Thanks. I always enjoy seeing links to stuff I missed.
I have my file of "medical articles to prove my child does not have Crohn's" from my denial days following his diagnosis. One of them is from a children's hospital and it an article written for primary care providers/pediatricians who are evaluating kids for IBD. To paraphrase (from memory..might have some facts wrong), it pretty much said, IBD is very unlikely if the child doesn't wake at night for bowel movements, hasn't had significant weight loss and doesn't have diarrhea. Of course, even when flaring, my child never woke for bowel movements (even after miralax prep!), had slowed weight gain but not loss and only had loose stools with antibiotics. Yet, he has Crohn's in multiple locations.
Maybe we should all write to authors kimmidwife is going to do. How many parents suspect a problem but don't' insist on a GI referral after reading info online that reassures them their child is just fine? How many of us have children who didn't have diarrhea? Didn't have significant weight loss? Didn't have mouth ulcers? Didn't wake to use the bathroom at night? From my own scanning of kids' histories here and elsewhere, the "atypical" presentations are more "typical" for kids. Even my peditrician was shocked my son had Crohn's because he didn't lose 10 per cent of his weight, didn't have bloody diarrhea and didn't have sever pain...so even those who should know kids don't have to present that way don't know...