Child Of Celiac

[julianne]

I'm the wife of a celiac diagnosed 8 years ago. He's doing great on the gluten free diet. I have 3 children, 12, 10 & 5. I had my 2 oldest tested for the antibodies (through blood test) and both were negative. No tests since then. My 10 year old now shows symptoms of psoriasis. It started on his scalp in August. Doctors first thought ringworm (yuck!) had the culture performed which takes weeks to grow. Then started the 8 week course of antibiotics. Throughout this time I also applied Elicon (leftover from my other son's mild exczema). That mild steroid was the only thing that would make these spots almost seem to heal. But after a few days of not using the Elicon, the spots would return to looking as they had before. Went back to the doc 6 weeks into treatment because my son now has more spots on his body. Doc now thinks psoriasis since it responded to the Elicon and he finally used the black light which showed no presence of ringworm (They glow under ultraviolet light)(Why didn't the first doc do this?!) .

To me they don't look like the pictures I've seen of DH because his don't look fluid filled at all. Can DH be all over the body including scalp and penis? Or does anyone know about the relationship between celiac disease and psoriasis? Should I have blood tests performed again on all children even if they were initially negative?

[gf4life]

...does anyone know about the relationship between celiac disease and psoriasis? Should I have blood tests performed again on all children even if they were initially negative?

The relationship between celiac and psoriasis is that they are both auto-immune diseases. Meaning that the body is essentially attacking itself. Whenever you have one auto-immune disease you are at a higher risk of developing others. That is about the only connection that I know of though.

I have psoriasis. So far it is mild, but over the years it has been spreading. I have not found anything to treat it that will work long term. If I use the cream religiously then it gets a little better, but if I forget for a day or two, then it is back with a vengeance! I am sorry that your 10 year old is having to deal with this. I have a 10 year old boy also and I think how awful it would be for him...

Now as for having the kids tested again, YES. They should be screened for the disease about every few years, sooner if they are having symptoms. Since they are biologically related to someone (in this case a parent) they have an increased risk of developing the disease. I read one study that said first degree relatives of a Celiac have a 1 in 10 chance of developing the disease. But realistically they have a higher chance of carrying the gene and could either never get sick or they could get sick at any point in their lives. You could have them gene tested to see if they carry the gene, then you would at least know if they are carriers. Although even this is not a guarantee, since they don't know that they have isolated all the genes responsible for celiac disease, but you would know which ones they got from you husband. And if they have two copies, then you would know that you were a carrier as well. There are only a few labs that do the gene testing. We did ours through Enterolab(for $150 per person), since our insurance wasn't wanting to pay for Prometheus labs (at $750 a person). Enterolab also tests for more genes that they have isolated that cause gluten intolerance, but are not considered yet to be "Celiac" genes. We have two who have Celiac genes and three that have the gluten intolerance genes in our family of 5. Only myself and our three kids are gluten free. My husband is not sick enough yet to admit that he needs the diet.

God bless,

Mariann

[FreyaUSA]

I am not certain exactly what psoriasis looks like, but my eldest has skin reactions to gluten (as well as many other more typical reactions.) He tested borderline (or so the doctor said) with just the IgG antibodies (I'm STILL confused about this. Either he tested just below the cutoff or just at the cutoff, but the doctor said not to worry about it.) My sister had positive results in going gluten-free (her skin cleared up for the first time in 30+ years) so my son wanted to try it. His skin almost completely cleared up. Now, however, just a trace of gluten sends his body into almost every reaction available (skin, gastro, depression and migraines... ) including itchy dry patches in several spots on his body (he also gets little red bumps that aren't typical dh, but we certainly know there is a cause and effect here!) Could it be that your son is just developing a dh reaction? It takes a while for the spots to clear on my son, but two weeks after going gluten-free, we'd seen a remarkable difference. As an added bonus, the acne he'd started having is almost completely gone now, too, just a random pimple now and then is all.

As an aside, ringworm is just a fungus with a disgusting name. Absolutely nothing to stress about.