the neurotic child of a neurotic mother.

[Odin2005]

5. Prehaps an undiscovered pathogen?

[bemildred]

6. Shouldn't it be "Inflamed Bowel Disease"?

I don't believe the bowels go around starting fires or picking fights.

[groovedaddy]

7. Celiac's disease (gluten intolerance) is often first diagnosed as IBS. If you have been diagnosed

with IBS and haven't found relief, definately check to see if you have other symptoms that might indicate Celiacs.