Dietary Carbohydrates And Childhood Functional Abdominal Pain

3 the chronic and disabling nature of the symptoms is a major concern for.

Dietary carbohydrates and childhood functional abdominal pain. This review discusses findings concerning the role of diet in fap. Despite this most children have no discernible underlying pathology. Additional efforts are still needed to fill this. The functional gastrointestinal disorders fgids affect a high proportion of school aged children worldwide approximately 1 out of 4 children in the general population.

Childhood functional gastrointestinal disorders fgids affect a large number of children throughout the world. In children there are few trials evaluating low fermentable oligosaccharides disaccharides monosaccharides and polyols in functional abdominal pain disorders with encouraging data on the therapeutic efficacy particularly of fructose restricted diet. Recurrent abdominal pain rap was originally defined about 50 years ago as three or more bouts of abdominal pain belly ache in children 4 16 years old over a three month. Childhood abdominal pain related functional gastrointestinal disorders ap fgids affect up to 20 of children worldwide and account for at least 5 of all pediatric office visits in the united states 1 2 these disorders do not have an identifiable organic etiology based on conventional diagnostic testing.

1 2 according to a recent meta analysis the subset of abdominal pain related fgids ap fgids has an estimated prevalence of 13 5. Abstract functional abdominal pain fap is a common complaint among children and adolescents. We discuss the underlying mechanism for functional abdominal pain visceral hypersensitivity the evidence base linking parental anxiety and. Malabsorption of individual carbohydrates such as lactose have been proposed to worsen gastrointestinal symptoms in children with abdominal pain related functional bowel disorders for several decades.

The foods that are discussed are divided into 2 major groups. Diet plays a significant role for children with functional abdominal pain disorders. Carbohydrates which provide the majority of calories consumed in the western diet have been implicated both as culprits for the etiology of symptoms and as potential therapeutic agents e g fiber in childhood fgids. The term recurrent abdominal pain rap based on the pioneering work of apley and naish describes children who have chronic abdominal pain without an identifiable organic basis community based studies worldwide show that 10 to 46 of children 4 to 16 years old meet the criteria for rap 2 5 based on other reports and data from our institution rap accounts for approximately 25 of.

Food allergies or intolerances which focus on milk gluten and fermentable oligosaccharides disaccharides. A large majority of these children identify at least 1 food that exacerbates their symptoms. For many patients symptoms exacerbate with eating. Nevertheless children with ap fgids have both decreased quality of.

Functional abdominal pain includes several different types of chronic abdominal pain including recurrent abdominal pain functional dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome.