My 17 yr old son has a constantly gurgling stomach and burping, help

Dear jo,

This must be very worrying for you, I have two sons but if this happned to me I would making an appointment with his GP as fast as I could.

Before you can assume that it is IBS you must have your son properly diagnosed. He seems very young for this condition but I could be wrong.

I have IBS and when it started two years ago I had a lot of gurgling and burping, my wife could not understand what was wrong with me. I did have a full feeling but no nausea but I was not taking ranitidine. I hope claudio spots our blog because she knows much more about drugs than I do and she will have a better insight on this than me.

I found that the gurgling was caused by wheat, rye and dairy products. When I stopped eating these things I got better very quickly.

I also find probiotics are a help after taking antibiotics as they repopulate the gut with good bacteria.

Hope there is something here that helps your son and that he gets better very soon.

Best regards

robert

Has he been checked for lactose intollerance? 

Hi.

Your's son is 'growing' and metabolism's are different. It does sound like a lot of acid is being produced; adn that can be down to diet. I wouldn't have believed it myself;unless i saw the dramatic changes that can occur almost overnight...If you can, encourage your son to eat beetroot,, garlic (garlic nad onion dips for example), red grapes and all types of antioxidant foods (with water in them).. tomato juice and blackcurrent and raspberry juice; this will have two aims; to provide water to the body during digestiion (kinda like slow release) and provide antioxidant's (clears up the blood of pollution)..

it does kinda sound old fashioned; but if you can get your son to try eating small amounts of this food in the first week daily; then see whether thsi improves the situation..

i wish you both a merry christmas...

HI

it seems that your son has been on the medication over 6 weeks. Ranitidine is to reduce acid. Sometimes we can 'overload' our system. One of the symptoms you need to discuss with your GP is nausea ; so you do need to contact your gp to discuss the medication and the new symptoms.

I am unsure of the inital reason for your son being given this; acid or ulcer related?

The body can produce MORE acid than it requires dependent on food stuffs we take in; and somtimes perhaps not enough.. ie. if we don't eat the right things our bodies can crave more & produce more acid. We can 'balance' the acid production by making modifications to diet. Only your son will know for sure what works for him.

So here is what i am recommending.

Reduce ALL caffeine. Drink a small  cup of tomato juice with turmeric a day for about a week (anti inflammatory).

Yoghurt & flax

cheese with garlic and onion in it on crackers. (helps bacteria and inflammation) and can help desist stomach burning sensation.

Eat anti oxidant foods; to assist the body with toxin removal; carrots with garlic and onion dip, radishes, beetroot  can be eaten throughout the day in between meals..(not the ones swimming in vinegar!), spring onions etc, raspberries and blackberries.... (heated up in teh microwave) with icecream!!!  Greens.. in dinners, spinach, brocolli etc..

Apple a day (or at least a glass of apple juice)

Mint has been stated as being able to assist; however i am yet to find a food staple that is currently available without being soaked in vinegar apart from the literal leaf or mint tea.

Drink a little water; or apple juice, tomato juice, or dandelion/burdock or any plethora of 'herb' drinks ; water with lemon juice,  instead of caffeine drinks.

What you are looking to do in the long run is balance the PH in the stomach; to assist the body with regulating the acid production whilst protecting the stomach in the interim..

So introduce items that introduce good bacteria to the gut. introduce a little natural acid; which would help the body to nto have to produce all the acid by itself.

Meat; your son is young and 'growing' ; Try to ensure he has some steak like meat in his diet and vitamin d.. if he is vegetarian/ vegan then the equivalent.

You can also buy food enzymes from the health food shop; to ensure he gets the most out of his food; and to assist the body with digestion..

In an ideal world i would like to see a food diary of what has been ingested on a daily basis. For example; 3 cups of coffee a day; can cause an issue. so it does help to keep a food diary..

If the issue persists; then  of course it helps to get the gallbladder checked out by an expert.

Red grapes have been extremely helpful to me to assist my stomach when it feels overly 'acidy'..

hope this helps and i wish you all the best.

 

 

Thank you so very much for all your suggestions. We have reviewed his diet and started him on a digestive enzyme. Things have settled down a little so we will persevere with the changes. I have requested that the doctors carry out a few tests to rule out anything serious.