Digestive disorder is emerging problem

Excerpt taken from an article by Mary Ann Fergus, Chicago Tribune staff reporter

Jori Kodroff loves to dance and hang out with her girlfriends, even if it means standing on her toes so she can hear their conversation.

At Twin Grove Middle School, the 70-pound and 4-foot-6 8th-grader passes off her stunted growth and restrictive diet to a food allergy.

It's not easy living with eosinophilic disease, much less throwing out that tongue twister in the school cafeteria where for two years Jori has eaten the same lunch: turkey, grapes and potato chips.

Once rare, the digestive disorder is now considered an emerging health problem in children.

"We think there is a mini-epidemic of this disease and we feel it's being undiagnosed," said Dr. Amir Kagalwalla, a pediatric gastroenterologist.

The disease was discovered in adults in the 1970s and in children 11 years ago.

In 2004, Kagalwalla helped open a special clinic for the disease at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and since has diagnosed about 50 cases a year. In 2000, he treated only one case.

Children and adults, who are less likely to have the disease, are most often put on restrictive diets and treated with steroids. In severe cases, patients are taken off solid food and must rely on formula tube feedings.

The condition develops when eosinophils, a type of white blood cell, are found in higher than normal amounts in one or more places in the digestive system or blood stream. When the body wants to attack a substance, say a food to which a person is allergic, eosinophils respond by moving into the area and releasing a variety of toxins.

The reaction can cause severe abdominal pain, vomiting, rapid weight loss, long-term damage to the digestive system and other complications.

Jori has the disease in her stomach, small intestines, esophagus and blood.

Allergic to 44 foods, she lives on meat, potatoes, some fruits and vegetables.

Though she's on the high honor roll, she often misses morning classes because of stomach pain and nausea. In addition to her limited diet, Jori has taken steroids daily for more than three years to control inflammation, but doctors plan to wean her from the medication because it has caused ulcers in her stomach.

Bonnie - I see mild to severe cases of this all the time, with children showing high blood eosinophils and reacting to many foods. Often, these children had been on reflux medication as infants or toddlers and/or have a family history of food intolerance to gluten or casein (milk protein), or have a family history of environmental allergies. It is not enough to merely avoid the offending foods. It's equally important to strengthen the child's immune system with specific healing nutritional supplements.